Tips for Journalists & Media Sites on Pinterest Why Pinterest?

Pinterest is a great way for writers and publications to reach new and existing audiences, give stories longevity, and provide visual components to stories. As an additional channel for people to discover content, it’s also a growing source of referral traffic for websites with the Pin It button, such as BuzzFeed. Every day, people pin more than 5 million articles on Pinterest. You can search for terms like "articles", "pin now, read later", "articles to read", or "news" on Pinterest to get a sense for the types of news-related boards people are creating.

Evergreen articles, new articles – Pinterest is a place for it all. Great content lives on Pinterest and older articles are rediscovered all the time, as pins remain clickworthy.

Articles on Pinterest just got a new look!

With the announcement of article pins, we’re giving people a better way to pin articles and reading content on Pinterest. The improved pins show more information - including the headline, author, story description, and link to the source - to help people discover articles and be directed back to your site.

Here’s (image on previous page) an example of the new article pins on Pinterest. It includes a prominent headline and link to the original source, making it easier for people to save and discover articles on Pinterest. To the right, pinners will find recommendations for more articles from that source. You can see articles that are being pinned from your site by going to http://www.pinterest.com/source/thenameofyoursite.com.

A look at the new article pins on the Pinterest mobile app How you can get started on Pinterest…

The quick version: 1. Sign up for an account at Pinterest.com2. Download the Pinterest for mobile app so you can pin on the go 3. Get verified4. Install the Pin It button to your browser so you can pin articles from anywhere on the web 5. Start pinning! Ideas for board names:

a. My Articles: Post your latest articles so it hits your followers’ feedsb. Reading List: share what you’ve been reading latelyc. Pin Now, Read Later: Post interesting articles you may not have time to read, but want

to read later

The in-depth version:

Pinterest tips for writers: 1. Pinterest is more than just images. Make sure the content you’re pinning leads somewhere. Pin from your blog, website, Tumblr, Flickr, or another host website. Pins will get pinned more, and have higher engagement when they lead somewhere. The best thing about pins is they’re a gateway to more information a topic.

2. What are you reading? Share your own reading list with readers, to show what inspires you. Use the description field to explain why you added the article to your reading list (such as why you agree or don’t agree with an article). Here are examples from Arianna Huffington, HuffPo Parenting editors, and Nieman Journalism Lab. If you come across articles you want to save for reading later, create a “Pin Now, Read Later” board.

3. Share your own stories to drive traffic back to your website. CBS Travel Editor Peter Greenberg shares a range of articles on Pinterest, including his Travel News board and his “My Top Travel Articles” board. New York Times Senior Writer C.J. Chivers uses Pinterest to pin articles from his Tumblr. Chivers told Poynter that Pinterest enables him to create a “visual index” of his posts and put his work in front of people who might not otherwise see it.

4. Embed a widget of your Pinterest profile on your website to cross promote.

5. Create separate boards for separate beats. Tim Devaney from The Washington Times has different boards for the different companies he covers like Google, Facebook and Apple. This way, if someone is only interested in one specific issue or company, they can get straight to it, via the board. (More info here)

6. Make a Pinterest board part of a story package, and link to the article on the board. St. Paul Pioneer Press Social Media Editor Jen Westphal created this board on local restaurants to accompany a story by Jessica Fleming on kid friendly dining. CTV News created this Titanic board to go along with coverage of the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. (More info here)

8. Tell the story behind a story. Create a board that shows the inspiration for a major story, or give a behind the scenes look of the reporting process, like this board on Grayson Schaffer’s work on Everest, for Outside Magazine. Or, check out Austin American Statesman Omar L. Gallaga’s boards, where gives readers clues about the stories he’s working on.

9. Use a secret board to create a storyboard for an article while you’re developing it. You can always make it public later, if you want to give a behind-the-scenes look.

10. Create a group board to collaborate with colleagues. Or, open up a board to invite experts or crowdsource with community members to contribute to a story in the works.

