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#SMWNYC Recap: The Future of Social Media and Content Creation

February 27, 2014/in Account Service, Agency, Digital, Feature, Media, News, PR /by Webmaster

Last week, we sent our Social Media Manager Erica Nardello to the Big Apple for Social Media Week NYC. In two days of SMW sessions, expert panelists from socially savvy agencies and brands discussed continuously changing social media platforms, revolutionary content strategies, and evolving analytics. Check out Erica’s key takeaways from select sessions below and, if you were in attendance at #SMWNYC, let us know what findings you found most valuable in the comments!

The Language of Social Media is Visual

The internet was built on text. From search engine algorithms and queries to website and application coding, words have defined and shaped the digital experience. But, as JWT Trends Strategist Will Palley pointed out in a session on Thursday called Reading is No Longer Fundamental: The Shift to Visual Vocabulary, “new social platforms force people to learn new languages.” Increasingly, those languages are not always (or only) verbal. With the rise of platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, the language of social media is evolving from words (and even limited characters) to images. DigitasLBi SVP and North American Mobile Practice Lead Chia Chen said in The Changing Face of News Consumption, Hosted by WSJ, “The currency of social media is imagery.” As users increasingly turn to animated stickers and emoji to communicate, brands need to evolve to learn from, understand, and embrace these languages – to “listen visually,” said Palley. But how?

“We need to restore context to content,” said Curalate CEO and Co-Founder Apu Gupta. That context can come from comments, emoji, metadata, and more. While users may be pinning your brand’s products or posting photos of your signage on Instagram, it’s important to understand the users, read their posts, and know that they could be sharing the content because they love it or because they hate it. Brands have the opportunity to create that context by inviting consumers to participate in the content creation process. Rather than simply taking and repurposing user-generated content, Craig Hepburn, global head of digital & social at Nokia, recommends that brands start building relationships with (but not paying for the involvement of) key influencers. Curalate’s Gupta cited a really amazing example of work with Urban Outfitters, which leveraged user-generated content to create a digital experience based on the real style of its customers on its homepage. But the best part wasn’t the “influence” of the customers featured on UO’s website – it was their enthusiasm. “We talk so much about influencer marketing, but that’s to the detriment of loyalists,” Gupta explained. The success of the efforts to incorporate visual user-generated content depends largely on the type of brand and the type of consumer, but one thing is for sure: the visual language of social media is still in its infancy and it will only continue to grow and change.

The Evolution of Content Creation and Sharing

Propelled by changes in consumption habits and platform preferences, storytelling has changed forever. Still, there are great opportunities and challenges for community managers and content creators of all kinds, but they’ve evolved with the times and with us. “Most people have thought of stories as having a beginning, middle and end,” said Jim Roberts, executive editor and chief content officer of Mashable. “For the consumer who has time to consume it, it’s a really rewarding experience, but most people don’t have time to do that anymore.” Now, brands and media companies are being forced to tailor their content to evolving consumer preferences.

Liz Heron, emerging media editor at The Wall Street Journal, explained that content, especially content targeted to millennials, needs to be characterized by three things: presence and share-ability on social and mobile platforms, rich visuals, and emotional relevance and resonance. And really, in a sea of content that is constantly fighting for our attention and our love, that couldn’t be more accurate. Without content that tugs at the heartstrings and engages with imagery on the social and mobile channels at our fingertips, media companies and brands cannot hope to connect with modern consumers. “The pace of change that we experienced… in the ’90s was nothing compared to the pace of change in recent years,” said Roberts. Clearly social media trends are leading the way forward and show no sign of slowing down.

Erica’s recap can also be found on her blog, ‘ello.

CVS Dominates headlines by pulling cigarettes

February 17, 2014/in Agency, Feature, News, PR /by Webmaster

When our PR leader Scott Tattar calls it “one of the best PR moves in recent memory,” you know it’s big.

On February 5^th CVS Caremark, national drugstore leader in both overall and pharmaceutical sales, announced the cessation of their cigarette sales. The company will remove all cigarettes from their 7,600 stores nationwide starting October 1^st of this year. “We came to the decision that cigarettes and providing health care just don’t go together in the same setting,” said President/CEO Larry Merlo. He notes that it is “inconsistent” to sell tobacco products as a store that thrives on helping customers create and maintain healthier lifestyles.

It is predicted that their overall sales of $123 billion will only be affected by approximately $2 billion, with this number including products that go in tandem with cigarettes, such as lighters and gum.

