Pinterest: a campaign blindspot
With news that web start-up Pinterest just became the fastest website to reach 10 million active monthly visitors, I’m a bit surprised that none of the presidential candidates have fully (or even partially) embraced the service. From what I could tell, there were not official Pinterest pages for the Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul campaigns.
This seems like a complete missed opportunity from a PR (and marketing) point of view. Should one of the campaigns set up an account, they can quickly amass followers of their pins, and quickly distribute visual content to those followers (which, given the nature of Pinterest, would hopefully then be “re-pinned” by those followers). Whether for infographics or photos from campaign stops, Pinterest is simply the quickest way to hit a large group of people – especially those who might otherwise not be on other social networking sites.
Whether Pinterest is a short-term fad or a lasting trend, it really doesn’t matter. So long as Pinterest remains relevant until November 6, 2012, it would serve the candidates’ purposes.
