Pinterest becomes popular in states like Minnesota? You betcha!

Minn. (MN)—so the buzz has been going around the web that the new social media rookie on the block is Pinterest. The new visually loaded, social sharing online bulletin board has been heralded the next best thing since Google+.

The website registered in Dec. 2011, an astounding 7 million unique visitors and has been growing exponentially with each passing month. Pinterest offers some unique elements that neither Facebook nor Twitter can perhaps offer because it uses one element that resonates with most web users: a simple picture!

So this social network Pinterest, the virtual pinboard still in its early stages offers three popular components of functionality: the ability to use Pins, Create Boards, Repins and Likes. All social media start-ups have to come up with their very own original functionality that will resonate in today’s culture where it has been predominantly dominated by Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and others.

Boards on Pinterest are associated with certain topics, the action of Repinnings is adding an image to your existing topics of interest and the Pinning function is as simple as adding a url preferably with an image or just uploading images from your computer. What seems to be the predominant theme is that Pinterest centers its unique platform around images instead of video or text.

Tips and practices for Minnesota businesses

On the local level there has not been a crown champion to be found as the prolific Pinterest model to follow. This new platform does not aim at self-promotion like having tons of Twitter followers, Facebook Fans or possessing a high Klout score. It’s been often referred as “holistic” because brands have to focus on their very essence of what they do and be completely original.

What is being said about this social network in Minnesota? The Minnesota American Marketing Association (MN AMA) put together a list of successful brands on the platform and how companies should approach this platform. There have been several local stories covered by the Star Tribune on how local users are leveraging the latest social networking sensation.

For example they point out some of the brands in their post that should be modeled after are Martha Stewart, Real Simple, West Elm, Today and others.

How can you become successful as a user or business on Pinterest? MN AMA breaks it down to bringing out the essence of your brand, become a Resource and create boards with high quality images.

So showcase your brand, become a contributor of helpful information in your city or community, which will lead you to be creative with your Boards. In all the different functions the images have a reoccurring theme and that is to post highly aesthetic images of your product or service.

Minnesota Brands present on Pinterest

One of the difficult things to use for this platform right away is using Pinterest’s search option. At times it may not get the desired result or relevant content. The platform is different than the traditional search engine or social media search option embedded within the site, but overall the site will modify this with due time as it grows its user base.

In an example from the Real Estate Marketing blog they suggested that Pinterest is useful to build links for real estate websites. It strongly emphasizes that you should post your best real estate images of properties on Pinterest with the potential of going viral.

A local Twin Cities Real Estate Agent known as Eric Hempler on the Minnesota Real Estate blog reiterates this practice of “Link Building” with Pinterest. You can check out his beautiful and organized set of Boards he already created.

Searching for retailers for our home state like Best Buy and Target you can find tons of Pins, Comments and Likes to their products. Other words to enter search for into Pinterest are Twin Cities, Minneapolis and you will get all sorts of different collages of images.

Local Media companies like the Star Tribune have created a profile with 11 Boards, 239 Pins and 44 Likes (metrics at the time of this report).

Other media outlets like City Pages, Twin Cities Daily Planet or Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) use an image from a story to link back to the original article.

Pinterest has been growing rapidly in the Midwest region and according to ThatCompany.com Minnesota is a stronghold for this social network. Expect a proliferation of curating services to spring about. Local companies like Proliphiq or 8thBridge will be a perfect example to watch out for as they evolve their platforms to fit their business on Pinterest.