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How Very Pinteresting... How Staffing Firms are Using Pinterest
By Jennifer Jordan

Tweeting, tagging, checking in, posting, friending...and now pinning!

It seems like every time you turn around, there's a new twist on social media. (Not to mention, one more entry into the urban dictionary.) And while on the surface it might seem daunting to have to learn and devote time to another form of social media — the benefits are worthwhile.

So what is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It is a tool that lets you organize and share all the interesting things you find on the web. With Pinterest you can browse Pinboards created by other people to become inspired or get great ideas. You can also create your own Pinboards that target your audience with images, content and other information that they will see as worthwhile. This is all done in a fun, creative platform that is easy (and enjoyable) to browse through.

Why should you care?

If you are on the fence about Pinterest, here are a few stats that that might help you change your mind.

Pinterest's following is growing exponentially.
Estimated unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 429% from September to December 2011 (1.6 million to 7.2 million) (Source: Compete.com) Pinterest sets record for fastest site to hit 10 million monthly visitors.

Pinterest drives traffic to your website.
Pinterest is currently driving more traffic than Google+.

People are spending considerable time on Pinterest.
With an average of 1.36 million users daily, American users of the social network spend an average of one hour and 17 minutes on the site, well ahead of Twitter (36 minutes), LinkedIn (17 minutes), and Google+ (six minutes). (Source: AllTwitter)

Pinterest might help your staffing firm appeal to more women.
The biggest demographic for Pinterest: Women ages 25 to 34. (Source: Ignite) According to AppData and Facebook, 97 percent of Pinterest users are women.

In essence, Pinterest can help you increase web traffic, and position your staffing firm as a creative and trusted advisor.

But Pinterest for staffing?

If you think Pinterest is just for sharing recipes, photos of your kids or making wedding plans, think again. The marketing possibilities of this image based platform are endless.

It may seem easy for retailers, supermarkets and fashion brands to come up with content to share on Pinterest. With staffing, we'll just need to get a little more creative. Here are some content ideas that you can use to create Pinboards for your staffing firm.

Pinboard ideas geared toward candidates:

  • Interviewing advice
  • Creative resume ideas
  • Lunchbox ideas -- Easy and healthy workday lunches
  • Weeknight dinner recipes
  • What to wear (to work, to the interview)
  • Work/life balance
  • Things to do after work
  • City/location specific content

Pinboard ideas geared toward clients:

  • Staffing best practices
  • Hiring advice
  • Happy workplace -- ideas to help your company be a best place to work
  • Healthy and happy employees
  • Our company culture/our team
  • Things we LOVE
  • Industry news
  • Employment law
  • HR help
  • Workplace safety

For some great examples, look at our Social Media Marketing Advisor Rachel's Pinboards. http://pinterest.com/rachelathaley/?d

Getting the most out of Pinterest.

So how do you make the best use of Pinterest? Here are a few things you should do (and should not).

Do's:

  • Link to blog posts or other content on your website to drive traffic to your site.
  • Make sure to include images with any piece of content that you put on your website.
  • Share your pins on Facebook and Twitter (you can automatically do this after you pin...just follow the prompts).
  • Use the "pin it" bookmark tool to pin images from websites.
  • Decide to create accounts for each branch or division so that you can target your audience better (depending on your size, and type of industry you work with).
  • Plan on pinning a few times each week.
  • Add other administrators to help add content to your page.
  • Upload original content (make sure the images are top-notch).
  • Come up with creative ways to label and organize your boards.
  • Aim for your content to be "repined" not just liked. A repin means that someone has added your content to their mix--they've just become an advocate for your staffing company.
  • Make sure you have the "everything" option chosen after "pinners you follow"--this way everyone will have access to finding your pins.
  • Edit each board to include a category and keyword-friendly description.
  • Laden each pin with descriptive keywords so that people can find you (i.e. "staffing", "staffing firm in location", etc.).

Don'ts:

  • Use Pinterest as your only social media strategy--to be successful, Pinterest should be one of the tools in your toolbox.
  • Wait for people to share your content. Follow, repin and like clients and prospect company Pinterest pages and pins.
  • See Pinterest as an added task to your day--instead have fun with it. It's a great way to tap into that left brain.

Ready to join in the fun?

You need to be invited to become a part of the Pinterest community.

You can request an invite. This will only take about a week or so.

Helpful hint:
If you know someone already on Pinterest, ask them to invite you directly. You'll be able to create an account the same day.