10 Points of Pinterest: ‘Inspiration Tool’ Has PR Pros Pining Away

Within the last few months, an upstart social media platform has come on like gangbusters, becoming the fastest Web site in history to garner 10 million visitors in a month. Journalists and the digerati have been gushing over this site and, perhaps more significantly, naysayers have chimed in about copyright and privacy issues. So if you haven’t heard about Pinterest, we’re elated about your recent rescue from that coal mine in Mongolia.

For certain, Pinterest has some PR pros waxing eloquently about it. “It’s a great visual medium, an effective touch point for influencers, a valuable information aggregator and a perfect platform for sharing,” says Brittany Mohr, account supervisor at Fleishman-Hillard in San Francisco.

 

But this seamless platform that copies, collects and organizes favorite images from across the Web is still a question mark for many brands.

“Brands are waiting to see how people are using it,” says Nadina Guglielmetti, VP of digital strategies at Waggener Edstrom. In addition, PR pros may be hesitant to add another social platform into a crowded mix. “How will you feed this beast, and do you have the infrastructure and budget to handle it?” asks Guglielmetti.

Media companies appear to have those questions figured out. Alison Dempsey, senior social media manager at Parenting.com, the print magazine’s digital outpost, has seen page views and referrals to their Web site increase 60% in January 2012 from December 2011. “Pinterest isn’t far behind our Twitter results,” she says.

Numbers like that get brands excited. That’s why Monte Lutz, SVP at Edelman Digital in Los Angeles, recommends first playing around with Pinterest on your own. “Create some boards, figure out how the wall works and repin some things,” says Lutz.

Just be sure to credit all of your sources. And even then that might not be enough. Photographers, photo stock houses and bloggers are complaining about theft of their work for Pinterest, says Allison Fitzpatrick, advertising, marketing and promotions partner at law firm Davis & Gilbert.

Another problem: All of that pinning takes away time for your recently established (and still barren) Google+ page. What’s a PR pro to do?

Here are 10 Points of Pinterest from communications pros who know a thing or two about pinning. PRN

CONTACT:

Brittany Mohr, [email protected]; Nadina Guglielmetti, [email protected]; Alison Dempsey, [email protected]; Monte Lutz, [email protected]; Allison Fitzpatrick, [email protected].

Follow Scott Van Camp: @svancamp01