News of CVS Caremark is being received very well on many different platforms. The company has received a huge outpour of support from businesses, organizations, and individuals alike.

The company’s official Twitter account (@CVSCaremarkFYI) has been tweeting and retweeting about the announcement since it was made, receiving nods from the likes of Bill Gates, the American Lung Association, and First Lady Michelle Obama.

President Obama even published a statement to demonstrate his support of the groundbreaking initiative.

CVS Caremark also launched a separate Twitter account two days prior to its announcement, CVS in the Community (@CVSInAction). Followers of this account can track how the company will “help people on their path to better health and support #communityhealth through charitable giving, volunteerism and partnerships in our local communities.” Undoubtedly, initiatives against smoking will frequently be highlighted on this feed.

The social responsibility shown by CVS Caremark is incredibly admirable. We hope these healthy initiatives will spread, especially in conjunction with the FDA’s plans for a new campaign specifically targeting youth tobacco use.

(This post was written by Ellie Paparone, PR intern and senior at Saint Joseph’s University.)

Don’t Believe Everything You See (or Read)

February 12, 2014/in Account Service, Agency, Feature, News, PR /by Webmaster

Facebook and Twitter as news sources. Love it or hate it, it’s the state of social media today. Everyone is sharing articles, retweeting links and circulating information (often without checking its accuracy). A recent example of this is a news article posted on DailyCurrant.com: Man Responsible for Olympic Ring Mishap Found Dead In Sochi. There has been a lot of buzz around this year’s winter Olympics; from toxic water and unfinished hotel rooms to the extermination of stray dogs around Sochi (but that’s a whole different blog post probably about crisis communication!). With all this negative media attention, yet another article that details a ridiculous action surrounding the Olympics was quick to be believed by many.

A quick look at the Daily Currant’s ‘about’ section show that they’re a satirical site with the mission to “ridicule the timid ignorance which obstructs our progress, and promote intelligence.” Websites like this and The Onion take situations that are flooding the media and put hilariously false spins on them. All too often, however, people scrolling through their social media sites are just reading headlines and sharing stories. After all, Facebook is the second most trusted online service. So starts the vicious cycle of circulating false news.

Moral of the story? Think before you share (or tweet). Is it really plausible that someone was so mad about the Olympic ring mess-up that they went out and committed murder? Probably not. Ridiculous things happen, that’s for sure, but it’s better to know the facts before you end up sharing false information. Sites like Snopes.com thankfully lend us a helping hand by getting to the bottom of many circulating rumors. Keeping up with what’s going on in the news also helps to determine what’s true and what’s false. If other outlets aren’t sharing the same story, there’s probably a reason why. It’s our hope that social media users will start reading more into their news than just the headline…though the gullibility of others offers a good chuckle.

(This post was written by London Faust, PR intern and senior at Temple University.)

Takeaways from the Social Media Leadership Awards #SMLA13

December 12, 2013/in Agency, Digital, Feature, Media, News, PR /by Webmaster

On December 9th and 10th, Tracy Dabakis, Erica Nardello and Eric Spector, members of our PR and Social Media team, traveled (in lots of snow!) west on Market to attend the Social Media Leadership Awards‘ Best Practices Conference. Held at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, our LevLaners learned from some of the industry’s best and most innovative about using social strategies for customer service and community creation/management, and overall best practices. Check out the top takeaways from the conference below. If you were in attendance at #SMLA13, let us know what you found most valuable in the comments below!

The Power of Social Media

The common thread of every presenter’s story was, of course, how powerful social media can be and how it explicitly positively impacted their company, no matter the industry.

Jennifer Sengupta, Manager of Social Media at National Geographic Education, stressed the importance of knowing your audience. Once she was able to create two separate social media plans for Nat Geo Education’s Facebook and Twitter, Jennifer saw the brand’s overall social engagement increase 3300%. Prior to this, Nat Geo Education’s social presence was “sporadic at best”, and entirely self promotional. Jennifer explained that social media works best when it’s used as an engagement tool, not a marketing tool. Amanda Hite, Co-founder of BTC Revolutions, suggested that by engaging brand enthusiasts, they become natural ambassadors and can do more than an entire marketing team, which is exactly what she did when promoting No Kid Hungry‘s Giving Tuesday campaign. The power of social media is essentially word of mouth, as users place more trust in their peers than brands, and can ultimately smell ingenuity from the first tweet.

