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How Pinterest Is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business

How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for BusinessMove over Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Another social media site is stepping up as a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

Pinterest, an online bulletin board for your favorite images, launched in 2010 and is already experiencing wild growth. The site registered more than 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September. And it's driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to a recent report from Cambridge, Mass.-based content-sharing site Shareaholic.

Why should small businesses care? To answer that, you first have to understand how consumers are using the site. Pinterest allows you to organize images -- maybe pretty sunrises or wines you've tasted -- into boards for specific categories. When you "pin" something new, your followers will see it. They can like, comment or re-pin it to their boards. Like Facebook content, your Pinterest pins can go viral.

Brides-to-be can pin pictures of different wedding dresses to review, and people shopping for a new car can pin images of their options. When I joined Pinterest I started a board to show the Major League Baseball stadiums I've visited. The possibilities are unlimited.

Here's a look at why some business owners -- particularly retailers -- might want to seriously consider starting a business profile on Pinterest now.

How It's Being Used
Perhaps the most powerful business application is the ability to post images of your company's products on your Pinterest board and link them back to your website. It works as a sort of virtual store catalog.

But remember that this is social media. If you simply display images of your products without contributing other content or sharing other users' pins, you'll likely find that people don't pay much attention. After all, no one likes a self-absorbed blowhard.

Related: What's With All the Interest in Pinterest?

But savvy social media users know not to get too promotional. For example, Whole Foods Market pins pictures of delicious-looking food, food art and images of recycled or reused products to inspire customers to be environmentally responsible. Daniel Gordon, who runs Samuel Gordon Jewelers in Oklahoma City, pins pictures of his rings and watches, but he also has a board for images that make him laugh and other types of products he loves.

Driving Sales
Pinterest already is driving buyers to some websites. In the last six months, the retail deal site ideeli.com has seen a 446 percent increase in web traffic from Pinterest and sales resulting from those visits have increased five-fold.

"We continue the Pinterest conversation with [the] members by following their pins, and we love to give feedback outside of the shopping category -- whether that means commenting on a great recipe or [giving] a heart next to our favorite pet pics," says ideeli.com social media manager Sarah Conley. "We also see Pinterest as a growing resource to better understand our members and the larger retail landscape."

Is Pinterest Right for Your Business?
The site does have some drawbacks for businesses. If your product or service isn't particularly visual, your images may not tie directly back to your brand. Pinterest also doesn't offer business-oriented features, and its search function prioritizes pin and board subjects ahead of "people," the category that brands would fall into.

The best way to determine if Pinterest could attract buyers is simply to give it a shot. Set up an account and start pinning things that are relevant to your business but not too promotional.

Related: How to Use Social Media for Research and Development

If you run a lawn-care center, for instance, pin pictures of landscaping you find online or snap in your community. If you're a brick-and-mortar store, pin shots of the interesting sites and people around your neighborhood and photos you take at community events. You also can search through Pinterest's categories and add some inspirational, funny or beautiful images you find.

Then, follow interesting boards and individuals who post images that inspire you. Once you've done some pinning of other people's content for a week or so and attracted a few followers, create a new board of your products. Add descriptions and perhaps the price to the images. Make sure they link back to your website and start tracking pinterest.com as a referral source in your website analytics.

Next, try creating an image of a special deal or coupon just for your Pinterest followers. Upload it to a new board for Deals. Perhaps offer a prize to the person who gets the most likes or comments on a re-pin of the coupon, and then see who shares it the most. Don't fret about creating multiple boards. People who follow you will see them all.

In a month or two, see if you're getting referral traffic or sales. Depending on the results, you may need to tweak your boards with new images and words.

One thing is clear whether you're on Pinterest for personal or business reasons: the best images -- be they funny, beautiful or thought provoking -- attract the most attention and followers.

Related: How to Build a Fan-Worthy Facebook Page

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Jason Falls is an author, speaker and CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based Social Media Explorer, a social media marketing, digital marketing and public relations consulting service.

