First Family

The Washington Post reported in an article today that the Obama 2012 Campaign introduced yet another social media network for it’s campaigning efforts. The Barack Obama Pinterest page seeks to capture the attention of the exploding social networking site’s 17 million unique users.

Pinterest is a pin board style photo web-sharing site that allows users to view and re-post images from other pinner’s boards. Pinterest’s users, like on many social sites, utilize the network for different purposes. For instance, style or design inspiration, recipes, artwork and crafts, photography, et al. Also, users can categorize images on boards, comment on images and follow other pinner’s boards.

The Barack Obama Pinterest page, which will be run by the campaign staff, will share various images targeting supporters. The page will feature eight boards, with five highlighting lifestyle and personal images of the first family. For instance, images of the first family, Obama inspired recipes and their pets sporting Obama gear. Three of the boards are dedicated to campaign specific initiatives, like infographics of job and economic growth or images of campaign rallies.

At this point, Obama is the only candidate with a Pinterest page or taking advantage of social media at this level. However, Mitt Romney’s wife has a page with political and personal pins. A reporter from the Boston Globe stated, “Obama and Romney are already jostling for general election support among women.” Since the majority of Pinterest’s users are women, both parties will need to have an active presence to capture the female vote.