5 Tips to Effectively Use Pinterest for Nonprofit Fundraising and Engagement
Social media is always evolving and determining which new platform will advance nonprofit fundraising and engagement efforts can be intimidating for nonprofits. Each represents a unique approach and it’s a little daunting deciding what to incorporate into existing online marketing strategies and what to pass on. Pinterest is one of those new social media platforms but do not pass on this one.
Pinterest image courtesy of jeffbullas.com
In comparison to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, Pinterest is the new kid on the block that is taking the social media marketing world by storm. Pinterest is a virtual pin board where users share favourite images and videos found around the web. Unbelievably, this very visual platform grew by 4000% in a 6 month period and now receives over 11 million unique visitors per month. According to Hitwise, Pinterest placed 4th as of March 10, 2012 on the Top 10 Social Networking Site list behind Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but ahead of Yahoo! Answers and Linkedin. Pretty impressive.
Many nonprofits have a solid presence on the more established sites but there are several benefits to including Pinterest into current social media plans, including:
- It is a great source of referral traffic, more so than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined according to Shareaholics.com
- In December 2011, comScore noted that Pinterest is exceptionally sticky with users spending almost an hour and a half per month on the site ranking it third of all social networking sites
- A majority of visitors and users are women (82% according to Mashable) and as they generally have the highest spending power in a household, women continue to be a coveted demographic for nonprofits
Some key tips to keep in mind when integrating Pinterest into your social media marketing plans include:
Image courtesy of zdnet.com/blog
- Don’t Be Too Self-Promotional. Diversify the items you pin and share not only pictures or videos specific to your organization or brand. You want to share a broad range of topical and cause related pictures, being careful to engage a visitor and not come across as self-promoting. Share images of those who benefit from your cause. This is an opportunity to humanize your brand.
- Be Engaging and Purposeful. Not only should the pictures you share be engaging, it’s critical to always include an engaging description that will compliment the item you are sharing. The description is also a great opportunity to include SEO keywords, #hashtags, your website address, URL to a corresponding page or a call-to-action. You never know what pin is going to take off so try to accomplish all of this with every pin when possible so you can maximize the opportunity to drive traffic to your site and elevate your online presence.
- Keep Organized. On Pinterest you have the ability to have multiple boards. Organizing these by theme or subject matter, will help those visiting your boards not feel lost or confused with the contents of your board. It should be kept cohesive and relevant, otherwise visitors will feel confused and not return. Spotlight partners or donor events (with permission of course) to promote your supporters as well.
- Follow & Repin Others. Similarly to other social media platforms, it’s not just about pinning and sitting back. It’s about building relationships and ultimately a community. By actively following others with similar interests and repinning items that are of interest and relevant to your organization will help increase engagement and awareness. Thank those who have repinned one of your items. In short time your community of fellow Pinners will grow.
- Share Your Pins. When you pin one of your images or videos, not only are you creating a quality backlink which will drive traffic to your site but you are also creating the opportunity to share that pin across your other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter which will also help increase traffic and build on engagement.
Pinterest is relatively new so there is still some uncertainty but with a little time and creativity, it will become an integral part of your strategies. With the newly designed profile pages just released, I am sure we will be seeing a lot more from Pinterest in the coming months as its popularity continues to climb. If you haven’t signed up yet, see what all the Pinterest hype is about for yourself. But don’t pass on this one.
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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.
Hey Angela,
This is great advice but do you really think that most nonprofits are ready to tackle Pinterest? Many of the clients I work with are barely using Facebook effectively. I explain more in a blog post – http://marketingthatworksblog.blogspot.ca/2012/03/pinterest-five-reasons-why-its-not.html. Interested in your thoughts.
Thanks for your comment Chuck and you raise some valid points in your article. I tend to agree with Desi, the author of this Pinterest article, in that nonprofits should not let Pinterest pass them by if for no other reason than the demographic makeup of its users and their appeal to nonprofits. Pinterest is holding the interest of this valued demographic and although it may not have the users of Facebook, it is ranking third in time spent monthly and that alone is impressive. It will be interesting to see how Pinterest’s popularity and influence continues to trend in the coming months. Thanks again for stopping by.