'Pinvolve' Facebook app increases re-pins by 150%

A Facebook app that converts brand's Facebook pages into Pinterest-style pinboards has reportedly achieved a 150% increase in re-pins for its users.

‘Pinvolve’ creates a new section on a Facebook page that presents all photos as posts on a pinboard in a style similar to Pinterest's layout.

It also displays all the Facebook ‘likes’ and comments for each post.

When you hover over an image on the Pinvolve board, a ‘Pin it’ button appears which then re-posts the content to Pinterest.

According to TechCrunch, Pinvolve’s creators designed the app as a side project to make the process of sharing content across their brand pages more convenient.

It has been installed on over 1,000 Facebook Pages and had helped increase re-pins by 150% across its user base, including this example for model Audrey Kitching.

While Pinterest is still a long way behind Facebook and Twitter in terms of active users (last count is a suggested 12m monthly users) its sudden boom in popularity has forced marketers to take notice.

Last month we reported on Peugeot’s use of Pinterest to launch a puzzle competition, aimed at getting users to re-pin images of its cars.

Similarly Kotex in Israel used the social network to find 50 influential women then created them personalised, handmade giftboxes filled with items the women might want, decorated in the styles that reflected their pins.

While doubts remain over monetisation and problems with copyright infringement, Pinterest has the potential to become a useful marketing platform for brands as users effectively pass around product images and recommendations among their friends.

Re-pins are obviously an important part of this process, so if Pinvolve can harness Facebook’s larger user base to drive recommendations on Pinterest then its designers could find that this side project becomes more fruitful.

A basic version of the app is available for free, or brands can upgrade to a customisable variant for $9.99 - though this is set to increase to $19.99.