Making “Pinning” Winning – by Kelly Adachi (Intern)

Pinterest is on the rise. The new social media site offers a vast collection of images and video and allows users to create personalized virtual bulletin boards to share with friends. Pinterest has experienced rapid growth, reaching 10 million users faster than any site in history. In February 2012 it earned at average 1.36 million visitors every day, and the numbers continue to climb.

With this influx of activity, one wonders how to best utilize this new social media platform, especially for purposes other than sharing images related to top Pinterest topics like fashion and décor.

Job seekers have now begun using Pinterest to find employment and career tips and to post their resumes and interests. Companies have started to capitalize on this new emergence of career-related content on Pinterest, and have begun recruiting efforts on their company Pinterest pages.

Here are some tips for using Pinterest for recruiting:

• Use pins to promote company culture/values
• Build a pin board for each job
• Pin multimedia – not just images, but also video
• Include boards on relevant topics with material from outside sources, not just company content
• Relate Pinterest trends back to workplace (For example, you can connect professional attire to fashion, office locations to travel, etc.)
• Make sure to include many ways to connect with users – through links, repinning, comments, contests, etc. As with any social media site, it’s all about engagement!

One of my favorite examples of a company Pinterest page is GE. They have an array of boards on topics that would be interesting to both consumers and job seekers, including industry-related images as well as a glimpse into the GE workspace. They also encourage engagement via hashtags and a campaign called #GEInspiredMe, in which Pinterest users upload images that relate to GE and are able to see their images pinned up on the company’s official Pinterest page.

Some other favorites: Whole Foods, which showcases its company culture and lifestyle, and this whimsical job board for The New Traditionalists Furniture Company

Pin Sins: Things to avoid!

• Posting low quality images
• Only including pins with company content/products
• Having no personality
• Having an inactive page
• Not including links to other company pages
• Posting controversial pins

Do NOT  follow in the footsteps of CVS Caremark or Barnes & Noble with low quality images and blank pages!

Pinterest has a lot of potential as a social media platform that can be used for recruiting. Companies just need to be smart about what they pin and how they organize their page.