Category Archives: Pinterest

Mar25

State DMOs on Pinterest: March update

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs are doing a great job on Pinterest but are the US state DMOs keeping up?

Kind of.

Out of the 46 state DMOs on Pinterest, 12 accounts were inactive last month and didn’t pin one single image from February 6 – March 4, 2013. And then an additional 7 DMOs that pinned 5 images or less during that same period. There were only 7 inactive accounts the previous month. Is this trend growing? Are DMOs losing interest in Pinterest?

Not all of them! Here are the most active state DMOs on Pinterest:

Georgia – pinned 248 images (from February 6 – March 4)
Texas – 144 pins
Tennessee – 132 pins
Ohio – 49 pins
Missouri – 48 pins
Nebraska – 42 pins
South Dakota – 41 pins
Arizona – 41 pins
Maryland – 38 pins
Utah – 33 pins

State DMOs typically have gained a decent amount of followers in a short period of time once they start promoting their account across their other social channels. The average state gains approx 50-150 followers each month. You’ll notice below that being an active pinner doesn’t always result in a strong growth in followers. For example, Hawaii gained 202 followers but did not pin any images in the same period of time.

Here are the top DMOs that gained the most followers from February 6 – March 4: Read the rest of this entry →

Dec9

CVBs on Pinterest: December Update

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs on Pinterest: December Update

We’re almost ready to close out the year! Will a more active Pinterest account be on your 2013 to-do list?

Most DMOs have stopped pinning all together. From data collected on December 3, 145 DMOs did not pin at all during the entire month of November. That’s 35% of the total amount of DMOs. And approximately the same amount (151 DMOs) pinned 20 or less pins during the month. That’s about one pin per weekday. Some may say that’s enough activity but I feel that DMOs should pin more frequently than that. Here’s the total breakdown:

Who were the most active pinners in November? Boston USA, Explore Georgia, VisitSavannah Georgia, Panama City Beach and Lake County Ohio Visitors Bureau take the lead.

In terms of total pins, VisitSavannah Georgia, Visit Philly, Explore Georgia, Boston USA and Temple CVB rank at the top of that list. Here’s the breakdown of all 413 DMOs: Read the rest of this entry →

Nov19

CVBs on Pinterest: November Update

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs on Pinterest: November Update

Another month has gone by and my list of CVBs on Pinterest has grown to nearly 400 DMOs!

Below are the rankings for 396 DMOs, sorted by total followers. Pinterest data in this blog post was collected on November 1, 2012.

Best Practices

As I was collecting my data, I came across several inconsistencies in how accounts were branded. Here are a few details that should not be missed.

Profile Picture: Some logos are too small while others are cropped strangely to fit into a square. Be sure to upload a logo or photo that is at least 165×165 pixels but Pinterest recommends 600×600 pixels. If you don’t already have a square logo, get one designed right away. You can use it on Twitter, Facebook and nearly all of your social media channels.

Profile: If I’m unsure whether a profile is official or not, I usually click on their website link and look for “CVB” mentioned somewhere on the site. There are a lot of travel agencies, especially for international destinations, that are using “Visit” or “Explore” followed by the destination’s name. I tediously check this because I want my list to only contain official CVBs and DMOs, not travel agencies, chambers, cities, etc.

Several accounts do not list websites in their profiles. Why is this important? Pinterest now allows you to verify your website and displays a check mark on your profile page as well as in search results. Check out VisitSavannah Georgia as an example.

You also have the option of listing your Twitter and/or Facebook profiles. The problem with this right now is that you can’t list a Facebook page, just a Facebook profile. My recommendation would be to list your Twitter account here but do no link them together so that all of your pins automatically tweet. I feel that all organizations and businesses should have a social media content strategy and that linking accounts so things automatically tweet can easily produce over-sharing and possibly lead to people unfollowing your account.

Business Account: Pinterest just rolled out an option for businesses last week. You can convert your account to a business account by going to http://business.pinterest.com. Currently there doesn’t seem to be a lot of benefits for converting your account but since Pinterest is working on separating business accounts from personal accounts, there must be a plan to help businesses promote themselves better on this platform. Will it be free? My guess is that eventually there will be some sort of fee for specific business features or advertisement in the future.

Who are the most active DMOs?

Read the rest of this entry →

Oct7

CVBs on Pinterest: October Update

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

CVBs on Pinterest: October Update

My list of DMOs on Pinterest now has more than 450 international and domestic DMOs! Below is the list of 317 US destinations, ranked by number of total followers, as well as a breakdown in terms of followers, pins and activity.

Followers:

20 DMOs have more than 1,000 followers
8 DMOs have more than 2,000 followers
The top 3 DMOs are VisitSavannah Georgia, Texas Tourism and Durango

Pins:

9 DMOs have more than 1,000 pins
VisitSavannah Georgia (3,980 pins) has more than twice the amount of pins than any other DMO

Activity (growth of pins):

264 DMOs (86% of my tracking) had some type of activity since July 1
109 DMOs pinned at least 60 images since July 1, an average of 20 pins/month, which I think is an acceptable minimum monthly amount
77 DMOs pinned 20-59 images
78 DMOs pinned 1-19 images
43 DMOs pinned 0 images
5 DMOs had a negative amount of pins for this period, meaning that they must have deleted pins or boards
VisitSavannah Georgia is a frequent pinner and has pinned almost 1,200 pins in the past 3 months
Other active pinners at the top of the list include Elgin Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Visit Natchez Mississippi, Explore Georgia, VisitPhilly and Atlanta Georgia

And finally, DMOs ranked by total followers:

I’m speaking about Pinterest at eTourism Summit this week so if you’re attending the conference, please introduce yourself to me so we can geek out!

Aug16

Things I learned this week: August (12) 16

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Anne Hornyak

Things I learned this week: August (12) 16

Last weekend got away from me. I flew to Portland Sunday and couldn’t find time to blog until this morning so this is a 1.5 weekly update.

Travel so rewarding. I got to see two friends on this trip in addition to my amazing colleagues. Life is good.
Some things can’t be explained. I just discovered (thanks to Katie) that Texas Tourism has over 31,000 Pinterest followers!! I did a little research but haven’t figured out why just yet. They’re adding a few hundred followers every hour. A gold star to anyone who can help research this! Most of their boards have 400-500 followers but their Texas Beaches board is the one that’s carrying the account.
iPhone or Android?? The answer will be iPhone. This afternoon. I’m really excited.
Pin of the week:

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Category Archives: Pinterest

State DMOs on Pinterest: March update

Things I learned this week: August (12) 16