My senior cap-stone class had the privilege of working with WKYU PBS-NPR. Our agenda was to develop a marketing campaign that will boost awareness of what public media is, how they get their funding, increase membership and increase underwriting. This overhaul is necessary due to their dramatic decrease in federal funding and recent lay-offs.

WKYU PBS-NPR finds themselves in a time of rapid change where digital media is becoming equally as important as the traditional media the operation has used for years. WKYU PBS-NPR is challenged to meet this change. Through primary and secondary research, the WKU Ad Campaign Team has developed a number of strategies and tactics that meet the objectives and goals set to increase support and funding for WKYU PBS-NPR. The following sections will explain in greater detail what was discovered from the research and how it led to the development of this plan.

In the midst of the shopping season, there is a new social media site that can help creative juices flow to think of that perfect gift for the people in your life. Pinterest. Pinterest has developed an entire category to holiday’s and events. Under this tab pinners alike can find Christmas cookie recipes, Halloween costumes, and about a zillion different ways to create the perfect wreath. 

Pinterest was developed as an idea engine. Its where people can come and pin things of their specific interest and share with other pinners. It defiantly a great place to spark the good ‘ol imagination. So jump on the imagination train and use Pinterest for your Holiday shopping ideas. Impress your family this year with homemade gifts.

Not only are businesses marketing to women using the site but the site has also changed the way event planners and the wedding industry go about their business. Chelsea Vanveleet of Bluebird productions shares how Pinterest has changed the way they do business, “Clients and brides looking to plan an event or wedding used to come to us with binders full of pictures they had pulled out of magazines or printed off online. Now we hardly have a client come to us with a binder–because they can pin all their ideas to a board for their event on Pinterest.”

Although Pinterest is a great way to market products and services, businesses  must understand that their content still has to engage their consumers just like any other medium. It is still very important to know the consumer deeply and listen to their needs. One way businesses have tapped into engaging content on Pinterest is to have contests. Lisa Ferin a mogul in the PR scene who oversees An Affair of the Heart which is a craft show company shares a Pinterest contest idea, “To help encourage people to follow us, we actually created a contest where people can win free tickets to the show by posting items they’d purchased at previous Affair of the Heart shows onto a community board we created called “I got this at Affair of the Heart.” The pin with the most likes and repins would be the winner. We captured more than 100 new followers from this competition.”

Engaging content is the key to market and promote products or services on Pinterest.

After a game winning base steal by Angel Pagan Giant’s outfielder, Taco Bell gave away free Doritos loco taco to everyone. Yes, EVERYONE! There was so much media coverage about the free tacos that people were lining up out the doors. Angel him self caught wind of Taco Bell’s good deed and decided to work a drive-thru at a local taco bell where he would autograph the tacos. There’s no telling how much those will be auctioned off for on eBay!

This was a ingenious idea by two organizations. Not only do brand fans of Taco Bell get rewarded with free food of their favorite tex-mex restaurant chain, but it also brings attention to new fans of Major League Baseball.

Use creative captions to attract pinners to the pin. Pinterest developed a search feature that takes keywords from captions underneath photos and categorizes them. By using key words that are broad will attract pinners to your content because that a lot of people will be typing in broad search terms. It is also important to use key words that will link straight to your business. For example, if you own a monogramming business, include broad key words such as, home décor, wedding gifts, baby shower gifts, monograms, and gifts. Since many people come to Pinterest to get ideas, someone who is looking for a unique idea for a wedding gift may stumble upon your business and increase traffic to your businesses website. Also, and important thing to remember when creating captions is to use a call to action. An example of a call to action statement would be: click this pin to visit the best site for monogramming, and give the pinner a compelling reason to click the image.. Another great example for a call to action statement I found for a makeup company, “Pin now, read later — A list of drugstore make-ups that are duplicates of department store brands.. pretty much the greatest pin on the planet” (makeuploversunite.tumblr.com). Statements such pin now, read later is a call to action and a stating that the pin is the greatest pin on the planet adds excitement to the caption.

Not only do creative captions build traffic to your site, but incorporating a “pin it” button on your website will further engage your current fans. Using a pin it button allows business accounts to embed a pin it button on your website for any image on Pinterest. A very important part of gaining traffic from your website to your Pinterest account is letting consumers pin anything from your site. Even if the photo is not on Pinterest, this allows consumers to capitalize on your business instead of only accessing your images on Pinterest alone. Putting a pin it button next to everything on your site, whether it’s a photo of a product the company is merchandising or the button is at the end of a blog post, the pin it button allows the customer to feel special. When a consumer is in the mind set that they discovered the photograph and they can show their followers the great pin they found, it creates a feeling of pride.

Taco Bell wants fans to tune in and watch the San Fransisco Giants face off against the Detroit Tigers in tonight’s World Series Championship game. I know what you’re thinking, what do tacos have to do with baseball? Not much actually, but for every stolen base during the World Series Taco Bell is giving away a free Doritos Locos Tacos. 97Rock.com said, “Once the base is actually stolen, an update will show up online from Major League Baseball and on Taco Bell’s Facebook and Twitter pages with details on how to get your free taco!” Just look for the hashtag #StealATaco.

Since the launch of the Doritos shelled tacos, Taco Bell has sold over 250 million of the tasty combination. Taco Bell is famous for an ever changing menu, introducing new recipes while keeping traditional favorites. As a advertiser, I think Taco Bell does extremely well when it comes to innovating new stuff for their fans. It always keeps brand fans guessing, what’s next?

The picture sharing social media website has undoubtedly seen growth since its creation with an esitimated user count at 25.3 million. Just recently Pinterest installed a couple of changes to its website that I believe put them on the map of powerful social media sites. In August, Pinterest made the decision to open the site to anyone. Yes, anyone. That means no more waiting around for an invitation. This is a huge step for Pinterest because this allows users to get access faster, therefore this may be the single reason why Pinterest made the top 50 list. Not only is access easier, Pinterest has stepped it up in their privacy department. Now pinners can pin at their own discretion with the ability to block and report other users. To learn more about the new privacy tools, see post Pinterest Joining the Blocking Bandwagon.

With its new growth of pinners, it will be extremely pinteresting to watch Pinterest’s pinners pin away.

Now Pinterest is joining the blocking bandwagon. Pinners now have the ability to block and report other users. To block someone, pinners must go on the naughty pinners profile page and click the little flag to the right of the picture. Once clicked, pinners have the option to report for nudity and pornography, personal attacks, graphic violence, hate speech, inflicting self harm, spam and other.

So what does this mean for businesses? It means that they have to be more selective with the content that they pin. Before, business could pin as their hearts desired and their followers would see their content. Now, their followers may not even be viewing those pins. It is more crucial now for promoters to understand their followers and listen to them and accommodate to what they want to see.

I hope you found this as Pinteresting as I did!