Harness The Power Of Pinterest To Discover Your Ideal Brand

There is no end to the inspiration that can be drawn from Pinterest, especially when it comes to visual branding. It only makes sense then, that it would be the perfect place to begin looking for your own brand’s voice.

So, how can you cut through the noise of all the other spectacular brands out there and discover your own? This is the process I go through with my own clients.

In some of my previous posts, I go over some of the questions that I ask my clients to answer in order to really solidify the brand story that they have in their heads. Who they are, who they help, what sets them apart from anyone else, the places and feelings that they want people to associate with their brand.

Once my clients have done this, then and only then, do I have them go to Pinterest and create a visual board for their brand. Why don’t I have them do that before? Because the point of using Pinterest is to help nail down the visual elements that they will help accentuate your brand’s story. If you don’t know what your brand’s core values and message are, then Pinterest will do nothing but confuse you even further.

So what do I have my clients pin? Here are some rules that I give them:

1. Pin like crazy at first. If you respond to it, pin it.
2. No specific websites, no specific brands or branding elements, other than fonts that you love. (The only brand that I want to be thinking about as I create this is yours).
3. Be specific about exactly you what you love about the pin and write a description below the image.

It is easy to get lost in all of the beautiful images on Pinterest, but we aren’t just pinning pretty things to this board. We are looking for strategic visuals that serve a purpose. That purpose is to represent various aspects of the brand that we are creating. Therefore you should look for:

• – Textures
• – Color palettes
• – Fonts
• – Images that match brand words
• – Comparisons such as vintage versus modern etc.
• – Get an idea of visual aesthetic

Once you have a good selection of pins to choose from, go to that board and take a look at it as a whole. Pull up your brand story and the words you want your brand to be summed up in and compare each pin to those values. Weed out the outliers and the ones that are not fully in alignment with your brand’s core until you end up with no more than 30-40 pins total. From there, you can create a mood board where you pull out specific fonts, colors, and images that match your brand story.

Have you ever created an brand inspiration board on Pinterest? How did you approach pinning items to the board? Did it help you create a brand you love, or did it confuse you? I would love to hear from you in the comments 🙂