Is Pinterest just another new social media craze?  I don’t think so. Right now it’s about the hottest social network around. Believe it or not there are already Pinterest addicts out there, and not just in the association world. For a minute I thought had just come across another social networking site for nonprofits to pin their hopes on. (Pun intended)  I was wrong. Seems like some users prefer Pinning to Facebook!   Hanging around since 2010, in August of last year, Time Magazine named it in its “50 Best Websites of 2011“  Pinterest caught fire in November 2011, and then grew to 5 million from just 418,000 in May, according to metrics firm Comscore. 

Simply put, Pinterest is a by ‘invitation only’ online pin board (often referred to as a ‘virtual Pinboard’) A socially engaging bookmarking site, the premise behind Pinterest is for users to gather, organize, and share things they find on the Web.  Pinterest’s “goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. …..a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”  Oh, let me clarify… a ‘pin’ is an image that has been added to Pinterest.  You can upload images from your computer or pull it up from browsing the web.  You can also ‘share’ your ‘Pin’ on Facebook and direct traffic to your web site where you can communicate your dream for your cause. 

Yes, I quickly noticed Pinterest offers high visibility for non-profits.  I kind of like hanging around the leading edge of non-profit technology, and in doing so, I checked out Joe Water’s piece in Huffington Post, Why and How Causes Should Use Pinterest.  In his blog he asks the question, “Is your nonprofit right for Pinterest? You may want to pull up the article and see if you have all the right answers.

Frogloop’s Avi Kaplan challenges you to Steal 42 Creative Pinterest Ideas for Non Profits. For example, if you’re an animal shelter or animal rights organization: Pin pictures of animals who need homes. Share the story of each animal in the Pin Description. Where was Scruffiefound? Did she need medical care? Were you able to find a home for her?

or Pin pictures of families who adopt animals from your shelter. Many animal adoption services send representatives out to do a home visit before the family can be approved to adopt their new pet, or even to drop the pet off once an adoption is finalized. Use that opportunity to get a picture with the family.

Wolf Photo: Credit to Flickr user: Dennis from Atlanta

Or, if you’re a church, synagogue, or other religious organization: Scour the web for yummy recipes your congregants can prepare for the holidays, then pin images of all the yummy dishes that link through to  the full recipes. Bonus if you convince members to pin their own recipes posted on their own blogs. Food can offer great visuals and this can be a great community building exercise.

See and enjoy the rest of the Pinterest creative ideas for nonprofits right here.

Also, let’s revisit this post by Kiki L’Italien offering great advice for Association Executives interested in Pinterest:

• You don’t need to jump on Pinterest right away, but you should make it easier for others to promote your content on Pinterest.
• SEO works well with Pinterest already (its domain authority is rising fast) and can definitely work for you.
• You know all those sharing options you hopefully already have for your content? You should look for the “Pin It” button to add to those.
• If you sell books, merchandise, anything…make it Pinterest friendly.
• Start thinking of images and videos a lot more seriously for their Pinterest use (you should already be doing this for future mobile use anyway)…arm your conference speakers, attendees, members, content providers, authors with Pinterest enabled promotional materials. Ways to spread the word on Pinterest from their websites and newsletters.
• Start thinking of if you have “How To” videos, articles, or tutorials that might be of interest to a large group of people. These types of things are extremely popular on Pinterest.
• If you want an example of an association using Pinterest, check out The American_Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Pinterest page. They discovered a large amount of traffic coming from Pinterest in their website analytics. When they explored it, it turned out many of their members were using Pinterest for sharing ideas and news. ASHA’s social media queen Maggie McGary helped other ASHA members figure out how to use Pinterest by writing about it on their blog (bonus points for educating all members on the hip new way to share!). This may be something your organization could do, too.

Pinterested yet? Here are a few other resources you may want to review before you start ‘Pinning”:

• John Haydon 12 Ways to Use Pinterest for your Non Profit
• Non Profit Tech 2.0 How To: Get Your Nonprofit Started on Pinterest
• BWF-Social The Social Side of Giving
• My Favorite - Non Profit Infographics by Beth Kanter

For more on Pinterest, check out this infographic that shows the site is driving more traffic to retailers’ Web sites than Google+. 

Is Pinterest fundraising technoloyg? Will Pinterest be part of your Social CRM or Fundraising CRM strategy? Can it be used as online giving software to drive more traffic to non profit fundraising efforts? The case studies are still be formed, and it’s exciting to watch them unfold!

In two weeks time our annual Avectra Users and Developers Conference (AUDC) begins in sunny Orlando, Florida and it’s gonna be BIG! Not just big because there are more conference sessions this year – 72 –actually, arranged across eight knowledge tracks, or that we have 520 registered attendees  – our most ever. What’s big is what you’ll take away with you and how you’ll feel after sharing experiences with your peers, learning from product experts, and leaving armed with new ways to interact with your members and manage tasks and relationships.