11. While you’re collaborating, send a pin to colleagues if you come across a pin you think they may like.

12. Expert in your field? Create a board on topics such as science or gardening.

13. Collect resources you come across for professional development, such as content from conferences or colleagues. (Example)

Pinterest tips for publications and media sites:

Technical

1. Add the Pin It button to your website to make it easier for people to save and share your articles. As your content is shared on Pinterest, more people can discover and distribute it through the Pinterest network of tens of millions of people, which can result in increased referral traffic.

2. Add the Pin It button your mobile app (iOS or Android) to encourage the pinning of your content on the go.

3. Verify your website to show pinners that this is the official presence for your publications.

4. Use analytics to see what people are pinning from your site, and to help determine what types of updates you should make to your Pinterest strategy.

5. Embed widgets to showcase writers’ boards, or the publication’s boards, in coverage. See how The Huffington Post embedded Pinterest boards in their stories (here and here). Editorial

1. Share articles so content hits people’s feed, and traffic is driven back to your site. See examples from: The New Yorker Men’s Journal Breaking News Outside Magazine , and Vanity Fair .

You can create also boards for specific issues (like Vanity Fair), or feature sections (like Us Weekly), and as people follow your boards, new content will appear in their feeds.

2. Create a board to showcase the most popular/ most e-mailed/ most pinned articles, or top of the year. See what Nordstrom does here to promote their most popular products; try something similar with your content.

3. Build a Pinterest board to accompany a story package. The New York Times created this board, and Elle created this one, to go along with Fashion Week coverage. You can even embed the board on your story to cross promote.

4. Build community through pins. The York Daily Record created this board for their Remember Series where readers share personal stories. Fox 8 in Cleveland, OH created a board to remember those who were lost in a tragedy.

5. Collaborate with fellow writers, experts, and sister publications, such as KQED’s Mindshift. Hearst’s ELLE Décor, Country Living and House Beautiful, and Veranda magazines are contributing to a group board on design inspiration.

6. As Steve Buttry points out, Pinterest can be used to highlight archival content, such as The Salt Lake Tribune, which runs weekly photo galleries of historic photos, and shares them on Pinterest to 1,200+ followers. The Daily Freeman has an Old front pages Pinboard, while The Denver Post Library (which has a separate Pinterest account from the main newsroom account) has a collection of Titanic coverage on Pinterest. The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, has a collection of more recent historic front pages, including 9/11 and the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

7. Showcase editor’s picks like Lucky Magazine and others.

8. Collect articles around a specific topic, such as Hurricane Sandy, marriage equality , shelter, fracking, or great interviews.

9. Create guides to engage with locals and visitors. For example, The Orlando Sentinel has boards highlighting Kennedy Space Center, Walt Disney World, other Orlando theme parks, and a variety of popular travel spots in Florida. The York Daily Record has a board on local museums, The Daily Freeman created a board on Hudson Valley and the Catskills, and Fox 8 in Ohio has a local pride board called “Ohio Rocks”.

10. Use Pinterest to show content in specific sections of your publication, such as: Sports:

o Jed Gray, founder & Editor-in-Chief of sports-glutton.com, has 100 pins (and growing!) on his Sports Articles board

o Helen Burnett, editor at The New Haven Register, created a Sports board with content that links back to the paper’s website.

Travel o Boards from BBC Travel

Science and Technologyo Boards from Fox 8 in Cleveland, The Huffington Post, and Mashable

Parentingo Board from The Huffington Post and iVillage

Healtho Boards from Fox 8 in Cleveland and The Huffington Post

Foodo Board from BuzzFeed

Politics: Use Pinterest to show infographics and charts, such as Think Progress and The Wall Street Journal.

Resources Special thanks to the following people who have written about great examples of how journalists and media companies are using Pinterest. We’ve included some of their examples and tips in this guide.

- Steve Buttry of The Buttry Diary (how journalists can use Pinterest)- Mallary Jean Tenore of Poynter (5 ways journalists are using Pinterest) - Katrina M Mendolera of inVocus (Journalists on Pinterest)

More info from Pinterest: Article pins blog post More info about article pins on our business blog Technical info on article pins Pinterest board of tips for writers Pinterest board of tips for media sites