Pinterest Etiquette

As with any site that is built around content curation, ‘pinners’ (Pinterest users) must be
especially cognizant of citing the sources of their individual pins. And while Pinterest makes no
direct statement that marketers cannot use the social network for promotional purposes, the
site does discourage blatant self-promotion:

Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

- Avoid Self Promotion

Coupled with Pinterest’s lifestyle vision, this should encourage marketers to find creative ways to
promote their brand on the network and truly jive with its vision and user base. In other words,
businesses should use the social network to showcase the lifestyle their brand promotes. If
you’re a shoe vendor, a pinboard of the shoes you sell won’t cut it. A pinboard of a few of your
shoes interspersed with images of places those shoes could take you, however, is the direction
you should be thinking. AARP ’s Pinterest account features a pinboard called “Quotes to Live By,”
which is a great example of a business using Pinterest to promote the lifestyle of its brand.