Pinterest For Lawyers

Pinterest seems to be the latest social media craze.  That leads to question #1:  What is it?  According to Wikipedia

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, 're-pin' images to their own collections and/or 'like' photos. Pinterest's mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting" via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. Pinterest allows its users to share 'pins' on both Twitter and Facebook, which allows users to share and interact with a broad community. Founded by Ben Silbermann, of West Des Moines, Iowa, the site is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and inventors. It is one of the “fastest growing social services in the world. . . .

Pinterest users can upload, save, sort and manage images, known as pins, and other media content (ie. videos) through collections known as pinboards. Pinboards are generally themed so that pins can easily be organized, categorized and discovered by other users. Pinterest acts as a personalized media platform, whereby your own content as well as anyone else's uploaded pins can be browsed on the main page. Users can then save their favourite pins to one of their own boards using the “Pin It” button. Content can also be found outside of Pinterest and similarly uploaded to a board via the “Pin It” button which can be downloaded to the bookmark bar on a web browser.

Okay, fine.  Question #2.  What can it do for lawyers?  Matthew Hickey at the Sociable Lawyer Blog offers this:

Because Pinterest is almost entirely visual, it isn’t an intuitive fit for legal marketing. Still, if you are creative, there are ways to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website or to generally promote your practice. As with any other form of social media, the best place to start is by engaging with the social network on its own terms. Create a few boards for pinning images that interest you. For example, if you are a foodie, start pinning recipes that interest you. If you enjoy music, pin images of your favorite bands or albums. Maybe you are looking for inspiration to remodel your home or are in the market for a new dining room table: pin images that look like products you’d want for your home. The odds of being followed by others are much higher if you are an active and contributing member of the network.

While you’re enjoying all that Pinterest has to offer, you might as well create a board for legal topics. If you already have a law blog (which you should) be sure to start thinking creatively about the images you use for your posts. When you create a new post, pin the images in the post to your law board on Pinterest. It’ll only take you a few seconds. And while you are at it, take a few seconds to think about the description for your image, being sure to include as many relevant keywords as you can in the description (but also try to make the description sound natural since people may be reluctant to repin your image otherwise). If you have an interesting portrait or images on your office website, you can pin those images too with descriptions like “Attorney blogger and entertainment lawyer specializing in drafting music industry contracts and startup formations.” You may find it worthwhile to create images that contain messages directly within the image. Ultimately, the value of your image on Pinterest will come down to how exciting the image itself is. In other words, I wouldn’t waste my time with that boring stock image of scales or a gavel if I were you.

Still a bit unclear?  I understand.  I am not on pinterest myself, but I do hear the chatter.  Question #3.  What next? If you want to investigate further Jason Miles over at the Social Media Examiner blog has written 5 Ways To Tell if Pinterest is Right For Your Business.  Hi instructions might allow you to translate your law practice into pictures pinned to the pinterest corkboard. 

At this point in time, it's not working for me.  Doesn't mean I won't keep my eye on it.  Right now though, I am not seeing the marketing value for my law practice.



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