The growth in Pinterest has been phenomenal, last year they had just 1% of the social traffic to retailers, a year later this was 26%.  This year user numbers have surpassed 10 million users (faster than any other website) and Pinterest now drives more users to blogs than Twitter.

Chances are Pinterest will continue this growth throughout the year and more and more retailers and non-profits have seen that this is another way to interact with their supporters and customers.

Who’s on Pinterest?

The interesting thing about Pinterest are its users. Many startups tend to be predominantly used my men, but not Pinterest. About 68% of Pinterest users are women, over half of them are 35 or older and half of all users have children.

Pinterest users spend an average of 15 minutes on site which is more than users on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This means they are engaging more with the site as they look around and see what interests them. Repins are very common, much more so than ReTweets so it is likely that your content will be shared around

So how can it help non-profits?

Water.org's Pinterest boards

Many non-profits have set up their own Pinterest boards to engage with their supporters. Pinterest makes this easy by allowing non-profits to share useful content easily and in a visually appealing way.

Possible ways of sharing for non-profits include:

• use infographics to communicate key issues e.g. Water and Amnesty International
• communicate with supporters by having boards made up of their contributions such as National Wildlife Federation and WWF
• shopping boards where users can quickly and easily see what they can buy which would help their chosen cause – the RSPB has a ‘Gifts’ board
• provide more information about their work – Water.org have a ‘Countries we work in’ board
• passing along knowledge – AARP has a popular recipes section and the National Wildlife Federation has a board for ‘Gardening for Wildlife‘

How to get started

The best thing about Pinterest for non-profits is that it is free. Pinterest have done away with requiring new users to be invited and so anyone can now register. The interface is also simple and easy to use so anyone in your organisation can start pinning as soon as you’ve signed up.

You can set up any number of boards and start reaching out to your supporters in no time.

Why is this important for the education and non-profit markets? Because infographics make it possible to tell a story in one picture – about a need, an issue, how funds are used, the impact your organization is having, or all – helping you promote your cause, tell a story, or raise interest. A powerful tool that readers can understand quickly and easily.

Why every client should consider Infographics

1. 60% of your audience prefers…
   60% of people are visual learners. In our age of big data…your message will stand out clearly.
2. Research says …
   Research from Barbara M. Miller and Brooke Barnett discovered this about “Infographics”
   “On their own, text and graphics are both useful yet imperfect methods for communication. Written language allows an almost infinite number of word combinations that allow deep analysis of concepts but relies heavily on the reader’s ability to process that information. Graphics may be easier for the reader to understand but are less effective in communication of abstract and complicated concepts. … combining text and graphics allows communicators to take advantage of each medium’s strengths and diminish each medium’s weaknesses.”
3. So easy to share : (greater chance of going viral)
   Infographics are easy to spread…  download and upload  in minutes… much easier than trying to write or recap content.
4. Massive SEO benefits:
   Infographics attract a lot of attention. The visual display of information with fantastic imagery often catches people wherae words alone fail. They often go viral because they are so interesting. And therein is the big SEO benefit of increasing real incoming links when your infographics are embedded. Simply put – if you allow someone to publish your infographic, you typically ask them to also put a link back to your site with some juicy keyword in it. Voila… a backlink! Backlinks are the gold standard of gaining rank.

Our inspiration gallery:

We thought you might enjoy seeing our Pinterest inspiration board of  curated inspirational infographics!

Within the growing TED-Ed video library, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform. This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student.

 

TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation — a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness.

Intellectual mobility is where it’s at, rather than social mobility. And in this the power of TED is almost limitless. It’s kicking ass.

 

7. They like to prove others wrong. Self-motivation often springs from a desire to show that doubters are wrong. The kid without a college degree or the woman who was told she didn’t have leadership potential often possess a burning desire to prove other people wrong.

Education, intelligence, talent, and skill are important, but drive is critical. Remarkable employees are driven by something deeper and more personal than just the desire to do a good job.

8. They’re always fiddling. Some people are rarely satisfied (I mean that in a good way) and are constantly tinkering with something: Reworking a timeline, adjusting a process, tweaking a workflow.

Great employees follow processes. Remarkable employees find ways to make those processes even better, not only because they are expected to… but because they just can’t help it.