ann marie doyle

Pinterest.com

This year Pinterest has dominated talk in the marketing world as the new up and coming social media network.The site has gained popularity and has received considerable attention.

I've been using Pinterest  for a few months now and, until recently, I was not impressed with how companies were interacting with users on the site. But over the past month I've come across a few companies who are successfully leveraging Pinterest for marketing purposes.

The Canadian fashion company Joe Fresh is using Pinterest as a forum to post pictures of their lastest items and press clippings. Overall, this is not innovative and, this type of activity, would be expected of any company attempting to leverage Pinterest for marketing purposes; however where Joe Fresh differs is the the board "Joe Fresh, Oh Orange!" This board consists of pins relating to the company's signature colour - orange. This board showcases the brand's personality and displays their high fashion and trendy items.

The online fashion community Polyvore allows users to explore, create, and share the latest trend all over the world. Polyvore has a Pinterest account, but what is really interest is that through the site users can create pins of their favorite items, or full outfits, and pin it on Pinterest. This allows users to share their favorite items with other Pinterest users. But where Polyvore really differs is that these pins link back to the Polyvore site where users can then find the purchase information for the items.

For many companies, Pinterest is an unexplored frontier. It's new and there are many unforeseen possibilities and challenges ahead; however, by using boards to showcase brand personality, like Joe Fresh, and use it to increase sales, like Polyvore, then any company can leverage Pinterest to engage key targets and successful increase sales.