Steve Wick, Founder and CEO of FanNewscast, mentioned that in 2011, time spent on social media surpassed all of dot-com. Read that again. Time spent on social media surpassed all of dot-com. This fact is the sole reason why Wick and his associates have invested all of their efforts into social media and native advertising, which was another popular topic for the Social Business panel. Wick has seen a trend shift to native advertising, specifically in-stream advertising. Nearly all of the panelists mentioned native advertising and personalization as “the next big thing” and the trend to look out for in 2014.

For several years (and many years to come), the be-all and end-all of social media is Facebook. Lou Kerner, Co-founder of The Social Internet Fund, put it this way: “Facebook is the second internet. Anything that happens off of Facebook, will then come to Facebook.” This rings true for users who share their photos and thoughts on the site daily as well as advertisers. Kerner and Wix both predicted a shift in ad dollars from display to Facebook in order to reach consumers where they are (nod to the native and in-stream advertising discussed earlier). It’s no secret that Facebook has the ability to target you brand’s ads to the Nth degree based on consumers online behavior. Most consumers aren’t aware that Facebook is also working with several companies to collect your offline buying habits and personality, which will intensify the capabilities of Facebook advertising, making “traditional” digital display outdated and ineffective.

The Integration (and Separation) of Social Media and PR

The moderator of the Social Media for Customer Service panel, The Wharton School’s Sr. Director of New Media Stefan Frank, pointed out that 50-75% of social media managers are still part of larger PR and communications teams. From proactive blogger relations to crisis management, PR and social media teams work collaboratively as close partners, even if they are not one intertwined team. Those who work with or serve as part of social media teams will not be surprised by this, but the fact of the matter is that this can be both an asset and a detriment to social media strategies, if not managed properly. While many PR strategies focus on specifically-worded answers to customer inquiries or problems, the canned response is met with disdain in the social sphere.

Still, that doesn’t mean that elements of traditional PR fall by the wayside in a technologically modern world. As Bianca Buckridee, VP of Social Media Operations for JPMorgan Chase, explained during the panel, it’s crucial for PR teams to communicate with social media teams regarding buzzworthy events (from both a content strategy perspective and community management perspective), as well as anticipating and planning for positive and negative reactions across different media. This doesn’t mean latching onto one canned response for the duration of an event, however. Brian Mook, AVP Social Media at Barclaycard US, said that his team often crafts several different ways to communicate the same message, so that customers don’t lash out about being served the same response repeatedly. It seems like a no-brainer, but you might be shocked to see how few brands actually utilize this simple tactic. In fact, those varied and personalized responses are the primary way in which social media and PR strategies diverge when it comes to customer service. Buckridee emphasized that at JPMorgan Chase, they have (and use) brand and conversation guidelines for customer service issues, but the most important thing is that their team members’ personalities shine through. They, after all, are the voice of the brand for each customer – and that voice needs to have a human touch. Personalized responses may sometimes require a little background research (and almost-daily coaching and education to determine which responses work best), but the pay-off of having a happy customer is so worth it.

In fact, The Wharton School’s Frank pointed out that, “You can delight people the most in a crisis because they expect to be let down.” But what do social teams need to do before and during crises in order to delight, rather than dismay? As Dennis Stoutenburgh, Co-Founder of Social Strategy1, explains, it’s about using social media tools to anticipate reactions or issues and to communicate with the larger team to proactively reach out or to provide valuable reactions to those issues. “Social care can be the early warning system that helps to create a good coordinated effort.” Once an issue has reached crisis-level, American Airlines’ Sr. Analyst, Social Communications Katy Phillips, emphasizes three things: honesty about the situation and what it means for customers, delivering timely updates, and (perhaps most surprisingly) knowing when to let the crisis go.

As David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, put it in a later panel on content and communities, “Real-time marketing [or response, for that matter] is too late.” That’s exactly what the day’s #SMLA13 sessions were all about: the need to anticipate, predict, and respond in strategic, delightful ways for customers and stakeholders, alike.

What was your favorite part of the conference? Did anything surprise you? Share your comments below!

A New Life For ‘UnLitter Us’

November 5, 2013/in Account Service, Agency, Creative, Digital, Feature, Media, News, PR /by Webmaster

In 2010, the Philadelphia Streets Department was looking for a campaign to inspire residents to take action and rid the city of litter. We were proud to deliver the UnLitter Us campaign, but to us, it was more than a campaign; it was a movement to inspire a mindset change and motivate anti-litter behaviors.

