Reach New Library Patrons Through Pinterest

At one point in time Pinterest seemed like a fad, a website that allowed people to create virtual vision boards and “pin” images of their dream wedding or an intricate dinner recipe they would never make.

But Pinterest has not fizzled out and has actually become a great resource for brand marketing. In fact, according to Hootsuite, Pinterest gained more than 100 million monthly active users in 2020, making it the largest increase the platform has ever seen. Due to the ease at which users can scroll through a Pinterest feed to save ideas, items, and tutorials for later inspiration, creating an account for your library could be easy to maintain and beneficial in the long run.

Visually Pleasing

The idea behind Pinterest is that of a mood board, so great images are vital for being successful in getting noticed. The pin image is the first thing that the scrolling patron will see, so it will have to be compelling enough for them to click on and learn more. Once they click on the pin, they’ll be redirected to your website, increasing traffic to see the well-designed and responsive website you’ve created after attending the Build A Better Library Website Bootcamp. You can either outsource your images through fair-use image websites or create your own eye-catching designs. If you’re not well-versed in Adobe Photoshop, fear not! Canva is a design platform that offers a free account and is user-friendly for anyone with a creative streak. Geared toward making social media graphics, they have pre-sized templates for you to choose from depending on the social platform, streamlining the whole process.

Everlasting Content

The images you create or share should be specific to your library’s content. Pinterest is a great way to share blogs that you post on a regular basis, allowing you to reach a new audience that might be different from your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn followers. The demographic of Pinterest covers those aged 18-49 years old, skewing 60% Female, and 70% of all users have a college degree. Catering your content to the demographic is always key in finding success with your marketing efforts. Pinterest is a good platform for sharing book recommendations or how-to video tutorials that can be re-pinned and shared over time. It’s more about longevity on Pinterest, so sharing time sensitive events wouldn’t be a great fit. Pinterest is used as more of a resource for information and trends rather than in the moment news and updates. Speaking of resources, your library has many to offer to students or jobseekers—feel free to pin away!

Re-Pinning is the New Recycling

If adding another social media channel into the mix seems daunting, try pinning content that you are already posting elsewhere to see what type of engagement you get. Then you’ll be able to determine if the effort will be worth your while. If you blog weekly, share it to Pinterest as well as your other platforms. A pin on Pinterest is like a tweet on Twitter; the number of re-pins in a specific time period is an important factor in rankings. Once you see how patrons are interacting with your content on Pinterest, you can make the decision to post original content specific to Pinterest on a more consistent basis. Tagging other users, following the trends on the “Popular” page of Pinterest, and creating boards with catchy topic names to group pins together will all positively affect your engagement. Pinterest is a great place to share ideas and inspiration so create an account and start pinning or re-pinning to build your library’s ultimate vision board.