Does your animal organization use Pinterest? If not, it might be time to try. And if you try, be sure to use Pinterest’s analytics to make sure you’re getting results that will make your time on the site worthwhile for your organization and for the animals.

Most rescue groups and animal shelters use Facebook, and quite a few are active to some extent on Instagram and Twitter. But Pinterest may have dropped off your organization’s social media to-do list long ago, given that it had some natural limitations in utility for adoption. Additionally, until two years ago, Pinterest didn’t offer analytics on the platform, meaning it was hard to know whether it was good, bad, or indifferent in terms of getting pets into homes.

But Pinterest has a screamingly attractive demographic for pet adoption. It’s also organized more by interests than by personal networks, meaning your messages, properly created and categorized, can easily get in front of people who would otherwise never see pets looking for homes. Links are clickable on Pinterest, too, giving it a clear advantage over Instagram for adoption as well as fundraising.

If you’ve decided it might be time to give Pinterest a try, do two things: Make sure you have great photos — not just okay, not “would have been good if the dog’s eyes were open,” or not shot from high above the pet — and make sure you familiarize yourself with Pinterest’s analytics.

You’ll also need to create, or convert to, a business account (these are free, and open to all nonprofits). Once you’ve created your account, or re-awakened an old one, make sure you’re logged in then visit the analytics section of the site.

There, you’ll be able to track two basic categories of performance:

1. How your pins are doing on Pinterest itself
2. How the content others pin directly from your organization’s website are performing

If you don’t have pinnable content on your website, that second one isn’t something you need to worry about. If you do have pinnable content, you’ll need to verify your organization’s website before you can track those particular numbers.

What you can learn about your own pins on the service will cover:

• How individual pins perform
• How your boards perform
• Information about your users

All this information will allow you to stop sharing poorly-performing content and focus on the stuff that works to get pets adopted.

The audience analytics are particularly useful, letting you understand what subjects interest your followers and allowing you to tie your adoption promotions to those topics. (Just be aware almost everyone will have certain big-bucket interests, like travel or fashion, so don’t over-interpret those findings.)

You can learn more by downloading a comprehensive guide to Pinterest analytics from the platform itself; you can find it here. And if you’re more of a visual learner, Pinterest has an excellent how-to video, too.

Now, start pinning!