The UnLitter Us movement has been a steady presence throughout Philadelphia since its 2010 launch. In 2011, the program saw heightened visibility for the program message and strengthened partnerships in what we call the “UnLitter Us Network,” a group of involved and prominent community groups and city organizations who are all working together toward the common goal of a litter-free city. In 2012, we continued to promote, integrate and socialize the program, engaging with residents at several points of contact. However, we realized that in order for the City to reach its litter-free potential, the UnLitter Us program would have to grow and evolve into a new, more actionable campaign.

Enter the 2013 UnLitter Us program, a time to celebrate, authenticate, galvanize and support. The 2013 UnLitter Us program approach focuses on two key areas: 1) Telling the stories of real Philadelphians and their efforts to clean and improve their neighborhoods and 2) informing and educating the citizenry on current City and partner programs that are impacting our City in positive ways.

By featuring the real work being done to create cleaner streets, neighborhood improvements, and stronger communities, we introduce authenticity to the message and make action a tangible thing. The simple, clear-cut way we do this is through the evolution of the UnLitter Us rally cry; shifting the tagline from “Join the Movement” to “Join Me.”

To reach a wide audience, we leveraged our message in the following spaces:

Street presence on bus exteriors:

Bus sides

Broad exposure on other out-of-home units:

Subway platform posters

Bus window clings

Streaming pre-roll video, leveraged on social media and web:

Online Display Banners and Web Takeovers:

Strong social media presence to voice the UnLitter Us “rally cry”:

https://www.facebook.com/UnLitterUs

https://twitter.com/UnLitterUs

http://www.youtube.com/user/UnLitterUsPhilly

So what do you say? Join Me. UnLitter Us.

Helping Students Think Outside the Bun

October 30, 2013/in Account Service, Agency, Digital, Feature, Media, News, PR /by Webmaster

When the Philadelphia and Harrisburg Taco Bell Associations wanted to bring the national message of the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens to a local level, they looked to LevLane to create a college workshop for the high school students in their market. We created a one-day workshop that provides 500 students with an opportunity to explore their higher education options and be eligible to win a scholarship, which is funded by local Taco Bell sales.

This year, the national foundation and workshop were rebranded, which meant that our local workshop had to reflect the new look and feel of “Graduate For Mas“. Our interactive team rebuilt the previous Taco Bell Philly Workshop website from the ground up, incorporating the new elements of the campaign to our local workshop.

The homepage pulled tweets using the national #grad4mas and local #tbphillyworkshop into a social stream, and featured an interactive calendar of important dates and deadlines. The new website also hosted registration forms for students, high school counselors and higher education exhibitors, streamlining the process for everyone.

After the website was up an running, our PR department and Account Managers planned the 2013 Taco Bell Greater Philadelphia College Workshop from start to finish, meaning we invited thousands of high school students, secured 50 college exhibitors, selected Solomon Jones as the keynote speaker, booked the West Powelton Steppers as workshop entertainment, invited Mayor Nutter to attend and address the student attendees, planned the workshop sessions with the Philadelphia Futures, and provided day-of event management, just to name a few.

Live Mas.

Ryan Howard, Billie Jean King and Michael Vick walk into a park…

October 29, 2013/in Feature, News, PR /by Webmaster

When the Fairmount Park Conservancy first dreamed up the Hunting Park Revitalization Project, it was exactly that, a dream and an ambitious one at that. But that’s the great thing about the Conservancy. They dream up the ways the City could be and the ways the City should be, and they make it a reality. The Conservancy fully believes that parks can be a catalyst for positive change in communities and the lives of those who surround them. This mission led the organization to dream up, plan, secure funding for and launch the Hunting Park Revitalization Project, a multi-million dollar, long term endeavor to restore the 87-acre Hunting Park in North Philadelphia.

Since the project’s start in 2009, LevLane has been working to promote the good work happening in the park through media relations and event management. Some highlights from the project have been dedicating a new baseball field with Ryan Howard, new tennis courts with Billie Jean King, a community garden, two new playgrounds, weekly farmers’ market, improved park lighting, a healthy concessions initiative and most recently, dedicating the crown jewel of the park, the brand new Team Vick Field with Michael Vick and Ron Jaworski.

