How to use Pinterest to add value to your company

In April we offered tips on writing a press release and, this time, we’re going to look at how Pinterest can add value to your company.

Pinterest, which launched in 2012, is now the third most popular social network after Facebook  and Twitter, so it’s perhaps not something you should ignore. It doesn’t work in the same way as most other networking platforms as there is no direct communication. However, it is becoming increasingly popular with businesses as a new platform for engagement.

So how does it work?

• Pinterest is an online pinboard where you can ‘pin’ (post) images and videos. These can be uploaded from your computer, you can find them online, or you can re-pin images from other pinboards.
• When you pin from a website, Pinterest automatically credits the original creator by grabbing the source link, so you don’t need to worry about copyright issues.
• As well as having an image or video, you can give a description of the pin using up to 500 characters.
• You can also add a ‘Pin It’ button to your website so that users can take images and put them into Pinterest.
• When you’re confident with using the platform, you can find out your Pinterest influence to see how many followers you’ve got, how many people have ‘Liked’ your page, and how many repins there have been. You can do this by using apps such as Pinpuff or Pinerly, and it’s a useful tool for measuring ROI.

So how could you use it for recruitment?

Pinterest is a great way to have a job board with a difference. You could categorise vacancies using images and brief descriptions, perhaps using photos to show desired qualities in the candidate. You can also link Pinterest to Twitter and Facebook to maximise the number of potential candidates seeing the posted jobs.

It’s also a fantastic platform to visually document any achievements for everyone to see. For example, if you’ve recently won an award, you could create a pinboard with images and descriptions of the night.

You can use it as an employer of choice channel by illustrating what it’s like to work in your company, for example with a meet the team board. By using images to represent the members of your different departments, it presents your company in a fun and artistic way.

As with all social media, you have to remember to be engaging. You could encourage current employees to get involved, for example you could have a board for their favourite employment-related books, or perhaps even career top tips using a relevant image and a brief description.

These are just a few ideas, but the whole point of Pinterest is to be imaginative. So why not give it a go? It’s good to get involved now so you’re seen as the innovator before everyone does it.