As a Community Theater, Why Do I Care about Pinterest?

Pinterest is the fastest growing social network ever.  It got to 10 million users in 9 months! One of the reasons is that Pinterest is a wonderful place to be – full of beautiful pictures, inspirational ideas and like-minded people.  However, it is also a useful place to be – especially if you are a community theater.

What Is Pinterest?

It is simply a place on the web to view and pin pictures. The pictures may be your own, that you upload to your Pinterest account, or they can be pictures you come across on the web and pin them to your account. When you create an account on Pinterest, you create one or more “boards”. So when you pin pictures you specify what board you want to pin it to.

Pinterest Board Examples

To understand what a Board is, check out TicketPeak’s boards.  Our Pinterest account includes the following boards:

• Costume Ideas for Musical Theatre
• Great Sets for Musical Theatre
• Lighting
• Dance and Choreography
• Beautiful Theatres
• Theatre Quotes
• Playbills

So people interested in set ideas for their show can peruse our Great Sets board; or if they are interested in costume ideas, they can review our Costume Ideas board, etc.

Pinterest also includes a search engine for itself. So, if you specifically want costume ideas for Grease, for example, you can search “costume ideas for Grease” in Pinterest.

Why do people like it?

First, it is easy and enjoyable to use. You create an account and can immediately find inspirational pictures.  Second, it is quite useful. In the example above, within a few seconds, you can get costume ideas for your own production. The old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings true.

Over time, as you use Pinterest, you will find people you wish to follow because they pin useful content. Therefore, unlike a one-time Google Image search, you continually receive great content from like-minded people.

Why should Community Theaters use it?

If you are a community theater, Pinterest is useful in two ways: to get inspiration, and to provide inspiration.

Getting Inspiration:

Since community theater is visual, you can very quickly get ideas pertaining to the show you may be putting on.  You will be able to find great pictures for set ideas, costume ideas, makeup or even posters and playbills.

Also, Pinterest is not limited to images.  You can also find videos to get ideas around choreography and dance moves.

Providing Inspiration

As a community theater, you want to be continually building your brand for the long-term, as well as driving audiences to your shows in the short term.  Creating a Pinterest account and posting pictures from your shows or from other shows is great for brand building.  If you are careful in the pictures you pin – i.e. they are beautiful and useful, your community theater will develop a following and will be the place for others to receive ideas.

Once you develop a following, you can use it to promote shows.  For example, take great pictures of your opening night and pin them to your Pinterest board.  Your followers will be notified of these pictures and may feel the energy and excitement and be tempted to attend your show.

Your Pinterest boards will also prove useful in attracting performers to your community theater.

And check popular weekly ads:
Kroger Weekly Ad, Target Ad, Walgreens weekly Ad, Meijer weekly Ad
Aldi Catalogue, Aldi Catalogue, Big w Catalogue, Bunnings Catalogue

Getting Started

Easy.  Simply go to http://Pinterest.com and create an account.  Decide what boards you wish to create.  You may want a Current Shows board, a Passed Shows board or anything else that you deem useful.  Start pinning outstanding pictures to the boards.  Take it slowly – quality is much better than quantity.

Building a Following

Building a following can happen naturally.  As you peruse Pinterest, you will find other community theaters or other organizations and boards that you wish to follow.  When you decide to follow them, they will be notified and may check out your own boards and decide to follow you back.