Pinterest

Using social pinboards for your newspaper

• Pinterest describes itself as a “virtual pinboard.”

• Just like with Facebook or Twitter, you can follow people, like and comment on pins.

• Instead of posting your status, you “pin” images you like.

• You can organize your pictures by creating different “pinboards.”

What is Pinterest?

• "Pinterest moved in to the No. 3 spot as the most popular social network in the U.S, trailing only Twitter and Facebook, eclipsing LinkedIn, Tumblr." -- PRDaily.com

• Among referral sites, Pinterest accounts for 3.6 of referral traffic. In July 2011, it accounted for just .17 percent. -- PRDaily.com

Why use Pinterest?

• Pinterest has 10.4 million registered users, and it's growing every day.

• We want to use Pinterest and its immense referral power to increase page views for all GateHouse newspapers.

• Using Pinterest will also help attract new visitors to our sites and stories.

Why use Pinterest?

• Visit Pinterest.com and create a new

account.

• You will be prompted to insert a “Pin It” button on your browser’s toolbar.

• Pinterest will start you off with suggested people to follow based on topics you pick out.

How do I get started?

• Your Pinterest account must be linked to an account on Facebook or Twitter.

• You should promote your Pinterest page on Facebook and Twitter, but we don’t recommend posting content to those pages regularly.

Connect to Facebook or Twitter?

• House ads and other promotional materials are available at:

• http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/ghns_pages/house_ads/x1780492892/Pinterest-promo-ads

Promote it!

• Find a story on your website with a pin-worthy photo, image or quote.

• Remember, Pinterest is very visual, so make sure your post has good art.

• Start out with 2 posts a day. Follow our content recommendations for board and pin topics, and choose the best options for that day based on your content.

How to create pins

• Pull up the story you want to pin from,

and click the “Pin It” button that you inserted in your browser’s toolbar.

• All the photos and images from the story will appear.

• Choose the photo or image that you want to pin. Add a description (one to two sentences). Be specific.

(Continued)

Pinning is easy!

• Select which board your pin belongs to.

• Then finish by clicking “Pin It” one last time.

• A link back to your original story will automatically be included in your pin.

• TIP: Pinterest recognizes #hashtags, so use them.

Pinning is easy!

• Post visually pleasing photos and images.

• Organize your pins in appropriate pinboards or categories.

• Promote your Pinterest page on other social media networks, but do not duplicate content.

Best practices

• Google indexes Pinterest profiles, so

basic rules still apply.

• Links are automatically inserted when you pin from a website.

• Still focus on keywords for both the description of your pin and the name of your pinboards.

SEO and Pinterest

• If you want to add a price

tag to photos for sale or Daily Deals, simply type the $ and a value amount in the description field.

• For example, “$55 Today’s Daily Deal is a pair of Ray Bans…”

Add a price tag

• Remember, pinboards are essentially categories for organizing your pins.

• You may have as many pinboards as you want, so long as it is a category that you can continuously add to.

• Our category suggestions: Recipes, callouts, wedding/birth announcements, quotes, Daily Deals, local sports, from our archives, photo of the day, prom photos, etc.

Creating a pinboard

• The category of your pinboard is not necessarily the name of your pinboard -- remember to use proper SEO and keywords.

• Be sure to be specific in the description area of your pin. For example, say “Glenbrook North football team.”

Creating a pinboard

• Only choose those with

photos.

• Create a separate announcement board for each category: weddings, babies, anniversaries, graduates, etc.

• Provide info about the announcement in the description field.

Announcements

• Create one callout board per month, coinciding with the promoted callout on your website.

• Allow your followers to pin their photos directly to your board or pull from Local Loop.

• Good topics includes dogs, crafts, gardens, weddings, etc.

• Feel free to comment and respond to people’s posts.

Callouts

• Pick one memorable quote to pin as a quote of the day.

• Use the quote board template provided by GateHouse.

• Type the quote into the board, save the image and upload to Pinterest.

Quote boards

• Pin stories with great

photos.• GateHouse will

recommend good options for Pinterest in the daily budget.

• Pin how-to tips, DIY projects, crafts, home and garden and health -- if the photos are compelling.

Lifestyle boards

• Make a Daily Deals board, and pin one

deal each day.

• Add a price tag using the $ sign.

• Use the best image you have.

Daily Deals

• Consider pinning political cartoons, maps, great newsy photographs, mugs, etc.

• Each can have its own pinboard, or make one general pinboard. For example, “News from Rockford.”

• Remember, the photo must be compelling.

Hard news stories

• You can create a pinboard for a school’s sports teams, graduation, theater productions, prom, etc.

• Choose great photos.

• You can also add in quotes from teachers, students or principals.

Schools

• Choose your best photo from the day to pin every evening.

• Go to that story, and click the “Pin It” button to pin the photo.

• Also consider pinning old photos of town from your archives, front pages, great photos from past years and neighborhood photos.

Photography

• We are doing a test with our 10 largest newspapers starting at the end of May.

• Goal: Pin following these rules for 3 months to see if consistency — 2 pins per day — will help drive referrals to our websites. We’ll report back on the results, but we encourage others to jump in and give it a try.

GateHouse newspapers on Pinterest

Happy Pinning!