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Social Media is slowly transitioning into social commerce, if it hasn't already

It is a new discovery for me as well. I joined to promote my markgirlshop.com site. You do find some interesting things on their. I love the food! I'm learning about new restaurants I've never heard of before and it seems so easy to talk to people.

its all about social media

I love the site it is endless sheila

Agree with your point that product or service promoted in pinterest should be particularly visual, as Pinterest is all about sharing pictures in basic. How about this new social voting site, Jason?  What do you think? http://www.pinfaves.com

It is not necessarily a new concept but the application is more then promising. Branding experts would have rethink some of their conventional methods after witnessing what this newbie does with the community. http://goo.gl/DU4S8

Pinterest is an amazing marketing tool for the makeup company I work for (Mattify Cosmetics). I originally joined just for the fun of it, but quickly discovered that I was generating more and more traffic to our website every time I posted a pin, re-pinned, or added a “like” or “comment” to someone else’s pin. I’ve also purchased many unique products from Pinterest – things that I never would have discovered if not for this ingenious site! Pinterest is my favorite social media site by far – it is 10x more user-friendly than Facebook, and much more visual than Twitter. You Tube is great, but people don’t always have time to watch a whole video. With Pinterest you can see 300 new pins in the same time it would take to watch a 3 minute video. Love it!

Day, a classmate his girlfriend to the bedroom to find him. Coincides with something temporarily out that his girlfriend will be sitting on his bed waiting for him. Sitting without incident, she would look at everywhere. I saw the bed hung a handwritten calligraphy couplet: flowers blooming spring garden, for a person to reward music boundless. Woman thought: "But, he also calligraphy, like flowers." Hearts coursing endless, feel the eyes on the shift, but suddenly his face ashen. I saw the scroll reads: harem Long live!http://www.amarbolsos.com

 Timeline is not innovating !

More over it was interesting to see,this theme delivers multi column layout, extending the facility to add any number of images to the pinboard. The Pinterest theme is the ultimate social pinboard clone theme for starting a Pinterest like website..consumers have advance part of world to connectivity more social medias... Pinterest Templates-

interesting that pinterest drives more traffic than youtube. Perhaps people still relate easier and quicker to images rather than videos? Or maybe an image doesn't say enough, so folks want to click on it and see what the deal is about?

The only thing that people don't like from Pinterest, perhaps their invitation system for registration. But, I think they do it to prevent the website from spammers and scammers. Well, there's also another site that might be interesting for Pinterest users where we can vote and discuss all Pinterest submissions. It's called http://www.pinfaves.com No need invitation to join. You can sign up using FB

This was obviously written by a man who doesn't really understand how powerful Pinterest is...for women.  

I've been hearing a lot of Pinterest that I decided to give it a try. However, you gotta wait for the invite. Can anyone tell me how long does it aprox take? thanks

When it comes to social media and research I agree that Facebook will be gone in tens years or so it's just another fad at the moment and as everything goes through it's trends and cycles, whether it's online or offline (history does repeat itself as well as everything going through trends and cycles). Learn from our past and look to the future. One the best quotes I have heard was by Wayne Gretski ( I'm sure I didn't spell his last name correctly Sorry Wayne)" I don't go where the puck is I go where the puck will be" So research and keeping up on trends is essential to get you where the puck will be.

It's always best to get into these new sites as early as possible. The best advice is go slowly at first. Don't get carried away with commercial messages. Get involved in the fun part first. After you know your way around the promotion part will come naturally through a real and positive interaction of common interests.

http://screencast.com/t/OLApBl6Ze0oM Yeah, most don't care via convenience. i mean, hey, book mark stuff you like. Send people who you care if they know the bookmarks and then it isn't all tracked; but I guess web 3.0 is about sharing everything and not caring who knows or owns the data. I never took advantage of many free facebook applications for the same reason. I can't believe I let google track my location for a month. That is some scarey stuff once I saw the maps and the calendar and the basic stats report break down. People are opting in like never before. They are just happy to see stuff they like in one place. Since our brains have such short term memory, now we need websites to store what we like and others to show us what they like from what we like since we need validation from others we don't know. Odd but very real.

Ironic that I can't Pin this article because there are no images on the page.

I certainly hope so. I am not a fan of facebook but the ideal is a good one. It could be improved and then utilized for something a little more helpful than finding out what some person had for breakfast and whether or not they really enjoyed how it tasted. I believe that a much better mouse trap will be created and then facebook will just become a lot less 'In Your Face,' so to speak. It may not disappear entirely but will utlimately fade into a easily missed category. Pinterest sounds very interesting to me. Thanks for the Article Jason! Very nicely done. We are neighbors I live in northern Kentucky slash Cincinnati. Any way hope you have a good weekend and keep up that good work. J. 

