Read the article here: http://hellosociety.com/blog/case-study-target-creating-a-bullseye-pinterest-strategy/ 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 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. PROS CONS 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. Read the article here: http://hellosociety.com/blog/case-study-target-creating-a-bullseye-pinterest-strategy/ Have questions about how you can optimize your content for Pinterest, increase your following, or improve your Pinterest account? Check out hellosociety.com and contact us at info@hellosociety.com!

1. Case Study: Target – Creating a Bullseye
Pinterest Strategy
THE PREMIERE FULL-SERVICE PINTEREST
MARKETING SOLUTION

3. 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.
With 49 boards, 6,000+ pins, Target’s Pinterest is welltailored to its main audience, it’s customers, and takes a
creative approach in engagement while tying together the instore Target experience.
Target has earned over 146K Pinterest followers, but with
over 2 million Facebook followers… Target’s pinning strategy
still has a lot of room for improvement.

4. What Target is doing right
Target’s Best.Party.Ever campaign with David Stark was a great
way for followers and consumers to interact with the brand one-onone 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.”

6. The first step was for
pinners to follow Target’s
Best.Party.Ever board and
to create their own
Best.Party.Ever board!
Next, pinners would repin
Target’s question pins
answering about their
upcoming party in the
descriptions….
Target would then be
invited to the board & pin
inspirations fitting their
party guidelines to help
them
plan their “Best.Party.Ever.”
This was a great campaign
with a unique and fun
concept!

7. 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.

8. The only downfall is that the image sizes on the board
aren’t optimized for Pinterest…

9. Below I created an example board of how Target could have
used Pinterest-optimized images to make a bigger impact.

10. 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.
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.

11. Target’s Facebook doesn’t mention or promote its Pinterest at
all.

12. 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.
- 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!
- Target has highlighted the holiday seasons well.
- Following Nordstrom’s success, Target has now introduced in-store tags on their
top-pinned items.

13. A Target in-store top pinned on Pinterest tag!

14. CONS
- Target pins its own content too often. 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
- 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
- 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).

15. 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.

16. Want to learn more about our network of Pinterest
tastemakers?
Check out: hellosociety.com

17. HelloSociety is a full-service Pinterest marketing
and technology firm that helps brands optimize
their efforts through strategic partnerships with
influential pinners, robust Pinterest analytics,
creative consulting and more.
HelloSociety evolved from its roots in
HelloInsights, a comprehensive analytics platform
that launched in April 2012. For additional
information, please visit www.hellosociety.com/

18. HelloSociety is a full-service Pinterest marketing
and technology firm that helps brands optimize
their efforts through strategic partnerships with
influential pinners, robust Pinterest analytics,
creative consulting and more.
HelloSociety evolved from its roots in
HelloInsights, a comprehensive analytics platform
that launched in April 2012. For additional
information, please visit www.hellosociety.com/