Mara Lecocq Talks Finding Your Inspiration From Pinterest
Where do you receive your inspiration from? With the endless flow of new music drops, streaming services, and social media, it can be hard to hone in on where to find your creative niche. “The internet has made the world an overwhelmingly more tasteful place,” Mara Lecocq shares as she reflects on the impact of social and digital media on the creative world. As the current brand director of the professional networking app, Fishbowl, Lecocq uses social platforms like Pinterest that focus on visual storytelling to find inspiration for creative planning and branding concepts. Being a fellow creative she understands cultivating and honing in on your creativity can influence how you connect and engage with your customers. Whether you are a visual, written, or digital storyteller, here are her 4 essential elements of inspiration you can consider:
Get Lost In Creative Discovery
You want to take action early in your discovery process by organizing your ideas and content by medium, project, or group type into different Pinterest boards. Lecocq uses Pinterest as her go-to source for design and creative inspiration by immersing herself in the unexpected moments that come from online discovery.
“I look at my existing boards to see what could work for a brand campaign, and then I let myself get lost in wormholes of content the platform surfaces,” she admits to Adweek.
She encourages using keywords to find related topics or themes that interest her which can lead to uncovering various boards and designs that wouldn’t have organically shown up in her feed. Consumers are attracted to bold imagery and high quality visuals on Pinterest so keeping this at the forefront of each individual pin will help keep your consumers attention during their discovery process. You also want to make sure with each pin title that is created you are highlighting key brand phrases, ingredients, or essential information to give context to your content.
Turn Inspiration Into Collaboration
You can take any pin that inspires you and use it to help lead your team or organization in their creative process. Lecocq acknowledges the importance of teamwork and how when she leads her design team they collaborate and discuss various ideas before naturally heading to Pinterest for inspiration. During meetings she uses Pinterest boards to help springboard the creative processes for her team and point out specific pins to help drive the conversation forward.
“You always hear creative directors complain and tell their teams to ‘just keep pushing’ without giving any real direction. If you, as a creative director, don’t do the homework and find guiding inspiration, your team won’t be able to do the work."
Prepare For Planning
Branding is such an essential aspect of social media and a necessary component to helping establish your online presence. When creatives began to plan this allows all the ideas to now become actionable concepts to bring the vision to life.
“Being aware of what’s out there but not jumping on the trend bandwagon is critical to building a brand,” Lecocq notes. “Because when you’re like everyone, you don’t stand out and you're memorable to no one—which is the death of your brand."
Whenever you are ready to start a new project,you always want to make sure you have a solid understanding of your target audience. When you are able to identify who your target audience is and what they are looking for, it’ll be easier to use Pinterest to create boards that resonate with their interests. Don’t forget to keep up with any seasonal trends or shifts in social conversation depending on your market.
Bring It Together On Pinterest
It’s time for the finished product! Pinterest allows you to combine different topics, styles, and flavor to create your own unique vision. Make sure to keep these five tips in mind as you use Pinterest to help achieve your overall vision.
Be actionable with any pins you use.
Don’t copy someone else’s content, be original.
Create hopeful and inspiring content.
Always create content that is on brand and relevant.
Use high resolution photography and big bold images to attract new visitors.