With the massive expansion in interest of the platform of the moment, Pinterest, it has been a matter of time until football clubs (and sports in general) start to jump on board.

Just over a year ago Pinterest had only 10,000 users.  With massive coverage in tech and lifestyle blogs that number surged to 11.7m by January this year.  Now that is massive growth!

The first football club to see the opportunities being offered was Italian club AS Roma.  They have added a range of boards covering historic iconic photography, official club videos, merchandise and every cover from their official club programme (which is pretty cool).

Liverpool and Man City have shown over the last couple of years that they are the ones that like to be the first onto a new tech.  We have seen much from Man City recently with the great work of their digital team coming to life.  Liverpool have come back into the game with their recent Tumblr page, The Reds Gallery.  Another great venture showcasing some of the most iconic photographs from the clubs history, enabling those pics to then be bought via links to commerce.

Last Saturday (18th March) saw Liverpool launch their foray onto Pinterest with an official account (pinterest.com/officiallfc).  They have started 11 boards covering;

• LFC Flags & Banners
• Retro LFC Merchandise
• LFC Videos
• His Name is Saurez
• LFC Cakes
• Liverpool Legends
• LFC: The Greatest Fans in…
• LFC Kits
• LFC Programme Covers
• Dream Team: LFC’s Best…
• Ladies LFC Fashion

As you can see, there are some similarities between Liverpool’s boards and those of AS Roma.  But both know that there is certain content they have which is highly pinnable.  The club said about the move;

“With Pinterest we’re again focusing on fantastic images to share with fans but unlike The Reds Gallery on Tumblr, which is a much more traditional and linear photo blog, we’re using Pinterest in the way it was originally designed – as an online scrapbook and pinboard where we share photos of the people, places and items that either inspire us, make us proud or make us laugh.

We’re also using our different themed LFC Boards on Pinterest to bring some of the club’s history and passion to a new audience for the 21^st century. With so much choice on the internet, we recognise that today’s young and new fans may not have time to read realms and realms of text about Liverpool’s glorious past, present and future and that’s why we’re always looking for new ways to interact with supporters online. Whether you’ve been attending matches for years, live in a far, foreign land or are just beginning your love affair with Liverpool, we aim to have something that captures your imagination.”

For some of the boards it will be interesting to see if the club manage to drive revenue through.  With areas such as Ladies Fashion and Retro Merchandise there are distinct possibilities to be exploited.  Some businesses have reported more traffic driving to commerce through Pinterest than the likes of Twitter and Facebook deliver.

Well done to Paul Rogers at Liverpool.  Here are some pics from the site…