Tourism Australia launches Pinterest profile
Tourism Australia has launched a profile on the up and coming new social platform Pinterest, making it one of the first large Australian brands to use the site. 
A spokesperson for TA described it as “perfect for tourism, since it’s all about sharing great visual content, and travel experiences are something people naturally want to share and discuss”.
The intention is “the same as our wider social media strategy – to inspire people to share their experiences and advocate Australia, with the ultimate aim of encouraging more people to visit.”
The profile has been kept deliberately low-key with a test and learn approach, and is being managed by TA’s US team.
There are currently 31 boards and 840 pins covering destinations, iconic attractions, experiences, events and Aussie animals on the site and at time of writing had over 400 followers.
TA’s Pinterest page is integrated with the longer established Instagram page, on which users have contributed more than 31,000 images.
Concerns have been raised by copyright and privacy experts about Pinterest’s ownership and moderation of images, but Tourism Australia’s Leo Seaton says no issues have yet occurred for the brand.
Great to see an Aussie brand using Pinterest. A great fit for the brand, too. Hope it gets some results!
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Finally, a smart move by Tourism Australia!
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This is what is wrong with the media coverage of digital marketing.
A company does something that every second member of the population has done, something that costs no money and takes about 5 minutes to set up, and it’s covered as if it’s a huge, risky, amazing, innovation.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Tourism Australia for doing it – it’s very good, and part of an excellent strategy.
But who is Mumbrella comparing TA against? The majority of other firms who wouldn’t know Pinterest if it pricked them on the bum, or the majority of real life consumers, for whom setting up a Pinterest page or a Facebook profile or a Twitter feed is just an ordinary everyday occurrence. For most of them, they’ll be asking “what took them so long”?
As a digital marketer, it would be much better if outlets such as Mumbrella discussed how ridiculously easy the act of setting up digital channels are, and put pressure on so called “social media gurus” and in-house “community managers” to lift their game and actually ship stuff, set up stuff and DO IT.
I guess I should be happy – Mumbrella is promoting something relatively insignificant, maybe that will encourage others who are fearful of digital to just jump in and get stuff done.
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It’s great that they have set up a profile and the events boards are really well done but a quick look some of the location boards (only a dozen or so pins) showed they were all just images that led nowhere and had little or no information about the places they are highlighting. A beautiful sunset shot of Berowra but no detail given to where it is.
Nor did they credit any photographers. Surely they could use images they can identify and give credit.
Also lots of users are beginning to use pinterest for travel planning. Isn’t pinning photos with no link out to more information a bit of a wasted opportunity.
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