Sharing maps on Pinterest
As the popularity of visual bookmarking site Pinterest grows, more ways of sharing are dreamed up every day to meet users’ needs for “pinning” information, ideas, and images. Consumer and business users alike are finding ways to pin information specific to their needs, even if that information is not readily available (or “pinnable” as it is known by the community).
One such information point that users are now able to share on Pinterest is maps through MapQuest.com. In a statement, the company expressed pinning travel information as their reason for making all maps pinnable directly from their site, but we see a deeper context for a variety of industries.
Think of sharing maps in terms of sharing local information. Pinners can share maps of residential and commercial real estate listings, directions to their office, a list of local businesses that should be supported, a visual indicator of all of the locations a company has done work in (think construction, home repairs), or a way to show service area or sales territories on Pinterest.
How does it work?
“It’s super easy,” says MapQuest, “simply create your map on MapQuest and then click the Pinterest Button at the top right of the MapQuest page. This will create a map image and link that you can then upload to Pinterst and add to your ‘pin board’.” Below, we visually show you how the process works, and it is as “easy” as they promise (click any image to enlarge).
Step one: create your map on MapQuest, click the red “Pin it” button at the top right when you’re ready to share what is on your screen:
Step two: create a pin by selecting a category, caption and click “pin it,” just as you would any other pin:
Step three: behold, your beautiful pin that is a map:
Step four: once pinned, anyone can click on the map and it goes to the original map you created, just like the one below:
This is extremely helpful for any industry wishing to visually represent one or many addresses. When the Pinterest bookmarklet is used on Google Maps, it selects only the pinnable images which are typically satellite images of the area, but no pins, and the maps are not actually capable of being shared directly to Pinterest, so MapQuest definitely won this race. We would like to be able to interact with the maps once pinned on Pinterest, and while that is not up to MapQuest, it is a feature that Pinterest should add in the future.
