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that allows users to share images and links that can be pinned by other users, grew by leaps and bounds during the second half of 2011 (bit.ly/ mcm-pinterest), and multichannel merchants took an interest, according to MCM Outlook 2012-13 results. Although no respondents said they were using the social media, 34.2% of merchants who took the 2012-13 survey said they maintain an active presence in Pinterest. Which is not to say that Pinterest has overtaken the two social media juggernauts: 87.4% of merchants maintain an active presence in Facebook, up from 77.4% last year; and 74.8% said they are actively tweeting, up from 57.5% from 2011. But merchants are clearly getting their feet wet with Pinterest (bit.ly/ mcm-pinterest-tips). In February 2012, custom T-shirt seller Threadless ran a Valentine’s Day contest to encourage community engagement and received a “whopping” 366 entries, according to its blog (bit. ly/mcm-threadless). As a result, it added a Pinterest button on submission pages so its users could post right from Threadless to their pin boards. Pinterest wasn’t just for the pure plays—multichannel merchants like Lands End Canvas added “Pin It” buttons to their product pages so that users could seamlessly pin items they like or want to their boards (bit. ly/mcm-landsend). Merchants also created their own boards as another way pinners could spread product info virally. Pinterest wasn’t the only newcomer to the social media landscape.
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