As with any social media site that capti- vates the public in literally a manner of months, marketers follow closely behind wondering how they can leverage the site to capture market share. Visitors bureaus and tourism organizations are a perfect match for Pinterest due to the visual nature of the product, showcasing everything from great restaurant meals and historic monuments to nightlife and scenic landscapes.
Visit Bucks County, the official tourist pro- motion agency for Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was one of the first destina- tions in the country to implement Pinterest as a way to market tourism.
“Visit Bucks County is always searching for creative ways to communicate with tourists and locals. Using Pinterest is another channel to reach those audi- ences by showing them all that Bucks County has to offer,” said Paul Bencivengo, marketing and communica- tions director for Visit Bucks County. “It’s no secret that we’ve become more of a visual society and attention spans have
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shortened. Pinterest is a great way to showcase Bucks County in a clean and visually appealing manner.”
The tourism office currently has nine pin- boards, including the following cate- gories: Play in Bucks County; Stay in Bucks County; Dine in Bucks County; Say “I Do” in Bucks County; Bucks in the News; Meet in Bucks County; and more.
Upon clicking on an image on the pin- board, users are treated to a short description about the image, and if they desire more information, they can click the photo to be taken directly to that attraction or venue’s website. Those who follow Visit Bucks County’s pinboards can “like” or “repin” an image, meaning they are adding the pin to one of their own boards.
Visit Bucks County reports that several users have repinned their images onto boards titled, “Fun with the kids,” “Wedding ideas,” and “Neighborhood finds.”
While both men and women are active on Pinterest, the site is overwhelmingly used by women with the website
Visual.ly estimating that 83 percent of the site’s users are female. Bencivengo added that Visit Bucks County uses Pinterest as an informal focus group to gather market research on their target audiences and their interests and lifestyles. As women are often the travel decision makers in the family, Pinterest is a great outlet for tourism organizations to use as a way to directly reach those who are planning trips for their families.
Other tourism organizations throughout the country, such as Visit Savannah, Experience Columbus and Visit Philly, also are using Pinterest to promote all that their destination has to offer. Besides communicating with consumers, however, Visit Bucks County also is using Pinterest to reach B2B audiences, includ- ing meeting and event planners and group tour operators.
Visit Bucks County’s “Meet in Bucks County” pinboard features photos of
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