What began in 2010 as an online bulletin board geared towards wedding planning or crafty art projects has exploded into a visual social networking site with 3.3 million users, according to Compete. Pinterest’s demographic, states TechCrunch, is predominately 18-34 year old upper income women; the target audience of many marketers. Brands and businesses are taking notice of this and it’s no surprise the question on every marketers mind is “Can I incorporate Pinterest into my marketing strategy?”

Pinterest can absolutely be used as a marketing tool, but requires a thoughtful approach in order to remain true to it’s goal to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” Businesses should use the social network to showcase the lifestyle their brand promotes, as opposed to blatant self-promotion. This provides a great opportunity to establish your brand within a niche community and share pins with others who have similar interests. By pinning content that adds value, your followers are more likely to share by repining or liking your pins. Simultaneously, your brand will be building trust with its followers because you are engaging in the lifestyle that surrounds the brand. Build your reputation by becoming the go-to Pinterest account for pins about a topic relating to your industry.  HubSpot suggests viewing pinboards of your customers to aid in your understanding of who your customers are and what they’re interested in. Pinterest is a fantastic resource for better understanding your brand’s audience.

One of the biggest challenges CGI faced when determining the approach to our Pinterest was a lack of tangible products. However, even if your brand isn’t particularly visual, this shouldn’t hold you back from using Pinterest. To overcome this challenge, we brainstormed boards we thought would add value to our industry and be something our clients found interesting. We kept our boards visually appealing by being mindful of how we arranged our pins and how we organized the boards.  Currently Pinterest is still invite only, but leave your email in the comment section and CGI would be happy to send you an invitation to join us on this cool new social media platform.

The best advice is to simply try out Pinterest- it’s incredibly easy to use. Start small and see how your boards begin taking shape before generating a huge following. If after a month you’re generating more referral traffic, consider linking your Twitter to your Pinterest account so you can easily tweet your pins and leverage hashtags to make content more search-friendly. The number one rule, is pin things that are relevant to your business but not too promotional. In the words of Ben and the Pinterest Team “Happy Pinning.”

Our annual auction is an enjoyed tradition at CGI when we all come together to support a great cause. All of the items to be auctioned are donated by the CGI team. This years, the items ranged from ski vacations, a homemade snow man, and even personal vacation days! Everyone at CGI has the opportunity to suggest a charity, then votes are tallied to make a selection. Last year it was “The Life is Good Kids Foundation,” this year it was a tie between two great causes; The 15-40 Connection and The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life!

The 15-40 Connection’s theme “Check Yourself,” was born out of a scary statistic – In the United States, nearly 72,000 people between the ages of 15  and 40 are diagnosed with cancer every year. Yet, cancer survival rates for this age group have been nearly stagnant since 1975.* The charity focuses on trying to reduce this statistic by spreading awareness and promoting early detection, especially in “invincible” young adults. Learn more about this amazing charity and how you can donate by visiting their website at, 15-40.org.

“Relay for Life” is a celebration of life in honor and in memory of people touched by cancer. During the event, teams gather at various locations and take turns walking or running laps with the goal of having at least one member on the track at all times. In addition to donating money, some of us at CGI also donate our time to participate. Learn how you can get involved here!

Everyone has been effected by cancer, either directly or indirectly, and these two charities are doing their part at fighting back. We want to commend both The “15-40 Connection” and “Relay for Life” for their amazing efforts, including spreading awareness and donating towards research. The CGI auction raised almost $3,000 dollars this year and we are happy to donate to two great causes. Let us know how you’re making a difference on our PEACE card.

* Statistic provide by the 15-40 Connection

At CGI we’re inspired by so many things that we are often bursting with the need to share. We do this with our clients through our creative work, and with each other through our “roundtable” discussions where we share thoughts, ideas, and learnings.  We have  four main focus groups, each made up of 7 or 8 individuals from various areas of the CGI team.

With so many different personalities at CGI it’s great to find similar interests among the team and bring everyone together in a forum where we can interact and bounce ideas off of one another. I use various social sites, such as Pinterest, Flickr, Blogs, and even Twitter to inspire me with new ideas when it comes to marketing CGI, but I have found the roundtable discussions to be just as inspiring as any outside source.

For example, I just came out of a discussion about where we as a team find inspiration. This discussion included the marketing team, designers, project managers, and administrators who all brought very different ideas to the table! In our connected world it’s important to remember that sometimes the greatest source of inspiration can be combining the various perspectives and experiences we each provide, so log off and start connecting (the old fashioned way) to the people around you.

What inspires you? Let us know right here or on twitter @cgiinteractive!