The Killer Cause Combo: Facebook + Pinterest

Photo by Jill

Facebook is the 400-pound social network that every nonprofit needs to tame. Pinterest is the new exotic social network that’s growing gangbusters with cause-loving women and deserves nonprofit love. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose. The key is to bring the two together.

That’s what home improvement chain Lowe’s is doing with Facebook and Pinterest. Working with social marketing firm Vitrue, Lowe’s has added a custom tab to its Facebook page that lets fans view boards, follow, like and repin all within Facebook.

The results are impressive. Lowe’s has seen a dramatic increase in Pinterest followers through Facebook (some boards are up 60%).

Your cause probably doesn’t have a million followers like Lowe’s has. Nor are you a retailer that sells the kinds of home products that most Pinterest users are pinning, following, and repinning. But here are a few things you do have.

  • — A story that can be powerfully told in images, which is the coin of the realm on Pinterest.
  • — An interest in and a connection with Pinterest’s fast growing (12 million) and largely female (60%) users.
  • — A desire to reap the search engine optimization (SEO) benefits of lots of great links coming back to your site that drive page views, engagement and, ultimately, donations. Don’t laugh: last month, Pinterest drove more traffic to sites than Twitter or Google. I’ve even seen the benefit of Pinterest on my cause marketing blog, Selfishgiving.com.

I know I’ve gotten you all excited about this new custom Facebook tab for your nonprofit. But here’s the bad news. The maker of this Pinterest tab, Vitrue, isn’t giving it away.

The module–the 50-cent word they use to describe it–is included in the Vitrue Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform. I’m not sure what that is, but in Boston terminology I would say it’s a wicked fortune (i.e. you would probably need some of the Whitey Bulger reward money to buy it. Nevertheless, well worth it, I’m sure).

Fortunately, I found two good options to add a similar Pinterest tab to your nonprofit Facebook page that won’t break the bank.

Option 1:

I found these two videos from Tracie Knoppe at Genesis Blogging that take you step by step through either adding a niche specific tab to a Facebook page or adding a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page. I like Tracie’s videos but I probably wouldn’t do this myself anyway. I’d call my guy. That brings me to my second option.

Option 2:

Mightycause is blessed to have John Haydon, The Nonprofit Facebook Guy and author of the newly released Facebook Marketing for Dummies, as a regular blogger. If there is a better or easier way to add a Pinterest tab, or if you need help doing it, I’m sure John could assist. Tell him I sent you so you can get the Joe Waters discount.

I plan to alert John to this post and encourage him to either comment on it or to use his next post on Mightycause to show you how you can easily and cheaply create your own Pinterest tab for Facebook!