It’s been about six months since Pinterest began to take off as the next big social platform to attract the attention of TV networks. Experimenting has turned into strategizing when it comes to the photo-focused content platform. The Food Network has provided Lost Remote exclusively with compelling data to showcase how their Pinterest strategy is driving engagement.
Building a successful social TV strategy on Pinterest:
Food seems to be doing very well on Pinterest. The Food Network’s Pinterest account has 24,633 followers, 69 boards and 957 pins. The different boards range from seasonal recipes and home gifts to boards about shows and events, like Next Food Network Star and Super Bowl foods. They’ve named most of the boards with the word “let’s,” for example: “Lets Watch,” “Let’s Share,” “Let’s Get Healthy” and “Let’s Celebrate: Spring!”
The Food Network’s Let’s Watch board is defining a real-time social TV strategy for using Pinterest. The board promotes new shows and recipes, and the network’s seeing that the talent-centric pins tend to get a lot of engagement. And the recipe-centric pins attract a lot of repins because users typically have a “recipe” board that they want to fill with content. The network also started show-specific boards, like this one for Food Network Star, also under the “Let’s Go,” theme.
Driving engagement by promoting Pinterest on their other social channels:
The Food Network is tying Pinterest to other social platforms, for example, one Facebook call-out drove 3K+ new Pinterest followers.
They received approximately 1,000 pin and board recommendations from Twitter users using #FNPins. Also, for Food Network Star they’ll be launching a call-to-action encouraging users to create their own boards using content from the show and mentors.
Using Pinterest to drive traffic to FoodNetwork.com and Food.com:
Pinterest continues to be a top social referrer for FoodNetwork.com site traffic. In May, for example, Pinterest drove more than 305,000 visits and more than 640,000 page views to FoodNetwork.com.
They’re even using Pinterest just for their website property. Food.com’s Pinterest account has 3,677 followers, 39 boards and 1,182 pins. The boards include recipes and helpful solutions to everyday food problems. Easy Garlic Chicken (pinned 675,000 times!) and Tub and Shower Magic – (pinned more than 443,000 times) are two of their most popular pins.
According to the network, Food.com’s Pinterest board drives site traffic to a huge extent and rivals Bing and Yahoo! as a top referrer each month. In May, Pinterest drove more than 445,000 visits and 555,542 page views to Food.com. The network told Lost Remote that amazingly, two chicken recipes on Pinterest alone have driven more than 700,000 page views to Food.com.
Social TV analytics for Pinterest:
We spoke to Curalate, a Philadelphia-based analytics tool for Pinterest that works with Bergdorfs, Benjamin Moore and more about tracking activity on the platform. “Curalate enables brands to measure, monitor, and grow their Pinterest presence,” CEO and cofounder Apu Gupta told Lost Remote. “We combine image recognition algorithms with big data technologies to provide hundreds of notable brands the most comprehensive understanding of brand engagement available on Pinterest.”
The company has tracked Pinterest analytics for TV companies (they can’t yet disclose who) and explained to us why Pinterest is important for TV brands. “Today, we are seeing an increasing interest in marketing TV shows on Pinterest and engaging with fans of popular shows,” Gupta explained. “Pinterest provides studios a way to extend the episode, studios have enormous amounts of visual assets at their disposal [and] whether it’s providing episode highlights, behind the scenes views, or talent photos, Pinterest provides ample opportunities to give hungry fans visuals they’ll happily consume,” he added.
He further explained the relationship between Pinterest and a brand’s website. “Studio execs can use this engagement to spot trends that they may never have realized, and choose content to highlight to drive higher levels of engagement,” he explained to Lost Remote. “Furthermore, we think there are significant opportunities for furthering the monetization of product tie-ins,” he added