“A tool for collecting and organizing the things you love” is the catch phrase of the website that was categorized as one of the top ten social networking sites in 2012. Pinterest is a rapidly growing company in the “visual bookmarking” arena that was co-founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp in 2010. What began as an invite only beta has turned into a popular tool and business venture with over 46 million users and an evaluation of 3.8 billion dollars.
Pinterest now boasts a business page where companies can go to create professional pin boards for constituents to follow. Among these companies, magazines were quick to embrace this new medium. Ross Geisel, director of audience development and social media at Hearst Magazines Digital Media says,
“Pinterest is so different than the other social platforms,” Geisel says. “Twitter is about recency and Facebook just sort of altered its algorithm to allow that older stuff to bubble back up. But Pinterest is really about seeing things we haven’t thought of in a while that bubble back up and drive traffic back to the site. You rediscover content over time.”
Esquire magazine which hosts over 27,000 followers on its Pinterest page has decided that this is a new direction they will pursue to increase traffic. Other publications taking advantage of Pinterest include Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Fortune, Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens, and Lucky.
Lucky Magazine Cover. Courtesy of Google Images
Lucky Magazine currently has 37 boards and over 156,000 followers. Not only is Lucky magazine pinning articles, fashion pieces, and DIY projects, but also light-hearted quotes and stories of the Lucky Magazine experience. These quotes and office stories are in turn is giving readers a unique personal experience with Lucky via Pinterest. A Huffington Post article suggests you follow Lucky Magazine to hear everything that’s overheard in their Conde Nast offices, including genius quotes like, “Oh crap. I spilled balsamic all over the McQueen!”
This practice is aligned with one of the five rules to corporate pinning that a ragan.com article says is a must. That is to, “Pin personal images to give your audience an inside look at your staff. You can then link from the image to the company website, a personal bio, or even content that person wrote.” This way you are attracting the pinners to all of your other resources (magazine, website, blogs, etc….)
Through Pinterest, Lucky, is becoming relatable.
An interesting board is “Models being Models” which is a dip into the models lives beyond the photo-shoots in the pages of Lucky. They also publish boards created by stars they feature in the magazine which creates a bridge between the magazine’s different platforms.
Lucky is also following another one of the Ragan article‘s suggestions that says you should follow pinners in your target audience. They say, “It is a basic rule of social engagement.” You can also find blog posts about Lucky employees favorite boards and pinners. Here direct conversations and connections are being made with the constituents.
Courtesy of Pinterst.com
That is not all Pinterest is doing for magazines though, it also aids in recognizing what the buyers want; what they’re interested in. By monitoring “repins” and “likes” editors are able to track trends. “Pinterest keeps you really tapped into what people like right now,” said Weddings editor in chief Elizabeth Graves. “Just like us, they’re looking for a fresh spin.”
Ben Silbermann, one of the founders, said,
“We hope to be a service that everyone uses to inspire their future, whether that’s dinner tomorrow night, a vacation next summer, or a dream house some day.”
Pinterest has come a long way in such a short time. Not only has it opened new doors for consumers, but also for businesses like the magazines mentioned above. Pinterest is often criticized as to whether or not it will remain a worthwhile tool, but as Adweek said in their article on the benefits of the site, “Pinterest users continue to pin and repin photos within the site, magazines can sit back and enjoy the page views.”
Social Media and the Magazine Industry 
It is so interesting that Pinterest not only helps Magazine companies tap into what their customers want, but also can create a personal relationship between the brand and consumer. The example you used of Lucky Magazine going above pinning just fashion trends, articles, and DIY projects, but also giving insight to behind the scenes at the magazine is a great way to use social media to create that authentic relationship with the customer. I never would have thought of Pinterest as a way to create a meaningful connection between brand and customer, but it is clear that it is an effective way to do so. Pinterest really is a great way for magazines to keep up with what the customers want and it looks like more magazine brands need to jump on this means of connecting with its target audience!
I love how Silbermann described Pinterest as visual bookmarking, because that is exactly how I see it. I feel like Pinterest could also be described as a cyber magazine. Magazines offer ideas, whether it comes to style or do-it-yourself home improvement, and this is exactly way Pinterest does. Instead of flipping through “Bride” magazine for wedding ideas, you can now scroll through Pinterest for wedding ideas. Magazines need to stay in the conversation to make sure that people do not unsubscribe from them and only use Pinterest. To do this, it is important that magazines are present on platforms like Pinterest.
I think Pinterest is a perfect social media Platform for the magazine industry. Pinterest is like an online magazine in so many ways! It is just like visual bookmarking, but you can also search by categories, like Emily said, we used to look at bride magazines for wedding ideas but now people can simply follow a wedding board, and a magazine can make their own popular boards! Repins and Likes are a great way for the magazine to see the popularity of their ideas and products, so it is a great way for them to measure their success.
This is a great post- it shows how useful Pinterest could be for the magazine industry in so many different areas. Whenever I pin anything, I don’t even think about who’s going to see it, it’s just stuff that I like. So the fact that magazines would be able to peak over at my boards and see what has piqued my interest lately is a really great way for them to find out what their consumers are interested in. There are so many benefits for companies, especially those in the print industry, to becoming relevant on Pinterest. This is definitely a social media channel that I think will be around for a long time.