Are You on Pinterest Yet?

You may or may not like the way Barack Obama runs this country, but one thing we can all agree on is that he and his staff know how to run a successful social media campaign.

Just look at what he did four years ago – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging. He set the stage for things to come. He was a pioneer in the field and knew exactly how to engage an audience.  And, it was one of the ways that he got himself into the White House!

His emails were also engaging. He would send out YouTube videos and talk to you (or at least it felt that way).

Now he’s doing it again for the 2012 campaign and this time, he’s embraced Pinterest, a relatively new social networking site that has picked up speed and momentum. Pinterest takes the kitchen bulletin board and puts it into a virtual dashboard.  You can have several bulletin boards with pictures of something that you want to “pin” on the board.  Most people organize their boards and put photos or pictures in their respective places.

Pinterest is a great visual site.  I’ve been on the site now since its inception and have 22 boards and 132 pins. My boards range from free things worth getting to shoes I love. You find out a lot about me personally on Pinterest, but you also get a sense of my work as well because I have created boards that display things I’ve done at HJMT PR.

Barack Obama works the system by getting the audience to know him better. He has boards on the first family and “Pet Lovers for Obama” to “Obama Art” and faces of change. He has almost 30,000 followers; 11 boards and 170 pins.

As of a couple of days ago, Michelle Obama put herself on Pinterest too.  Her page has three boards – around the White House, great memories and Father’s Day. She already has nearly 24,000 followers and only 18 pins.

Why are the Obama’s on Pinterest?  I guess it’s the same reason why every small or large business should be on Pinterest.  It gets people to know you better in a visual way; it helps your search engine optimization and gives you another format to engage with your target audience.

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Hilary JM Topper, MPA is the President/CEO of HJMT Public Relations, Inc. in Melville, NYC and in Rochester. (If you click on the link, it will take you to her web site where she has more blogs on the subject and special offers.) She is also the founder and president of the Social Media Association.  She is an author, blogger and radio show personality. For more information contact her direct at hilary@hjmt.com.