Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Now that more brands are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, all companies on Pinterest need to make the extra effort to stand out and stay top of mind with consumers. Target’s Pinterest account is a good example of a major brand thinking outside the box. On Pinterest, Target shares a variety of products, home decor ideas, recipes, holiday inspiration, and more on unique Pinterest boards and through collaborations with designers and bloggers. With 49 boards and over 6,000 pins, Target’s Pinterest is well-tailored to its main audience, it’s customers, and takes a creative approach in engagement while tying together the in-store Target experience. Target’s ability to incorporate its products within unique and interesting Pinterest board topics has earned them over 146K Pinterest followers, but with over 2 million Facebook followers, Target’s Pinterest strategy still has a lot of room for improvement. What Target is doing right Target’s creative campaigns on Pinterest really stand out against the competition. Target’s Best.Party.Ever campaign with David Stark was a great way for followers and consumers to interact with the brand one-on-one in a fun and unique way. David Stark, a designer and event planner, was asked to collaborate with Target to help pinners plan their next “best party ever.” Source: Pinterest The first step was for pinners to follow Target’s Best.Party.Ever board, then they were asked to create their own Best.Party.Ever board. They would then repin Target’s question pins answering about their upcoming party in the description. They also has the option to pin an instructions pin, a rules pin, quick tips, a thank you pin, and more. Target would then follow them, be invited to the board, and pin inspirations fitting their party guidelines to help them plan their “Best.Party.Ever.” Even David Stark himself pinned onto a few boards! This was a great campaign with a unique and fun concept. See these guideline pins and more on this example Best.Party.Ever board from pinner Julia. Target’s latest Pinterest campaign is a collaboration with three top pinners/bloggers, Oh Joy!, Poppytalk, and Wit & Delight, who will all collaborate on Target’s group board and who will release their own collections of designed party supplies in Target stores this year. Only downfall, the image sizes on the board aren’t optimized for Pinterest. Below I created an example board of how Target could have used Pinterest-optimized images to make a bigger impact. Image sizes aside, this campaign does a great job at integrating the in-store experience and the Pinterest experience in a unique and fun way. Learn more about this new Pinterest campaign here on Target’s blog. What Target could improve on With an estimated one third of women in the U.S. using Pinterest, it’s very likely that millions of people would follow Target if they only knew they had one! Although Target’s Pinterest has a solid following with 146K followers, their Facebook page has well over 22 million Facebook followers and over 1 million Twitter followers. In the last 3 months, Target hasn’t once mentioned their Pinterest account or any of their pins. These are huge networks of brand-loyal customers who’d most likely want to follow them on Pinterest, but Target hasn’t yet suggested they do. If a company asks its other social media networks to follow them on Pinterest and makes it easy by providing the link, people will follow. It’s that simple. Target’s Facebook doesn’t mention or promote its Pinterest at all. It’s great that Target has a blog but the main problem is, Target’s blog content isn’t optimized for Pinterest. The images are very wide making them appear very small on Pinterest boards and feeds. These sizes of images aren’t ideal for pinning because they’re hard to see and don’t create nearly as many conversions as optimized images do. The optimal dimensions for pins on Pinterest is 730 x 1200 pixels. PROS – Target has had creative collaborations on Pinterest. (Best.Party.Ever & Target’s new Party with Pinners) – Nice variety of board topics (Food & Drink, Healthy Living, and Getaways) – Target’s boards have descriptions, which helps increase Pinterest SEO. – Target has a good number of boards (49, although 30-40 boards total is ideal). – Products mixed in well with interesting, appealing content (ie: Valentine’s Day ‘Love Is All You Need’ board). – Target’s Blog provides more content for pinning (Exception: poor image dimensions for Pinterest). – Target has 12 group boards featuring bloggers, stylists, designers, and more! (ie: Brit + Co & Target Wedding) – Target has highlighted the holiday seasons well. (ie: Santa’s Sweets & Treats) – Following Nordstrom’s success, Target has now introduced in-store tags on their top-pinned items. A Target in-store top pinned on Pinterest tag! via Instagram CONS – Target pins its own content too often. (ie: Home Decor board) Repinning is important too! – Tip: it’s ideal for a brand to pin it’s own content 20-25% of the time. – Only some of Target’s products have Rich Pins, aka: bold descriptions & product info (ie: Pins You Love) – Neither Target’s Facebook nor Twitter mentions their Pinterest. – Target does not have a Pinterest Facebook App for easy increase in follows. – Target’s board cover colors don’t mesh well together. – Tip: Change covers weekly to mix it up and keep pinners engaged! – Target content isn’t optimized, dimensions are poor (ie: Party with Pinners board) – Target rarely pins (every week or so and all at once). – Tip: 15-25 pins throughout every day is perfect. – Target doesn’t interact with their followers through comments. – Target doesn’t use custom hashtags (ie: each pin on it’s #SummerUp board should have #SummerUp in description). Overall, Target has had a great start into the world of Pinterest, but with more cross promotion, more consistent pinning and better image sizes, their Pinterest following could reach the millions in no time. We’ll be keeping an eye on Target’s Pinterest for more great Pinterest campaign concepts in the future. Target’s Pinterest account Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on HelloSociety and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Kane Pepi Kane Pepi is an experienced financial and cryptocurrency writer with over 2,000+ published articles, guides, and market insights in the public domain. Expert niche subjects include asset valuation and analysis, portfolio management, and the prevention of financial crime. Kane is particularly skilled in explaining complex financial topics in a user-friendly … View full profile ›More by this author:VoIP Basics: Everything Beginners Should Know!Bitcoin Investment, Trading & Mining: The Ultimate Guide for BeginnersIs This a Better Way to Set Your 2020 Goals and Resolutions?