"It's a really big initiative for us within the digital
department at Hearst," said Keith Pollock, editorial director of
Elle.com.
Pinterest, the social site that lets users post images from the
web to their personal "pinboards," has been around since 2010. But
brands and publishers' notice of it has been increasing, partly
because every image "pinned" links back to its source, offering new
traffic to anyone who can capitalize. And the potential was made
especially clear when Time Inc.'s Real Simple recently said
Pinterest had sent more traffic than Facebook to its site. Real
Simple, which has about 206,000 likes on Facebook, already has
almost 60,000
followers on Pinterest.
Pinterest is now being hailed as one of the fastest-growing
platforms, reaching 10 million monthly visitors more quickly than
Facebook or Twitter did. It ranks among the top 30 U.S. sites by
total page views.
"Elle joined
Pinterest a little over two weeks ago, so we're really in the
infancy stages here and seeing what works and what doesn't," Mr.
Pollock said. "What works for Facebook isn't necessarily working
for Tumblr, and what works for Tumblr isn't necessarily working for
Pinterest. ... With each one of these platforms, it's just a
completely different behavior and different need, and we try to
approach each one with different objectives."
So far, however, the results look promising. "We are seeing
traffic increases and high engagement, and it's great branding for
us to get our content out there," said Mr. Pollock.
A coming redesign at Elle.com will make room for the Pinterest
button. The magazine also has culled a group of what they are
calling "pinterns" to contribute ideas about sorts of boards to
create.
Hearst's sense of urgency about Pinterest is shared elsewhere in
publishing, and with good reason. "It's predominantly female, 25 to
44, an educated user -- so it's definitely someone that we want to
speak to and engage," Mr. Pollack said. The same could be said for
many magazines. And when RJ Metrics recently studied nearly 1
million pins on Pinterest, it found that the most popular
categories were Home (17.2%), Arts and Crafts (12.4%),
Style/Fashion (11.7%) and Food (10.5%) -- neatly within many
magazines' core editorial missions.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia titles (which include Martha
Stewart Living, Whole Living and Martha Stewart Weddings) all have
a presence on Pinterest. The site is a top traffic source for the
company's magazines, often surpassing both Facebook and
Twitter.
Conde Nast's Lucky has been on Pinterest about nine weeks
now, and has already amassed more than 11,000 followers. "For us,
shoes and nails seem to be things that get us the most engagement,"
said John Jannuzzi, contributing digital editor. "People go crazy
for it."
"Refers from Pinterest just in the past month have tripled,
which for us is awesome," Mr. Jannuzzi added.
The magazine would next like to experiment with games and "pin
it to win it"-type contests, not unlike one Meredith Corp.'s Better
Homes and Gardens recently ran for its 35,000 followers.
Cosmopolitan Latina hasn't even launched in print yet, but it's
already on Pinterest.
"We debuted the Pinterest page in early March as a way to begin
a compelling, visual conversation with our readers and develop a
strong relationship with them before the magazine launches in May,"
said Editor-in-Chief Michelle Herrera Mulligan.
Marie Claire, which introduced a Pinterest page to coincide with
Fashion Week in February, is trying to find ways to capitalize on
the personal Pinterest page of its style maven, Nina Garcia. Ms.
Garcia, who signed up in January 2011, is now one of the
most-followed people on the site, with more than 333,000 tracking
her pins.
"It's nice to have the complement of Nina and have her represent
a portion of the brand too," said Abby Gardner, site director for
Marie Claire. "We expect to see a big increase in traffic referrals
the more boards we create, the more we pin and the longer we stay
on Pinterest."