 @Hnasarow - Agree! Pinterest makes it impossible to figure out how to do it for your business by requiring a link to your personal FB page. I submitted a query about this to Pinterest. If they make it this hard and time-consuming, forget it.

David- You honestly think that in 10 years, Facebook will be gone?That's almost like saying email will be gone. Facebook junkies can't start their days without checking FB first, because it plays into that human desire to know what their peers are doing, to covet what (or who) their friends have, and to boast about their own accomplishments (narcissism). Those are powerful emotions that people have a quick interface to, i.e. Facebook. MySpace died because they failed to innovate, started bombarding their users with ads, and FB took over its niche.Facebook will evolve over time (just as it has been), and it may be replaced by something people become more smitten with... but not in 10 years. It has become too engrained in people's lives, and it's pervasive: cell-phones come pre-loaded with it. People are now addicted to that avenue of communication.However, people are fickle with fleeting interests, which I believe was your point. With that said eventually FB might go away, but only because someone invented a better mousetrap. As long as they keep innovating and meeting the needs of their users, I think they will be around.

Nice post, I have been using Pintrest and find it very different and  enjoyable.

I think i need try out Pinterest and see if it works for me.nonetheless,i do appreciate the Technology

I can"t find any start-p.

Pinterest is largely overrated, and destined to become a flash in the pan. Too nichey to grow into something important. Just look at the users. About as much depth as the Shopping Channel and considerably less spontaneous than Twitter. Remember the Myspace Revolution? I look upon Pinterest as an online flea market, so if you're selling baby clothes or underwear for Valentine's day, go for it. Just as Facebook's wrinkled visage is starting to show, in 10 years we will look back at these phenomena and say: Gee, remember when we used to (wear padded shoulders and big hair, or bell-bottoms and patchouli, or skinny pants and shaven heads)?   

Love the user data policy. I'm just sayin'...

FYI you can connect it to your company's Twitter account, that works quite well. 

Hi Karl..Engineers are very creative people..I would thing the company could do some really cool things by tapping into the collective mindset of the engineers and let them develope an employee page.. or solutions page..could be fun way for them to get together as a collective and have some fun on a new medium. Jennifer Abernethy Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Media The Sales Lounge PS: Jason..great article!

Engaging, inclusive, like it a lot! Am helping a friend launch a new business and will definitely include Pinterest, with interest, in the media mix! And maybe a little pinfest of my very own...

You're right, this medium is really female friendly. I just can't imagine guys having boards for their sports teams, cars, fave beers, etc., though they DO go for those baseball cards! LOL I can't imagine a better medium for reaching female customers, but will it work for guys?

I was reading a post another photographer put up about Pinterest which delved into the T&C's for images uploaded to their service. Apparently by uploading images and content to the site, you are granting them full rights to use, license or sell it at their discretion.   Article - http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/02/pinterest-copyright-issues.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article&page=allExcerpt - By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.

Great informative article!

Thank you for saying this...SO MANY pins have NO source info whatsoever.  FRUSTRATING. Someone will just pin a pretty picture of a fabulous dress...then you don't know where it came from.  I'm thinking..."I want to buy that dress immediately" (seriously) and without any source info, I say "screw it" and leave the site because I'm so frustrated (again).

I agree ( I too am a recent pinterest fanatic) and I have followed certain people and businesses, but only certain boards, based on my interest. The main reason is because I get information overload. I have found though that others re-pin to boards that are called something "fun" and have nothing to do with the subject matter. It may be a "deal", but will get pinned and then repinned on a board called "Great Bling" or the next one will be "Styles I Love". I do agree it could limit the initial exposer.

I have a personal account and have tried setting an account up for our business by sending an invite. Since it links up to Facebook it doesn't seem to allow multiple accounts. I have added our product to my personal page which some of my followers have repined but I can't seem to figure how how to create a seperate page which will link to business Facebook account.

For me Pinterest is not that a huge revolution ans something completely different that we have to adapt to it. And that's probably a reason why it works and its growing in popularity. We are all already used to post videos, images and things we like on our facebook pages and twitter accounts. I see Pinterest as a way to keep our other pages clean and not to clug them up with all kinds of stuff. It's also an easiest way to share our interests with others. With the "Pin Button" it's now really easy to share anything. For now it's more used on a personal level, but over time, and probably very quickly, companies will find new strategies to use it for their businesses. I'm curious to see what's going to happen! 

