Background and Introduction
According to Pinterest, the website is a “virtual
pinboard”. It is a way to organize and share all the things a person discovers
on the internet as well as giving the user the opportunity to view what other
people are sharing. All pins come with a link to the original source online. Pinterest
took off and became the fastest U.S. standalone site to reach 10 million
monthly unique views (Lonergan).
Roughly 70% of Pinterest users are women and about a third of users are between
the ages of 25-35.
MLB
Major League Baseball, MLB,
has an official Pinterest page along with all 30 teams in the MLB. The MLB was
of of the leaders in using the site for sports promotion, but many other
leagues have followed suit including the NBA, NFL, and NHL (McGee).
With sports usually associated with men and Pinterest with women, it is interesting
to see how the two combine. Currently, the MLB Pinterest page has 23 boards,
544 pins, and over 14,000 followers. The MLB is also present on Twitter and
Facebook along with the teams and individual players; the MLB is looking to
create an online community fan-base. One way they connect all their sites is
through common hashtags.
PR Relevance
Relationship Management
The theory of relationship management speaks on the
importance of a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and
its public, and in this theory it is up to the PR team to facilitate the
relationship. Pinterest is a great way to directly connect with fans because
the fans see the MLB’s pins, and know what the organization is about and has
going on. Also, the MLB also holds contests on Pinterest which gives fans the
chance to show off their pins while interacting with other fans on the site. This
helps create a positive community for the MLB and can be a good outlet for
their female demographic.
Uses and Gratifications
The uses and gratification theory states that the media a consumer
uses is a choice and therefore used for deliberate reasons (Griffin).
Molly
Hogan quotes MLB director of new media, Andrew Patterson, on Pinterest: “Pinterest really allows
you, more so than Facebook or Twitter, as a way of re-pinning content, having
fans follow specific boards and having fans tuning into their specific interests”.
Pinterest is a great medium for allowing users to focus on their likes and
interests specifically while cutting out what the user might not care about.
Genderlect Styles
According to genderlect styles, women seek a human
connection in their conversation (Griffin),
and Pinterest is a great social media option that exemplifies this. Pinterest
helps facilitate a human connection through mutual interests and ideas.
Significance
Women have long been overlooked in sports marketing, but in
recent years this pattern has changed. Teams are realizing there are almost as
many female fans as male and are looking to capitalize on this realization. Pinterest
is also the up and coming social media site and the MLB was quick to jump on board.
The MLB is looking to “create a conversation” with its fans
and create a community online through social media and Pinterest is one of
their outlets (Laird).
Pinterest is a great site for conversation because of the ease of re-pinning
and following specific interest; this makes it easy to target specific
audiences while bring fans together. Also, with the original source links, it
is a remarkable way to drive up site views. The MLB does a good job of making
all their social media consistent without being redundant and each site links
to their other social media sites to help promote all their mediums.
Hogan also explains that Pinterest is a great way to display
a team’s merchandise. It is the perfect layout to display multiple items with
each pin having a link to directly buy the item from the team’s online store. Organizations
just need to be sure they do not get too pushy with sales or monopolize their
pins with items for sale in order to maintain the conversational, community
feel.