Sunday begins with a community art event to benefit the Florida Children’s Hospital. Stop by and bring your artistic spirit to help create a work of art, while helping this great cause.

Also on Sunday and new for this year are roadmap sessions – one each for netFORUM Pro, MemberFuse and netFORUM Enterprise. These sessions will provide product overviews and help prepare you for the conference sessions to be held on Monday and Tuesday.

Be sure to sign up for an on-site for a one-on-one session with one of our Avectra product experts at the conference. This is the time to get solutions to any specific questions, issues and projects you might have.

Then come and relax and mingle at the Sunday evening welcome reception. Meet your fellow attendees and Avectra staff in a lovely informal setting.

Prepare to be inspired on Monday morning when business relationship expert and author of Return On Impact: Leadership Strategies for the Age of Connected Relationships, David Nour will spark your thinking on how to leverage your social media relationships within your organization.

Stay tuned for more previews and conference highlights in the days leading up to AUDC 2012.

User feedback is what drives the conference educational content. We listen to our users and developers throughout the year, as well as during the conference, and design our educational experiences to best meet those needs.

We’d love to hear your comments. Did you attend AUDC 2011? What do you hope to gain from AUDC 2012?

Although it’s been around for two years, Pinterest has finally hit the big time. Everyone’s talking about it. It’s fun and, frankly, a bit addictive.

Pinterest is a virtual pin board — imagine a virtual scrapbook or vision board. Pinterest users create thematic pin boards based on interests, hobbies or dreams. When you see a piece of online content accompanied by an appealing photo, you “pin” the link (and corresponding photo) to one of your boards by using the website’s Pin It button or by uploading the link.

Your boards and pins (images) are public. You follow people or their boards, re-pin their pins onto one of your boards, or “like” other pins – the Likes show up on your Facebook page. You can browse pins by topic or search by keyword. It’s social and serendipitous.

Why the buzz?

Pinterest was dismissed by many as merely a niche site for women planning weddings and craft projects, but, according to ComScore, it now has over 4 million users and is rapidly growing. Its traffic increased 329% in the last quarter! No longer niche, it’s one of the top ten social media sites in the world.

Who uses Pinterest?

I see people on Pinterest who don’t use Twitter or Facebook regularly; it’s attracting a new social media audience. The market research firm Experian says Pinterest users are primarily female (58%) between 25 and 44 years old (59%). These demographics “distinguish it from other new social media platforms, which are generally populated by men 18-24.” We’ll see about that, I’ve seen a lot of men join Pinterest recently.

Many nonprofits have joined Pinterest, but few associations have. The Texas Apartment Association (TAA) uses Pinterest well. Their boards share useful pins, like apartment model ideas, creative amenities, resident outreach ideas, crazy signs, cool-looking apartment building photos, and leasing, marketing and social media tips.

How do we use it?

Pinterest is a place to connect with members, particularly those who aren’t on other social media platforms. And, it’s fun! You can show a different side of your organization. Like any other social media initiative, follow the POST methodology to develop a plan. Here are more tips:

• Follow Pinterest’s guidelines: “Try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.”
• Add contributors to your boards, so it’s not a one-person effort.
• Include keywords and phrases in the descriptive text of your pinned images, so search engines will index them.
• Don’t just pin, be social and re-pin too.
• Add “Pin It” buttons to your web and blog pages.
• Follow TAA’s lead and include this in your profile: Pin/Re-Pin does not imply endorsement.

What to pin?

Above all, think visual. If you want Pinterest engagement, Maggie McGary says, you need links to visual ideas and inspiration on your website, blog or elsewhere.

• Share tips and solutions that people can use on the job.
• Showcase award winners, niche members, inspiring people, unsung heroes, volunteers, or mentors and mentees.
• Pin infographics or cartoons about your profession or industry.
• Pin recommended books, films, blogs, podcasts, or videos.
• Promote upcoming meeting locations with photos of the hotel, city or tourist attractions. Get ideas from CVBs and hotels on Pinterest.
• Show your office’s personality. Share photos of office décor, weird desk items, refrigerator contents, holiday decor, shoes, ties, or junk food and phone addicts. Encourage roving staff photographers but always get permission before pinning.
• Ask members to share photos from your trade show, for example, favorite swag or wish list products, or from a day at work. If they use a special hashtag, you can search for their pins.
• Give members a place to unwind together by encouraging them to share recipes, crafts, DIY projects and gardening pins.
• Janet McNichol used Pinterest to organize materials for her association’s staff innovation day.
• Jessica Levin sees a lot of Pinterest potential for event planners.

How to get started?

Here are a few resources to help you get started.

• Mashable’s Pinterest Beginner’s Guide
• How to Get Your Nonprofit Started on Pinterest
• Mashable’s 13 Pinterest Tips & Tricks for Cutting Edge Users
• Pinterest’s Brands, Businesses and Blogs on Pinterest board

Deirdre Reid, CAE is a freelance writer who is newly addicted to Pinterest, but can stop anytime she wants. Really.