I agree.  Pinterest, is yet another example of our ability and desire to broadcast visually.  The most active users are creating virtual snapshots of their lives.  I'd personally be more inclined try a restaurant pinned onto a "most romantic places to dine" board from someone who has similar taste in categories such as design and style versus using a service like yelp or conducting a random internet search.

 LinkedIn perhaps is useful.  Otherwise join professional online forums in your industry, especially those forums that appeal to engineering types.

 Jeff is in the promotion of Pinterest business by the sounds of it!

I think people are scared of the "invitation only" screen.  I asked for an invite from Pinterest directly and was accepted in about 3 days.  I think as long as you don't start shoving your business down your customer's throats, it can definitely be successful.  For example, we have a sports apparel line that has a patented design on the clothing.  Our website is www.2toneapparel.com for more info.  Right now we are "pinning" cool sports uniforms, cool sports pics, etc.  Eventually we will start incorporating pictures of our clothing into our "pins".  We haven't started doing this yet, but a LOT of people are repinning our cool uniforms and I think we are drawing in possible customers once we start pinning our clothing.

online word-of-mouth. still the strongest way to market. 

The whole thing is awful and usable only for fashionists. It also lacks CS, and they act evasive (I tried to register and they said something like 'given the enormous interest you have been put in a queue, we'll contact you soon'. Two hours later, they sent me a proper invitation/authorization). You cannot post from Facebook as well. Don't waste your time, the article smells just 'promotion'.

All good until who knows when China will block it again when it becomes popular.  Then there'll be a Chinese version of it. Ugh.

I did read about their affiliate links model. I wonder how sustainable this kind of revenue will be, and if the dollars created are significant. It has worked for other affiliate marketing sites.

The reason why Facebook, Twitter etc. became so popular for posting ads for business is because those business's target consumers are using these kind of social media tools. There is no best social intermediary in the world, it all depends on your target market.

Very interesting! Pictures are easier to take in sometimes - "a picture can say more than thousands words" so I think it can be the perfect channel for some companys but as every thing else you need a strategic plan and maintain the page all the time if you want result. I haven't joind Pinterest yet so can't comment on the usability, but I like the idea and think it can come to good use for companys that have something to deliver through pictures (so it's not something for exactly every business).

If you're in the seo business, you ignore pinterest at your peril...

They already have a revenue stream, they append all affiliate links, and get paid by content owners every time somone repins a link.

As a tool to track trends, find a new look for a room in your house, party ideas for your kids, or wedding, it's great. The focus isn't on products but on creativity. Extremely useful to millions.

This sounds very interesting, like a visual blog of sorts.  I guess the old proverb " a picture is worth a thousand words" applies here

It's all technical driven,  they have to accommodate their web servers and technical resources to the increasing number of signups. 

Very interesting. What kind of business you are in?

I may soon join a company that is strictly B2B marketing to a very small universe of 4000-5000 engineers across America. I have found these guys are not posting to Facebook like , say like, OMG, teenagers nor do they twitter the day away. Pintrest, while interesting on a personal level, does not appear to be a useful tool for us. I have been wrong before though so if someone has some ideas, bring em on ! 

 Please send me your email so I can forward you an invite.

Pinterest may be next big "social" thing but like most social media networks, it takes time, resources, engagement and depth to make the most of it. Pinterest is unique than other social media sites. You can create a pinboard as you want. It also offers a handy bookmarklet  that you can add to your web browser  toolbar, because of that bookmarklet you can easily pin your photos, videos you come across as you're browsing the Web.  

With Pinterest being the site to most quickly achieve 10M unique users a month and driving insane amounts of traffic to many many sites, any company that wants to stay in the game will take a serious look at if and how Pinterest can be part of their social mix and branding efforts.  I work for www.StyleBistro.com and we are running a contest around New York Fashion Week on Pinterest. Here is the link so you can see an example of how a company can utilize the platform: http://www.stylebistro.com/News+and+Pics/articles/V9sE81OQFS9/Enter+StyleBistro+Pinterest+Contest+Chance There are many ways that companies can use Pinterest to build out their brand. There have been many oodles of articles on the subject as of late and I would encourage you to check them out and then and only then make a decision. 

Ever heard of MySpace?  Its an ever changing world and you have to go with it.  But yes, businesses do need to be careful how and where they interact with the public and work an 18 month strategy (no, 5 year strategies don't cut it any more) rather than try to be everywhere.

