Pinterest for The Lofts at Roosevelt Collection: The Importance of Social Sharing

Ongoing experimentation with new social media tools is essential to stay relevant and interesting with online users. When a platform like Pinterest hit the web, Otherwise saw an opportunity to experiment with the social sharing platform with Roosevelt Collection, a luxury residential rental property located in the South Loop.

Pinterest is social media’s rising star with traffic stats to prove it. The site has registered more than seven million unique visitors in December, which is up from 1.6 million in September. Plus, it’s driving more traffic to company websites and blogs compared to YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to a recent report from Sharaholic in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What is Pinterest? It’s a new and exciting, viral sharing tool similar to an online corkboard that allows users to “pin” photos and ideas onto different boards. These boards serve as a storage mechanism for users so they can organize ideas, recipes, photos, inspirational quotes and more.

Based on social sharing, Pinterest allows users to share photos they find online by “pinning” them to specific boards they’ve created. Most pins are linked back to the original website or blog where the images were found. To pin an item, users download a “Pin It” toolbar. They click the toolbar while browsing the web, choose the photo they want and write a description of the pin that will appear on their Pinterest board. Users who follow you can see your collection of photos and even repin them to their personal boards, exposing content to their army of followers.

So, how can a platform like Pinterest benefit a residential and retail property in Chicago’s lively South Loop? Based upon our research and personal familiarity with Pinterest, we developed a creative strategy for The Lofts to leverage the social sharing platform.

First, we developed a Pinterest brand page for Roosevelt Collection to facilitate engagement and community building with online users. The brand page serves as the point of communication between the brand and consumers. A key factor to Pinterest is the organization of ideas, which is done through “boards.” Initially, we created fourteen boards:

The Lofts not only offer residents a place to live, but they also offer residents a whole new lifestyle. By featuring different “boards,” or collections of things that inspire and characterize who Roosevelt Collection is, the luxurious residential development visually captures the essence of the brand on Pinterest. For example, Roosevelt Collection enjoys hosting social events with residents and even offers rentable space for residents to throw events, so the “Entertainment Ideas” board features interesting ideas for residents to use when they plan their next party.

In addition to providing Pinterest users with inspirational boards defining the lifestyle at Roosevelt Collection, it is also important to utilize the social sharing platform to generate buzz around the brand, its location and its apartments. We show this by featuring boards that focus on Roosevelt Collection and the South Loop community. For example, we post visual images of the “Spaces,” or apartments, available at The Lofts. These photos link back to Roosevelt Collection website where users can find more information about availability as well as see 3D floor plans of the property.

As a result of having a presence on Pinterest, Roosevelt Collection has received higher traffic referrals to the property blog. As Roosevelt Collection’s Pinterest page becomes more active and engaging, we expect to see a larger portion of referral traffic to The Lofts’ blog and website, which is something most brands on Pinterest can expect due to the maximizing SEO efforts the social sharing platform provides.

In time, we anticipate Roosevelt Collection to become a resource for ideas and insight amongst residents and other users. By having a presence on Pinterest, it will enhance brand awareness, create brand loyalty and ultimately, build relationships with consumers, which increases the reputation of the brand both on and offline.

As other brands begin making their way onto the social sharing platform, Roosevelt Collection is ahead of the game in the real estate industry, and we are proud to be guiding them along the way.

What brands do you follow on Pinterest?

Makenzie Davies is a Social Media Marketer for Otherwise Incorporated.
Illustration credit: Yuri Canales, Graphic Designer at Otherwise Incorporated.