The dedication of Team Vick Field was more than just the excitement of having both 7’s in Hunting Park, it represented the revival of a once-divided community. Joined through the Hunting Park United community group, residents and friends alike were finally able to watch their championship Pop Warner youth football team run around on a field with turf (and without broken glass and dirt).

Through aggressive media relations, the Hunting Park football field dedication and in turn, the Fairmount Park’s Conservancy’s tireless effort in Hunting Park, was covered in more than 50 print, broadcast and online stories that garnered more than 58 million media impressions. Touch. Down.

Here’s a sample of the media hits we’re most proud of:

Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia Tribune

Comcast SportsNet

KYW 1060

To keep up with the Hunting Park Revitalization Project, check out the Fairmount Park Conservancy’s website. Photo credits belong to Albert Yee.

Takeaways from PR News’ #digitalpr Summit

October 17, 2013/in Feature, News, PR /by Webmaster

On October 16, three LevLaners took a trip up north to that “other city” for a day of learning at PR News’ Digital PR Summit. Emily Verna, Public Relations Account Manager and Erica Nardello, Social Media Manager were joined by Scott Tattar, SVP of Public Relations and CSR to learn about social media, reputation management, SEO, measurement, and leadership. Ms. Nardello, our social media wiz-kid, recapped the summit and identified the key takeaways for the rest of us. So, without further ado, take it away Erica.

Yesterday, I joined two of my fellow LevLane-rs for a little learning about social media, reputation management, SEO, measurement, and leadership at PR News’ Digital PR Summit in New York City. After searching the Grand Hyatt’s digital agenda and map to find our conference location, we briefly considered trying to join the Super Bowl’s planning meeting before grabbing a quick muffin and our seats in the ballroom. For the most part, the speakers had great experiences to share and insights from which we could all learn. The most important takeaways for me, as a Social Media Manager in an agency, can be found below, in both narrative and infographic. This conference recap is not exhaustive, obviously – I want to be “at the table, not on the menu,” as American Traffic Solutions‘ SVP of Public Affairs and Marketing Communications Charlie Territo so eloquently put it. If you were in attendance for #digitalpr, I’d love to know what you found most valuable. Let me know in the comments!

How to Measure and Communicate Social Media ROI

In this session, EVP, BurrellesLuce Johna Burke cited a rather groundbreaking statistic from Nielsen: In the past, brands had to communicate messages 3-6 times in order for them to really sink in with consumers. Later, that number increased to 8 times. Today, with the message, platform, and product clutter that defines our lives, brands must reach millennials 23 times in order for brand messages to resonate. Whoa.

Get Your Messages in Front of the Right Followers on Twitter

One of my favorite quotes of the day came from Brooke Primero, SVP, PR & Marketing for the Academy of Country Music. She said, “The kiss of death in social media is being a 9-5, Monday-Friday brand.” No matter what brand you’re promoting, social activity doesn’t sleep and it certainly doesn’t stop because it’s 6:30PM on a Tuesday. The Academy of Country Music’s biggest push of the year is for a 3-hour awards event once a year. That’s it. So they focused their efforts on building that brand during the rest of the year via social channels. In 2011, they announced their award nominees on TV, reaching 3 million people, according to CBS. In 2012, they took to Twitter to announce the nominees and reached 14.2 million people. Those are some pretty amazing statistics, but the Academy of Country Music didn’t stop there. They engaged with key influencers to grow across Twitter and gave them behind the scenes access to content to take them from influencers to brand ambassadors.

How to Engage with the Internet’s Passionate Communities

If there’s one thing I learned during this session, it’s this: some people just don’t get reddit. Half of this session was spent listening to the great brand integration stories about reddit, and the other half of the session was spent trying to explain what reddit is. My life, in that moment, was r/reddit. Still, it was interesting to hear Marta Gossage, community operations manager, and Victoria Taylor, director of communications, distinguish reddit from other social platforms: Platforms like Facebook and Twitter show off your “frontstage behavior” (the way you want to portray yourself to the world), while platforms like reddit show off your “backstage behavior” (the way you think and feel when you’re eating potato chips by the fistful in your sweatpants, reading the AMA with a guy who lost 300+ pounds through extreme starvation). reddit seems to be a much more authentic platform in that way – and redditors keep it that way. At the table we shared in the back, Gossage described reddit as having its own immune system. If there’s a foreign body in there, the community reacts strongly to defend its territory (…er, place on the interwebz). Plus, if all else fails for you on reddit, you can always end a post with “…and here’s a picture of my cat” to help you get your footing.

