How Place Pins Work
Businesses now have two ways to associate their pins with a geographic location. In addition to rich pins, Pinterest introduced Pinterest place pins in November 2013.
Place pins use Foursquare‘s location API combined with Mapbox’s map technology. Plus, if a location you want to pin doesn’t show up, you can simply add it.
Brands can create a board to focus on places in a single city or country, or a board that focuses on similar places across the globe.
This board from Outside Magazine shares places across the United States.
This tool is a dream come true for companies in the travel industry. Just check out Hotels.com‘s Hit the Slopes board of best places to ski, New York City: The Official Guide’s Free (and Almost Free) in NYC board and all of the #VXTraveler City Guides on Virgin America’s Pinterest page. Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts has a variety of place boards, showcasing everything from concierge suggestions to honeymoon destinations.
However, just about any company can think outside the box and come up with a creative way to use Pinterest place pins.
Outside Magazine created a board to share places across the United States that offer lots of outside recreation opportunities to their residents.
Use place pins not only for your locations, but to share other places that would be of interest to your followers.
How to Create a Pinterest Places Board
To get started, select Place Boards in the menu from the upper left-hand corner of your Pinterest profile.
The Place Boards option has been added to the main Pinterest menu.
From there, click on Create Board. As you fill in the fields, make sure you select the Add a Map option.
Be sure the Add a Map option has Yes next to it.
On the next page, start adding pins by clicking on Add a Place.
Place pin boards display with a map behind them.
This is where you assign a city location to your pin. Once you choose a city, your searches will return results for venues in that location. For example, Bonefish Grill has several locations across the nation, but only the Boise location showed up in my search.
Manage the location of your place pin by changing the city.
As you add place pins, you can change the city location at any time, which makes it easy to share multiple locations for the same vendor on one map.
Now that you know how to create a board for your place pins, let’s see how you can use them in everyday promotion efforts.
#1: Map Your Brick-and-Mortar Locations
How great would it be if people who found you on Pinterest knew exactly where your nearest location is?
Whether you have one location or a dozen, Pinterest place pins let you provide your customers with a visual guide to where they can find you.
Starbucks Coffee did a nice twist on this concept. They created a Store Design board and pinned the locations of their uniquely designed stores.
Starbucks’ Store Design board has pins for uniquely designed stores throughout the world.
Create a Locations board to highlight your locations in one country or around the world. Whether you want to add a unique slant, as Starbucks did, is up to you.
#2: Pin Your Clients
Part of positioning your brand or business is pointing toward the clients you choose to work with.
When you display your current clients on a map with Pinterest place pins, it’s easy to see how far your geographic influence reaches. You can also provide a link back to their sites so potential clients can see the companies you work with and what they do.
Create a Client board to showcase both the quantity and quality of your current clients to anyone who’s thinking of working with you in the future.
#3: Pin Ideas for Your Clients/Customers
Another option is to create a board with tips for your clients based on where they’re located.
Simple Skincare created a places board called Winter Skincare Around the U.S. The board has skincare tips for different climates, and illustrates the best ways for the people in those regions to use their products.
Simple Skincare has a places board with skincare tips for customers who live in different parts of the United States.
If you can add tips for customers based on the place they live, that can raise your expertise level and the value of your brand.
#4: Introduce the Team
Every business is made up of employees who come together and work as a team. They provide the product or service that makes your business successful.
Pinterest place pins can help your customers to get to know your team as people.
Using place pins, map the hometowns of all of your employees, alongside their favorite restaurants or shops. Better yet, create a group board with all employees and let them pin their favorite places and spaces on their own. These insights give customers a glimpse of your team members’ personalities.
People like buying from people they trust. A board featuring employees helps customers get to know your team and build that relationship.
#5: Share Your Inspiration and Process
Every brand or business is inspired by something. Learning about that inspiration helps people identify with you.
Tundra Restaurant Supply in Boulder, Colorado created a places board to showcase their favorite places in their state, so the restaurants they work with could get to know them better.
Tundra Restaurant Supply created a places board so they could share how much they love their state with their customers.
Customers love transparency, and using Pinterest place pins to show them all of the ins and outs of your business makes them more likely to trust you.
Use Pinterest place pins to share the locations around the world that inspire your products or services. If you own a cafe, show customers where you get your coffee beans. If you run a Chinese restaurant, tell them where your dishes originate. If other businesses work with you to create your final product, pin them too.
You can also share your whole process from start to finish. This will encourage loyalty from current customers and attract new customers.
#6: Demonstrate Your Customer Reach With a Competition
No matter where you’re based, chances are that your products and services are used across the country or even around the world. Let your customers tell that story!
Encourage your customers to pin pictures of your products or services from wherever they are and offer a prize to the pinner who lives farthest from your location.
A competition gives your customers a reason to share the product they bought from you. Not only will people see how popular your products are, each new pin increases your visibility.
