We're talking in class today about how Pinterest is being used by news sites to engage readers and drive users back to news sites.
Your assignment today: Create an account on Pinterest and create at least three virtual boards of interest to you, with at least two pins on each.
Then browse on Pinterest for boards and pins of news sites you enjoy (go to pinterest.com/source/nytimes.com to see all pinned content from the New York Times, for instance). Select one that you find especially useful/fun/worthy of your time, and describe it in a comment to this post, below. Be sure to provide a link to the board or pin you like.
Your assignment today: Create an account on Pinterest and create at least three virtual boards of interest to you, with at least two pins on each.
Then browse on Pinterest for boards and pins of news sites you enjoy (go to pinterest.com/source/nytimes.com to see all pinned content from the New York Times, for instance). Select one that you find especially useful/fun/worthy of your time, and describe it in a comment to this post, below. Be sure to provide a link to the board or pin you like.
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17 comments:
I enjoy the Washington Post's use of Pinterest because they use pictures in order to grab viewers' eyes and direct them towards their stories. In this pin (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/278378820690623962/), the Washington Post pinned a colorful picture that links to one of their main stories. Viewers can just click on the picture and be brought immediately to the post's site. The pin looks good because it is just the picture alongside the headline- there isn't too much clunky text.
I found this pin on the Washington Post's Pinterest page about how the United States would look if population was distributed evenly among the 50 states.
I think it was a very good idea for the Post to put a map like this on Pinterest since it is a very visual medium. I found this map very interesting and I did not see it earlier when I was just on the Washington Post's website. The Post knows what Pinterest's strengths are and they are utilizing them very well.
The Washington Post has a board called "From the archives" that I really enjoy. The board contains a collection of some of the Post's best photographs from throughout the years. This board is a really effective use of Pinterest for a news organization, as Pinterest is inherently visual. It is really interesting to see all of the old photographs from before I began reading the Post. Each photo also has a caption describing the photo and when the photo was taken. Clicking on the photo redirects a user to a gallery on the Post's website that contains related photos to the one that was on Pinterest.
I forgot the link to the Post's From the archives board: http://www.pinterest.com/washingtonpost/from-the-archives/
The official page for Major League Baseball had just posted several photos of the Montreal Expos. Expos is a franchise that was terminate in the end of 2004 season (and later moved down to D.C. as Washington Nationals). Looking at old pictures of the Expos like this (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/523543525403263443/) serves as a good retrospective look at the past for the baseball fans. Their pinterest page also often posts an infographic like this (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/523543525403263443/) to provide interesting trivia for the watchers and fans.
USA TODAY's social media team jumped on Pinterest for the sake of being ahead of the curve. With so many social media platforms, the news organization has made a habit of creating many accounts just in case one happens to be explosive.
Their Pinterest board "Daily Snapshots" is a perfect fit for Pinterest's "graphic design" category. It features over 100 infographics featured on the site. In addition to their visual appeal, these pins allow users to access USA TODAY's graphics easily. Many of the daily snapshots are either nested in the newspaper or a secondary element to online stories.
Unfortunately, the pins don't have engaging captions, but I think the snapshots stand alone well, giving users the information they need and giving designers like myself, an inspiration for graphics. USA TODAY was and arguably still is the Internet before the Internet.
I thought that The Daily Beast's usage of pinterest was very eye catching. One of the pins that stood out to me was of James Franco and Seth Rogen in the now infamous viral remake of Kanye West's "Bound 2" music video. It's an image that many people will now easily recognize due to the nature of the video parody being shared millions of times in less than a day. If you still haven't seen their parody, I'd definitely recommend it. You will feel uncomfortable, but you won't be able to look away. NSFW.
USA Today uses Pinterest well. Their account separates boards just as the newspaper would organize different sections. They have "In the News," "Recipes," "Travel," and "Tech" boards, just to name a few. They use one main, attention-grabbing picture and do a good job of keeping their captions brief. Users can simply click on the different pins, which link to the stories on USAToday.com, and read the story in full on the website if it interests them. Here is an example of a good pin that leads the reader to the website: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/275423333434215585/ . The organization of the entire USA Today Pinterest keeps the individual boards less cluttered and makes it easy to only see stories in the general interest area that you are looking for, kind of like in a newspaper.
The Washington Post's From The Archives board is a great way to use Pinterest to bring users to their website. It uses some of the Post's most iconic photos to link to important stories from the past. This takes advantage of Pinterest's visual medium, especially because these are timeless stories that can be enjoyed for years to come.
Rachel Walther
I liked the Chicago Tribune's use of Pinterest for infographics. They did a good job of taking what could be a lengthy article and condensing it into a clear graphic that works for the Web and for Pinterest.
They created a outline the vote on legalizing gay marriage within the House and Senate complete with a breakdown of individualized Republican and Democrat voters and the overall numbers.
I read Deadspin.com and follow them on Twitter daily, so naturally I looked them up on Pinterest. Most of their pins/boards are links to some of their articles but some are info graphics or charts like this one of the parity that exists in the NFL. It shows how each team has either won or lost to another team in the league, and thus is connected in a full circle to the rest of the NFL. This graphic is clear to view on Pinterest and, I think, works perfectly in this forum since there is no other text story or anything else to go along with it.
Deadspin usually has off-the-beat sports and miscellaneous material, while also breaking some stories like the Manti Teo hoax. I follow them near religiously to get sports news that other sites don't tend to pay attention to. This graphic, originally created by Deadpsin, has since been reused and referred to by other credible sports news sites.
I found a pin on the Washington Post's Pinterest page that talked about the top book designs for the holidays. Its basically a pin about the best book covers of books recently released.
I liked this because it was a very visual story that does not need a full story that would be necessary if it was on the Post's website. many of Pinterest's users are much more interested in visual and creative things than more stories that are fact-based, which is what this post caters to.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/44262008811575075/
I read Deadspin.com and follow them on Twitter daily, so naturally I looked them up on Pinterest. Most of their pins/boards are links to some of their articles but some are info graphics or charts like this one of the parity that exists in the NFL. It shows how each team has either won or lost to another team in the league, and thus is connected in a full circle to the rest of the NFL. This graphic is clear to view on Pinterest and, I think, works perfectly in this forum since there is no other text story or anything else to go along with it.
Deadspin usually has off-the-beat sports and miscellaneous material, while also breaking some stories like the Manti Teo hoax. I follow them near religiously to get sports news that other sites don't tend to pay attention to. This graphic, originally created by Deadpsin, has since been reused and referred to by other credible sports news sites.
I think the Washington Post effectively organizes their boards based on their different content. They use visuals, headlines and subheaders just like they do on their website, but they emphasize visuals more to make it work for pinning. I like their board called To Your Health that they use to pin health related articles to. This would be helpful for pinning health articles that are from WashPo's health reporters/experts rather than random Pinterest users. When news organizations use Pinterest, it helps the tool become more reliable and credible. I also really enjoyed their From the Archives board that displays a vintage collection of their most prized photographs. Because Pinterest is highly visual, this is the perfect way to make a news organization's Pinterest interesting and applicable to Pinterest users.
I think the Washington Post pinterest board is particularly useful and entertaining because it is very well organized. Each category title is short and to the point allowing audience members to easily select what type of story, recipe or other written work they want to read about. Also, the post takes advantage of Pinterest's unique feature which allows you to accompany stories with photographs. The photographs used specifically by the Post are great and give insight to the work accompanying it. The Washington Post definitely takes advantage of that ability to use visual mediums.
In the board titled From the archives, the board features a collection of prized photographs used throughout the publication over time. Each photo is clear and intriguing and includes a brief description about the image.
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