How to Use Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine for Digital Storytelling

If you’ve been trying to figure out how to build a brand presence on one of the more visual social platforms, this was a great session for you. Amanda Junker, digital director for Shape Magazine, spelled out how to drive better results and greater brand relevancy through SEO on Pinterest. Her tips? Display the “Pin It” button prominently on your web properties, verify brand accounts, complete the “About” profile section, name all pinned graphics appropriately, and create boards that capture long-tail searches. She also recommended infogr.am, which I used to create the infographic below. After her part was over, Allison Robins, Director of Global Public Relations at Zumba Fitness, stepped up to discuss Instagram’s power and limits. According to Robins, Instagram is not the best pltofrms for brands focused on ROI, conversions, and sales. Instead, it’s better for brand and relationship building. And if you’ve been wondering how to upload pre-recorded videos to Vine, Doug Simon, President & CEO, D S Simon Productions, was your guy. Simply edit your video in a program like Final Cut and convert it to an H.264 mp4 file, compress it, email it to yourself, then upload it to Instagram or Vine. It’s that easy!

Building, Motivating, and Managing Your Digital Dream Team

Hands-down, this was the most valuable part of the day for me. Gemma Craven, EVP, NY group director, Social@Ogilvy, explained exactly how the growth of digital and social has shaped the creation and make-up of agency and client teams. Some of these teams may be as large as 20 people, handling digital and social creative, strategy, community management, analytics and listening, production, and more. More than metrics, more than C-suite buy-in, this is what I feel is the most important piece of the digital and social puzzle for agencies and brands today.

Did anything surprise you?

Erica’s recap and full infographic can also be found on her blog, ‘ello.

LevLane PR and Scott Tattar honored at PRSA Pepperpots

December 7, 2012/in Agency, Feature, News, PR /by Webmaster

At the Public Relations Society of America Philadelphia Chapter’s annual Pepperpot Awards Dinner, held December 5 in Center City Philadelphia’s Arts Ballroom, LevLane Senior VP/Dir of Public Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility Scott Tattar was presented the Society’s DeAnn White Award for Excellence in Community Service, honoring the Philadelphia PRSA member who has best utilized his or her professional and personal expertise to further community service and volunteerism.

A 30-year public relations veteran, Tattar was instrumental, in 2007, in establishing LevLane’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice, the Philadelphia region’s first. It has gone on to develop goodwill initiatives for clients including the Philadelphia Streets Dept., Taco Bell, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and others. Tattar is also a regular lecturer on the topic of CSR at Temple University and at the 4A’s Institute for Advanced Studies.

The PR team also walked away with two Pepperpot awards for their work with clients Beneficial Bank and the Fairmount Park Conservancy. The team received the Pepperpot in the Public Service category for the Beneficial School Challenge and the Pepperpot in the Development or Fundraising category for Fairmount Park Conservancy’s Hunting Park Revitalization Project.

Pinterest

July 26, 2012/in Agency, Feature, News, PR /by LEVLANE ADVERTISING

I open Pinterest and the first things I see are a blueberry salad, a collage of sea otters and a wedding gown. Comments read “great idea!”, “adorable!” and “my style!” I scroll down. The emphasis on hip inspiration is apparent.

After browsing through the “pinboard” for five minutes, I’m not surprised to read comScore’s reports that out of over 10 million registered users, 50% are mothers and 28% have a household income of $100k+. So am I eager to make an account for myself? No—I’m not dying to “pin” photos of Leonardo DiCaprio or golden retriever puppies. Am I going to totally ignore Pinterest? Absolutely not.

Pinterest is the fastest growing social media site. It’s a great way to draw attention to your business, especially if you have a female demographic.
The trick is figuring out how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool. Whole Foods seems to have the right idea. After creating their brand account in July 2011, the organic grocery store has gained over 50,000 followers. Images on the Whole Foods Pinterest page speak to the values of the company. With boards for dinner recipes, fitness inspiration and recycling ideas, they’ve built up a brand image and gained loyalty from trendy moms everywhere.

They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This rings especially true to brands looking to connect emotionally with the consumer. Text posts on Facebook and Twitter are about selling products. But images on the simple boards of Pinterest let businesses create a connection.

After all, Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Text posts get you some one-time purchasers, but images get you brand enthusiasts.