I think companies are not fully utilizing Pinterest to their favor because 1. they don't understand the ultimate values and 2. do not know where to start. I recently started a Pinterest page for our website, and it brought more views and  user sign ups quicker than Facebook or Twitter has. Literally in ten minutes of doing my first "pins", I was having people come on the website like wildfire.

As a SAHM now, I can tell you that Pinterest is HUGE amongst my girl friends.  Big for pinning recipes, craft ideas, inspirational rooms/products, holiday ideas, etc.  I know only one guy on it, and he's an ad agency pres. (Thinking he's not really using it, more "following" it.)  As a former catalog marketer for 15+ yrs, I can tell you this can be a big traffic diver to specific products.  I've noticed some smart sites already have the little "Pin It" icon next to their product images.  Pinterest is good, as this article states, for a company's own boards, but the real power is when you get a pinner to pin straight from your webpage and explain in her words why she loves this product.  THAT is where you want to be.  I would invest in putting the Pin It icon on your pages first, before spending time becoming a pinner yourself.  And on a side note, I'm willing to bet the sellers on Etsy are finding this to be a huge traffic driver already.  Pinners LOVE unique ideas (or at least something they've never seen before.)

I tried Pinterest but gave up! It will only let me login if I agree to convert to Facebook Timeline!  Not something I want to do.

I find it interesting that there's a waiting list to join...what's the harm in making it self-signup?

I have been hearing my friends and coworkers raving about Pinterest for their personal use. But now I am looking at it from a different view, especially for my business. I wonder how a B2B marketing company can utilize Pinterest.. Any ideas?

interesting - but one correction (as a pinterest fanatic myself): people who follow you can choose which of your boards you follow, so it's not true that you "Don't fret about creating multiple boards. People who follow you will see them all." Unless all your boards are full of interesting content, people will unfollow them (and perhaps you). So there's the risk that users could follow only your "Deals" board for example and not see a board of new product launches. A friend and I were discussing how we're now editing the choice of boards we follow, not just the list of people.

 If it aint broke don't fix it attitude will get you lost in the dust in this day and time.  Pinterest is THE hottest internet thing going among women now.  Pre-wedding to grandmother ages.

Ironically I can't pin this page. I think Pinterest is a great concept, but like all social media sites brands need to make sure they get it right if they are going to be involved. There's no point in 'pinning for pinnings sake'. It's the same thing a lot of brands were guilty of when mobile apps first start getting attention. If you can do something that is interesting and useful to the viewer it will be shared, if not, it'll just gather dust.

My question is this, How much room is there for yet another social media platform in the current market place?  I feel that although social engagement is great and a must, but business owners need to be careful not to spread themselves to thin by targeting yet another marketing channel.  A saying I usually recommend, if it's not broken then it don't need fixing.  I look forward to learning more on this when it becomes a true global mover and shaker.  Cheers, Joseph Gourvenec SEO & Search Specialist

Everyone's talking about pinterest. Was just discussing it over Skype when Linkedin dropped this article into my inbox. It's huge already.

Impressive that they were able to start making money so quickly out of the start up stage compared to FB, Twitter and many other social media properties. They've got my attention and I'll be following closely now.

I don't think it "is becoming". I think it already has become the big thing. The trick is finding out how to turn those clicks into actions within your site.

Guys who can send me invite? I would really appreciate it!  Sincerely, Artash

The rise of the power of pictures is back, and Pinterest is driving the market, so if you want some of that power pointing to your brand or website you have to join and start interacting!....

I have really enjoyed learning Pinterest - thanks for these great tips.

While I was reading this, a lightbulb went off over my head.  I have been wondering how to make Pinterest work for me and now I think I have a plan. 

There certainly seems to be a lot of hype about it and it is certainly impressive that they are making money already through compressed links. But are people just rushing to the site because of the hype. Do we really want to see endless images that other people think are important?!

Thanks for the post because I meant to figure out the pinterest for marketing, I keep seeing it. Go intro!

I just sent a request to join Pinterest. It seems pretty interesting. So yes, you can put up images without being too promotional, that's the key :) Thanks for giving such a comprehensive overview.

In this case, it actually does. Pinterest is not open to the public so anyone using the service is a registered user.

I can't wait to investigate Pinterest, thanks so much for sharing. :)

eBay was damaged forever after companies became the majority of sellers and diminished the grass roots aspect of it. Now it's just another shopping site. Sounds like you're encouraging businesses do do the same thing, to essentially "monetize" Pinterest.

