Pinterest and The Journalist

Pinterest is often thought of as an image sharing website where users can come together and inspire one another, share art, and get ideas.

As with all other corners of the internet, journalists have tried to figure out how to use the platform to their advantage.

The extent of journalism on Pinterest currently is a few corporate news organizations, such as CNN, Yahoo, and Today, and most of the accounts haven’t posted in years.

Other, more niche publications have a solid following such as Bon Apetit Magazine, but that likely is because what Bon Apetit Magazine writes about, naturally does well on Pinterest.

If it is insisted that Pinterest must be used, there are a few tips on how to have any shot at using Pinterest successfully for journalism.

1. Understand what users go onto Pinterest for. Most people report using Pinterest to find inspiration for a new project, not for news.

2. Cater your journalism skills to what does well on Pinterest. It is possible to use Pinterest as a way to find out what people are searching for, by using the “Popular” feature on Pinterest.

3. Photograph everything. Pinterest is first and foremost, an image sharing website. All posts must be accompanied by a photo, making Pinterest a great place for photojournalists to share their stories.

4. Look at Pinterest’s user statistics. Looking at this will show you that more than 50% of users do not reside in the United States. This, along with other user statistics can help you create content that is catered to the demographics that Pinterest attracts.

5. Don’t be afraid to not use Pinterest (or Periscope, or Whatsapp, Signal, or Slack, or Crowdtangle). Journalism is about getting accurate and important information to as many people as possible, and there are plenty of websites that are more popular for journalism and news reporting than any of these.