The 2016 Presidential race has officially expanded to Pinterest!
The bid for the White House is already heating up across a variety of social media channels. On Twitter, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders leading the charge in followers and retweets, respectively. On Facebook, however, Rand Paul and George Pataki lead the pack in Page Likes and interactions, respectively.
But Hillary Clinton is the fist official presidential candidate to launch a verified Pinterest board.
As The New York Times reported, the photo-driven platform may be a bid for the former Secretary of State to “display a softer side in a safe and controlled format.” Given Pinterest’s user demographics — 42% of online U.S. women use Pinterest, and 71% of platform’s December 2014 visitors were women — the decision to expand to the photo-driven platform makes strategic sense.
And with the tagline “Granddaughter gift ideas, hairstyle inspiration, favorite moments, and some other things,” Clinton’s team clearly has the network’s female-focused userbase in mind. But that’s not the only thing Clinton’s Pinterest-play gets right.
Here are 3 tips you can apply to your brand’s Pinterest board:
1. Curate content around clearly defined themes and topics.
On Clinton’s board, for example, Pins are sorted onto 7 boards with clearly-defined themes, including: Women Who Inspire; What What We’re Fighting For; Memorable Moments; H is For..; From the Trail; Newest (And Best) Job: Grandmother; and Summer Style.
Each board bears a clear description outlining the type of Pins you’ll find within each board, as in the example from her From the Trail board below:
2. Offer a look behind-the-scenes look at your brand.
Many brands like Burberry and J.Crew have leveraged the photo-sharing platform to offer fans a behind-the-scenes look in the making of their favorite products.
Mrs. Clinton and her campaign leaders have successfully employed this tactic via social media as well, offering a glimpse at the person — and the personality — behind the politician.
Take, for example, the quip “pantsuit aficionado” on Mrs. Clinton’s Twitter account, or her viral innagural Instagram post featuring a rack of pantsuits in a patriotic color-scheme with the caption, “Hard choices.”
On Pinterest, content with a dash of humor has garnered above-average levels of engagement for the candidate. Mrs. Clinton even shares snapshots from what she calls her “Newest (and Best) Job: Grandmother,” including snapshots of granddaughter Charlotte and some of the favorite books, toys, and outfits she’s found for the little one.
3. Curate user-generated content!
That’s right — Mrs. Clinton’s campaign use Pinterest to capture mementos and moments the road, such as supporters’ creative recreations of the official campaign logo. As we’ve seem previously with brands like GoPro, Adobe, and flower-delivery upstart The Bouqs, curating user-generated content is an effective tactic for fostering audience and engagement and loyalty, particularly on visually-driven platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.