Mitt Romney reveals his wife uses Pinterest

{mosads}Although new media services such as Facebook and Twitter have become essential tools in modern politics, the Romney campaign would be among the first to navigate Pinterest for political use.

Zac Moffett, digital director for the Romney campaign, said the Romneys have family members who are active on Pinterest, and the crafty orientation of the site suits Ann Romney’s interests.
 
“Our hope is she can be really involved on the road,” Moffett said of Romney. He said there would likely be more photos from the campaign trail and that the campaign would likely look to drive future contests — such as last year’s “Day On The Road With Mitt” fundraising raffle — with the site. 

“We’ve been planning on setting this up for awhile,” Moffett said. “We just think of it as another platform for people to engage with the campaign. One of the big strategic decisions we made as a campaign this cycle is we don’t think people have to come to MittRomney.com to engage.”

So far, Ann Romney’s presence on the site is slight. Her seven boards include a handful of topical collections, from pictures of family, healthy recipes such as homemade granola and gluten-free dessert pizza, “patriotic” images, books — including Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina — and a few behind-the-scenes photos from the campaign trail, including one of a note Romney left her Friday in Michigan. She might not be “pinning” for politics yet, but she’s an early adopter of a service that politicians have so far been slow to adopt.

Romney’s campaign, which has been noted for its digital strategy this campaign cycle, has been keeping pace with President Obama’s in using social media to communicate with grassroots supporters and leverage the digital age. Obama’s campaign, already noted for its social media strategy in 2008, has stepped up its outreach in 2012, launching a presence on several of the newest social media sites including Google+ and music site Spotify. Romney’s campaign has also hosted interactive video forums recently on the Google platform and is also involved with location-based service Foursquare and mini-video service Tout.

— This post was updated at 3:52 p.m.