Pinterest offers new ways for creatives to connect directly with audiences

A regular starting point for those on the hunt for inspiration, Pinterest is a hub of creative possibilities. Whether you’re looking for new techniques to try out, ideas to influence your practice, or just a snoop into what your favourite creatives are up to, the platform has always been a place for cultivating new ideas.

Those who use Pinterest as creators are “doers, designers, makers and inspirers,” as Global Head of Creator Marketing Colleen Stauffer puts it. These creatives are also being put first in a range of recent updates to the platform, where creators can learn from their followers to elevate their work and continually inspire others too. “It’s time to connect people with who inspires them,” Colleen tells It’s Nice That. “Creators’ ideas and creators themselves will be more prominent on Pinterest starting today.”

The first of these updates is a series of “publisher tools” offering a more direct connection for creators and “getting their ideas in front of the very people looking for them,” Colleen explains. For the very first time, creators are able to directly share with new audiences via their camera and microphone through Story Pins, a perfect opportunity to show detailed approaches to making work. Also offering your audience further insight, “Story Pins are a nice way to share something behind the scenes about me or my work,” adds Jess Henry, Creative Lead at Pinterest who, at the moment, has been utilising Story Pins by “reliving old trips by publishing travel guides,” she tells us. 

Further examples include the ever helpful interiors account Dabito, who shares step-by-step instructions for audiences to get involved with making. In his approach of guiding the viewer through the creative process, Dabito’s Story Pins showcase how a designer could reveal the behind the scenes of a growing project. As the creator himself puts it: “Great storytelling is simple and relatable. Story pins show us more than just a pretty photo. We can now see the whole story and process of making things.”

A further example of how a creative can showcase behind the scenes of a project is the way illustrator Aurélia Durand utilised motion in our recent project with her and Pinterest, Thread of Inspiration. Sharing snippets of her working away on the project's development in the moment, the illustrator also shared behind-the-scenes details with her Pinterest following, such as how she works with sound designers when animating.

As the creator comes more to the forefront in this content too, the updates are purposefully designed to foster a two-way connection between those sharing work and those saving it. For example, newly added “reactions” are lightweight ways to engage with content, “designed to capture the ways Pinners react to ideas they find and love,” explains Colleen. 

On top of these new possibilities in sharing, Pinterest is also offering ways to gather insight, particularly around which areas of a creator's output is resonating with audiences. For instance, tools such as Pin Stats allow creators to “magnify and measure the impact of their ideas”, showing quick snapshots of how a pin is performing. Furnished with key metrics such as impressions and engagements, creators are also offered analytical responses to their pins. 

Developing a deeper understanding of what’s resonating with audiences will also allow creators to invest more creativity into areas rising in popularity. These tools also make way for a creative to learn something new about their craft too, as it can be difficult to decipher what areas of your practice are appealing to audiences once posted. Again designed with its creators in mind, Pinterest's design director, Tim Belonax adds: “The creators on Pinterest are genuinely involved in their craft. Engaging with them and their work feels like you’re learning from someone that loves what they do.” In this way, Pinterest’s new tools encourages the life cycle of creativity, providing creators with the opportunity to engage more people, who will then share their endeavours too. “To find someone deeply involved in what they do is always inspiring to me,” says Tim, “the enthusiasm is infectious.” 

To further share how these new tools can be put to use creatively, Pinterest is hosting its Creators Festival virtually on 15 October. Packed with talks and Q&As with a range of creators – including Momofoku and Lucky Peach founder David Chang, journalist and author Elaine Welteroth and Pinterest's newly appointed Head of Content and Editorial Partnerships Aya Kanai – Colleen says that the event will be focused on “the most helpful information – whether that’s about scaling a side business or creating best-in-class video content”. An event centred on building online communities, if you’re looking for new ways to connect your work with audiences that will resonate, register here.