Yesterday Pinterest added a long-requested feature, verification for website owners. When users verify their profile, people will see a checkmark next to the user’s domain in search results, as well as a full website URL and checkmark on your profile (See below).
Will this Better Connect Brands and Fans?
For many brands, Pinterest has been a growing source of traffic on their site. But most of brand activity on Pinterest, even 70-80% according to Pinterest vendor Curalate, is unconnected to a brand’s profile. Instead, most brand activity consists of organic pins and repins from a brand’s website.
By increasing the visibility of ownership for official content creators, this may be the first step in bridging the gap between profile activity and user pins from a brand’s website. This would be a huge help to brands trying to connect to their customers, fans, and influencers on Pinterest.
Getting Verified
This issue of verification online has been an important one since Twitter’s verified status and “blue checkmark” became public knowledge. Brands, celebrities, or groups of significant influence have always been prominently featured on Twitter with the elusive “blue checkmark” – a sign of social superiority and credibility.
As Pinterest develops as a social network, these added features for premium users will help support use of the platform by brands and users alike.
Verifying your website on Pinterest is a pretty easy process:
- Log in to Pinterest (or sign up if you don’t already have one).
- Visit your Settings page and choose “Verify Website” (Strategically positioned next to the field where you enter your website).
- Download the supplied HTML file and upload to your website.
Note that right now Pinterest is only offering verification for Top-level domains, so Etsy stores, Ebay Stores, free WordPress.com blogs and more are currently ineligible for website verification.
How is Pinterest playing into your overall web strategy? Do you find more of your fans pinning directly from you, or about you from other places?