A pin is worth a thousand words: EFPIA joins Pinterest
07.11.13
By nature, images are much easier for our brains to process than text. Pinterest is a social bookmarking network that allows users to visually share, curate, and discover new interests by “pinning” images to their own pinboards (sorted by categories) and browsing what other users have pinned. The volume and thus the richness of user data collected through pinning is unprecedented. In fact, Time magazine called Pinterest one of the top five social networking sites.
Collectibles
Ben Silbermann, Pinterest founder, had a love of collecting. As a kid, one of his hobbies was entomology. “I collected insects maniacally,” he told Forbes magazine. “I thought it was really cool and I was doing this really important service.” He then started working on a website that would allow people to put collections online.
“Pinterest’s obvious secret is its ability to serve our innate desire to capture and collect, while making consuming, creating and sharing easier than ever before”[1].
Reasons to be a part of it
We have been seeking to change the way we best communicate on our issues in a smart and interactive way. With some expert advice now on board on how to bring our social media communications to the next level we’re now looking to go further and expand our web presence through diverse interactive tools, to make often extremely complex issues accessible as possible to the general public.
As the web moves to an increasingly visual medium, EFPIA decided to create its own Pinterest account and start collecting images and infographics, sorted out throughout different categories (About EFPIA, Facts & Figures, Vaccines, Clinical Trials, Health & Social Media, HIV / AIDS, Cancer, Patients, Resistance and Antimicrobial, Rare diseases, Heart diseases, Hepatitis, Diabetes, Malaria, etc.). We hope that starting “collectibles” on scientific and technical issues will make these issues more approachable for the general public.
Discovery is always great for finding inspiration while attracting those who have an appeal for an image over written words may draw in a new audience.
“Repinning” is the new “retweet” and EFPIA aims to build a strong social media presence and lead by example, as well as share expertise and build on relationships. This also means more web traffic – and being “discovered”.
- EFPIA’s Pinterest account
[1] Forbes article: “Pinterest’s Obvious Secret”