Digital Marketing

3 Unforgettable Reasons Arts and Cultural Organizations Need Pinterest

May 9, 2012 | 2 min Read

Closeup of Pinterest app on a tablet.

Pinterest for Arts and Cultural Organizations, really?

I have 1021 pins. 1021.I knew I had a solid interest in Pinterest, but this confirms it—full blown obsession.

I wonder how long it took me to pin so many things. If I sent someone 1021 text messages, I could probably be given stalker status.

Good thing I’m not alone:

So what does all this mean for Arts and Cultural Organizations? Who are these users and should you be trying to reach them? Should you be on Pinterest?

Check out this infographic from Brave Bear (formerly known as Tamba) and see if Pinterest attracts your target audience. (P)interested yet? As I am getting to know more about the Altru users, I’ve been convinced that you could benefit from being on Pinterest.

Here’s why:

1. You have the images!

Pinterest is all about visual stimulation, showcasing beautiful images that move people to like, re-pin, or share, thereby supporting your cause. As Arts and Cultural Organizations (museums, zoos, galleries, festivals and foundations), you have so many powerful images to choose from.

You can pin images of your venue space, grounds, events, exhibits or patrons.

2. Your Supporters are Using Pinterest Already

I did a quick search for a few of Arts and Cultural Organizations using Altru and almost every search returned images of your organizations. You already have fans on Pinterest: time to connect with them!

3. There’s a Category That’s (perfectly searchable) for You 

On Pinterest, images are categorized. And many of the categories are perfect for Arts and Cultural Organizations to showcase their awesomeness!

For children’s museums and zoos, there’s Kids and Pets; for museums, Art, Architecture, or Design. If you host weddings at in your event space, pin images to Wedding & Events. There’s also Food & Drink, Gardening, Outdoors, Science and Nature, Technology … your organization could be a part of so many searches!

Here’s a suggestion from Care2 (formerly known as Frogloop) on how Arts and Cultural Organizations (museums, zoos or aquariums) could use Pinterest: Create a shared Board for visitors to pin their favorite works of art or to share shots of themselves feeding their favorite animals (In exhibits and galleries where photography is permitted, of course!). To pull this off well you’ll want to print up some effective signage to orient people to what Pinterest is about and how the museum is using it. Include a QR code that visitors can scan to get to the Pinterest mobile download page.

Still not sold? Here are 10 examples of nonprofits leveraging pinterest for social good and a couple more articles to check out:

Enough of the rehashing of internet articles—you could be pinning already!

Is anyone already using Pinterest for your Arts and Cultural Organization and loving it? Or did you decide against it? We’d love to know why you joined or didn’t! Maybe we can chat about it over in the Altru Community.

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Kristen Gastaldo

Contributor

Kristen Gastaldo joined Blackbaud's Altru team in March 2012, leaving behind the late nights of the music business. She spent 8 years in the music industry, managing a venue in Charlotte, NC, and then relocating to Charleston in 2007 to help reopen the Music Farm.

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