Jason Miles - Pinterest Power: Market Your Business, Sell Your Product, and Build Your Brand on the Worlds Hottest Social Network

Copyright 2013 Jason Miles and Karen Lacey. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-180557-5

MHID: 0-07-180557-5

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-180556-8, MHID: 0-07-180556-7

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For Ulysses Cortes Selfa great man.
Jason Miles

For my father.
Karen Lacey

Contents

Foreword

Ive always loved expressing myself through how I dress, and growing up in the first generation with access to the Internet, I was able to take my style cues from inspirations spanning decades and from all over the world. But as a teenager in the suburbs of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the reality of finding clothes that matched with those inspirations was quite different. I was limited to shopping at any one of four or five malls in my area, but they all seemed to have the same collection of stores and styles. I wasnt seeing that eclectic mix that reflected my own personal style. Luckily, I discovered an alternative. Living in a town that attracted its fair share of retirees, I chose instead to explore the thrift stores, yard sales, and Goodwill/Salvation Army establishments, which were always seeing an influx of unique vintage inventory.

The summer before I started college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, I moved to Pittsburgh and continued my habit of thrift shopping. Soon, my dorm room began to fill with these spectacular pieces that just werent my size or style, so with the help of my boyfriend-at-the-time (now husband and cofounder/CEO Eric Koger), I started my own website, and ModCloth.com was born! Im so happy to be at a place now as cofounder and chief creative officer of ModCloth, where I can bring that eclectic mix to women all over the country who are looking for something to wear thats as unique as they are.

Pinterest was also inspired by a love of collections, as youll read about through Pinterest founder Ben Silbermans inspiring story of how he built his business with passion, patience, and a great team as a base. Pinterest is quickly becoming a powerful social platform that allows dedicated collectors to organize and share aspirational content they find on the web. Who gets to have a say in whats popular or beautiful is becoming more democratic every day, and not just in fashion. Pinterest is building a growing community of (mostly) women who are enthusiastically defining and sharing the way they see the world. Like no other social network, Pinterest allows people to tell a story and express who they are with curated collections of images and items they love, to follow like-minded tastemakers, and even to become tastemakers themselves!

It was Pinterests unique combination of aspiration and community that made it such a great fit for ModCloth. From the beginning I wanted to build stories around the special pieces I was selling on my sitefirst around their history, and then as I moved into selling items from independent designers, around those designers unique stories. I also wanted to develop a brand that told a story about myself and our customer and that acknowledged a spectrum of other interests beyond fashion, such as the latest bands, books, DIY projects, and recipes. Pinterest has been a vital tool in helping us reach that girl and tell the story of who we are as a brand better than we ever could before.

And as this book will detail, Pinterest can be a powerful tool for businesses, especially online businesses. I believe that customers want to be inspired when they shop. A visual discovery platform like Pinterest, which transports people into a curated experience based on their own selected preferences and interests, is not only entertaining, its also influencing customers purchasing behavior, especially in areas like fashion, which are so inherently personal and visual. We believe that its a sense of discovery that compels ModCloths customer to participate in Pinterest, and thats the same motivation that compels her to shop with us. Its essential for brands today to inspire their customersand today there are few platforms better at doing this than Pinterest!

Pinterest Power is the ultimate guide for any small business owner hoping to leverage the Pinterest social platform to increase sales and brand awareness. Jason Miles and Karen Lacey answer the right questions for the busy entrepreneur or marketing leader looking to explore a Pinterest account for his or her business. The book details the most important aspects of launching a Pinterest strategy: basics of the platform, real-world examples from innovative brands, and strategic advice from experts in the field. There are powerful case studies from small companies such as Liberty Jane Clothing and BurdaStyle, the former seeing sales double after implementing a Pinterest strategy and the latter seeing the site refer over 25 percent of its traffic! The early adopters highlighted in the book offer invaluable best practices that will provide a solid foundation for building your own Pinterest presence.