3 Creative Pinterest Strategies for Effective Nonprofit Supporter Engagement

Social media has grown into an excellent supporter engagement and communication channel and platforms continue to emerge with specific features that cater to segments of the social media population. One that has grown exponentially over the past year and a half has been Pinterest. Now with an estimated 1.16% U.S. market share and in fourth place next to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, nonprofits have been realizing the power of Pinterest. In our Social Media series for nonprofit fundraising we have explored the value of Pinterest in posts like the 5 Benefits for Nonprofit Supporter Engagement on Pinterest, Helping Maximize Nonprofit Fundraising and Donor Engagement Efforts, Tips to Maximize the Results of Nonprofit Fundraising and Supporter Engagement and 5 Tips to Effectively Use Pinterest. Although Pinterest can be seen as a platform that is only used to pin images and share content, today we explore other creative ways nonprofits can use Pinterest.

1. Market Research – Pinterest is a fountain of information – more than one may realize. It’s important to learn about 1) your followers and 2) your competitors. By reviewing your followers you can determine their demographic by gender, age group and location. The boards that they follow can also help you determine what they like and who they are, giving you a better idea on what content they are most attracted to and engaged with. When researching your competitors it’s important to access the type of content they are sharing, how often they share it and whether it’s working or not. Engaging their followers may also lead to an increase in your own Pinterest community. PinLeague.com is an excellent third party tool that can help you determine who your most influential followers are, while also monitoring what your competitors are doing.
2. Board Types – An excellent way to engage your Pinterest community is by giving access to pinning to specific boards that express different aspects of your cause and organization. Volunteer boards can display pictures and pins relating to volunteer activities out on the field. Fan boards can include both supporter and beneficiary boards, where supporters can pin content that depicts why they support and why the cause is important to them, while beneficiaries can post content on how they have been impacted by the organization’s help and how it has changed their lives. Guest boards can include pins posted on Group Boards which provides more pins from related sources. This ensures that it shows up on their board profile as well for their followers to also see. It’s important to keep the group small to avoid a crowded or spammed board and ensure it stays on topic. Ultimately it helps build an overall stronger community.
3. Infographics – Infographics are an excellent way to fit a lot of information on one single picture. It may seem overwhelming to produce a well constructed infographic, however you can use PicMonkey to create them relatively easy. Developed by the same team that gave us the now defunct Piknik platform they have now produced a faster, more powerful and easier-to-use website that can produce and edit great images or Infographics. Infographics by nature are longer vertically instead of horizontally which is ideal on Pinterest as you are not restricted by the platforms width limitations.

With careful planning and dedicated time, Pinterest will prove to be an effective social media marketing strategy to attract supporters to your cause.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.