I think, as stated above, it depends what business. I wouldn't use it for my ad agency....but my hobby is making and selling jewelry on etsy. One of my boards features my jewelry ( only one board out of 8 or so). I have definitely receved traffc at my etsy site from Pinterest. Iam going to test it out for some of my clients..ahould be interesting to see if any get clicks from it,

I've got an account and I'm UK based.

I wanted to know what the difference between Pinterest and a tool like Instagram.. because Instagram is also based on the sharing of pictures (your own pictures). Could it be a great tool too for business, couldn't it? 

Great post Jason. I'm using Pinterest as a way to share my love of cars (in general, old Porsches, Shelbys and car stuff) and to help promote people who blog about cars, car culture and the industry. I also started a board for our dog Wendell just for fun and another board I call "This not Pinteresting". I am amazed at how quickly people respond to things that you share. I'm informally tracking what shares most (a picture of a Dodge Charger in red gets more action than I thought) and and how quickly it gets shared. It's also interesting to follow the pinning process from what I post to see where people repin. My best!

I find the Pin It button really useful for this sort of thing. You can add it to your browser and pin and categorize your pin to your boards with ease. You can create new boards with this tool as well ... also very handy! 

I agree. I've pinned several great car photos that I like and want others to enjoy. When I do, I always give credit to the origin, and if possible, I'll ask for permission. The tough part is when you repin someone else's pin - you never know if they have behaved in a similar manner. 

Great post, Jason. Pinterest is certainly gaining much favor amongst across all types of connected audiences—not just socially savvy marketers! ;-)  Brands will need to leverage this audience growth and engagement through Pinterest pages that contribute to the community and stay on brand. Here's another article that brands may want to take a look at: http://www.fourthsource.com/social-media/is-pinterest-of-interest-for-your-brand-6249

That is a big issue right now with photographers, bloggers, and designers with Pinterest. One major thing you should ALWAYS do is make sure your pin or repin has the original site linked. Photographers always need to watermark their images as well. With designers, you cannot watermark your work all the time, so it makes it harder. But anyone using Pinterest, PLEASE keep in mind the artist's work and give that shout out in your link.

Rick - go to www.pinterest.com and request an invite.

I started using Pinterest because I love that it's visually driven, a place to hold and organize things that inspire me, interests, research and the best part... NO OPINIONS!  The images speak for themselves and unlike every other social site, no one has to feel pressure to say anything about the things they pin.. It's absolutely refreshing.  

I just signed up last week and have not had much time to post anything yet, but getting ready to test the water's with it soon. The site functions well and it is easy to use. I decided to start gaining some follower and doing some following first. All the time on my Face Book page I see people posting thing's that they are addicted to Pinterest or the site is really awesome. Nothing bad about it.

How does one signup for Pinterest ?

Is this going to be made available in the UK anytime soon?

Pinterest is not only a great to opportunity for brand building through pinning images of your products, but also to express your sources of inspirations and your creativity. There is also place to customize corporate profiles using the boards, just like this: http://pinterest.com/bestrelations/ . This is useful with those who follow back you, because their first impression will be your brand.

Hi Jason, I just wanted to correct one thing. You wrote, "If you run a lawn-care center, for instance, pin pictures of landscaping you find online or snap in your community. " Your readers should know that if you take a picture you find online without permission or paying for it, it is stealing. You open yourself up for legal action by the photographer. Thanks

Gill, maybe you didn't get the point, unless he works for the MLB, then this is not exactly what most would label as self-absorbed or brand-pushing. It is simply an interest he has, what would you prefer? 

 Hi Mikalee. I just upload a pin (a quote or a image that has something to do with my blogpost) and then I link it to my blogpost. It's possible to edit any pin and to add a link to it. And very often people re-pin my pins with still my link in it, so it's free advertisement too. It worked for me :-) lol

This is a great opportunity for truly creative marketing/advertising individuals to show how direct and indirect visual advertising can work in a social media setting. It will be very interesting to see how things develop.

I'm a total Pinterest newbie...how do you promote your blog via Pinterest? I'm curious...

I think Pinterest is an excellent way to market your (visual) product ... For free! My blog has also gotten a little boost thanks to Pinterest. :-) The only anoying thing is getting in. I had to wait 3 weeks before I got an invitation.

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