In this 24/7 news cycle world, with stories broken down into miniscule sound bites, The Wall Street Journalhas found a clever way to present select ones from the News Corp.-owned newspaper via social media.
The Journal has been pinning “memorable” quotes on Pinterest. Beneath each quote, context is provided along with a link to the complete story online. WSJ staffers use Adobe Photoshop to create images of the individual quotes, which have blurred out text surrounding them. As of June 7, the quotes board alone has 6,524 followers and 45 pins.
The Journal must have smart social media editors working in its New York City offices because the quotes that are selected immediately draw the reader in – it appears they are pulled from controversial articles or ones of extreme interest.
Here are some examples this contributor viewed when writing this blog post:
- “This is something we think we have the legal authority to do,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, defending his proposal to stop the sale of large sodas;
- “It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same-sex couples should be able to get married,” said President Barack Obama, who previously supported only civil unions, in an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts; and
- “The leading cause of death for young black men – those ages 15 to 24 – is homicide,” said Attorney General Eric Holder on the shooting of Trayvon Martin allegedly by George Zimmerman.
But this isn’t the only Pinterest board The Journal has going. It has 33 others, with a total of 8,857 followers, 874 pins, and 74 likes. Some of the other boards include: select front pages; WSJ Fashion, New York Fashion Week; #morningWSJ, through which readers were ask to send in their photos of how they start their day; WSJ Graphics; and many more.
Other papers using Pinterest include The New York Times(it just recently launched), USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, and Orange County Register.
Now, let’s see how they compare by the numbers:
- The Wall Street Journal: 8,589 followers, 34 boards, 874 pins, 74 likes;
- USA Today: 2,228 followers, 17 boards, 552 pins, 126 likes;
- Los Angeles Times: 1,181 followers, 61 boards, 1,517 pins, 232 likes;
- The New York Times: 480 followers, 14 boards, 30 pins, 3 likes;
- Denver Post: 130 followers, 12 boards, 175 pins, 16 likes;
- Orange County Register: 174 followers, 11 boards, 197 pins, 14 likes; and
- San Francisco Chronicle: 90 followers, 11 boards, 55 pins, 0 likes.
It looks like The Wall Street Journal should start celebrating. Perhaps with a quote.