Toward the end of November 2013, Pinterest launched ‘Place Pins’ – a new feature to help travelers turn their travel inspiration into a reality. Place Pins were created in response to the 1.5 million places that people pin every day.
According to Pinterest, Place Pins are designed “to combine the beautiful imagery of a travel magazine with the utility of a map online so you can share it with friends.”
Place pins can also incorporate useful details including addresses and phone numbers. Plus, you can access these place pages from just about anywhere and from any device (android or iOS), meaning that if you’re already on the go… life is just that much easier.
How to make a place board:
If you’re already a Pinterest user, there’s good news. Creating a place board requires no new learning. You can do so by setting up a new board in the same way as you would previously have done. The only difference is that now you need to select the ‘add a map’ option.
How to turn an existing board into a place board:
If you’ve already got a board set up, click onto the board you want to add a map to and slide the ‘Add a map’ button to ‘yes’.
Now, you’re going to want to ‘Map your pre-existing pins’. This is also pretty easy. With the addition of the map, you will see that your pins are now displayed in a vertical column on the left side of the screen. To begin with, none of your pins will be numbered. Once you start clicking that small + button and assigning a location to each pin, you’ll be able to see numbers appear on both the pins and the map.
Some things might take a bit of experimentation, but as will all of Pinterest’s features, it’s pretty straightforward.
Brought to you by…Pinterest, Foursquare and Mapbox
Once you’ve set up your map, you’ll notice that when you click one of the numbers on the map and then click the ‘learn more’ button, you get taken through to the matching page on Foursquare. This is because Pinterest is using Foursquare’s location service in conjunction with Mapbox’s map technology. If you’re already using Foursquare, well so much the better for you. You’ll be able to integrate Pinterest into your marketing strategy even more easily.
Going beyond ‘travel’
Just because most people are using these boards for ‘travel purposes’, doesn’t mean you have to. This is just another opportunity for businesses looking for a new way to promote places; to tell ‘stories’ that span the globe; and to share personal favourites (products they’ve purchased from somewhere special, restaurants they’ve been to, etc).
Pinterest has already listed a few companies that are making good use of Place Pages. Have a look through them and then begin experimenting with your own boards. Once you’re comfortable, begin thinking about new ways you can make use of your board.
I particularly like the ‘Where to enjoy Chrimstmas in London’ board by Time Out London, not least because it’s appropriate for the season. What’s your favourite?
Other Pinterest features you might enjoy or find useful as a business:
- Rich Pins (kind of like ‘rich snippets’) – Product, Article, Movie and Recipe pins
- Promoted Pins
- The Now-Trending Tool
- Personalised Pin Recommendations
- Price Alerts
Need Pin-help? Need a Social Strategy? Xanthos can help. Get in touch with us if you’d like social media setup, strategy, branding or campaign help.
