Have you tried Pinterest yet? It's one of the hottest things in social media right now. In fact, the online social pinboard is growing faster than Facebook when it was its size, with more than 7 million unique visitors in December.
The beauty of Pinterest lies in its simplicity. The site harnesses the power of the personal referral. By creating topic-specific pinboards, you can organize and share the things you love with others, in a visually pleasing way. You also can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new foods, adventures and opportunities, and to get inspiration from people who share your interests.
Here are six reasons to use this creative social bookmarking tool.
1. Promote your Business or Blog
If you're a small-business owner or if you moonlight on the side, Pinterest is a useful tool to promote new products and interact with potential customers. You can create pinboards for the types of products you sell (with links back to your website) and add boards like "Things We Love," "Sale Items" or "Gift Ideas." But it's important to remember not to make your Pinterest profile all about your business.
Give your customers a reason to follow you by creating boards that they'll find useful, such as "Insider Tips" or "Top Trends." You can also host contests like "Pin it to Win It," where your customers are rewarded for adding your products to their pinboards. Etsy, the online hub for handmade items, is already garnering lots of interest on Pinterest, with more than 46,000 followers and 22 vibrant boards. In addition, many Etsy sellers share creations on Pinterest, too. If you're a blogger, be sure to add a pin to your blog or website to allow easy sharing of your content.
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2. Decorate your Home
You can use Pinterest to collect inspiration for your latest home design project or to build your dream home. Creating a "DIY Home Décor" board is fun, too. Dagmar Bleasdale, a mom, blogger and entrepreneur from New York, loves organizing her home remodeling ideas into specific category boards, such as "Shabby Chic," "Living Room," "Cool Use of Color," and "Cool Houses." You can then share your home décor boards with family and friends to get their input using the Pinterest comments function.
3. Find Dinner Inspiration
Pinterest not only makes it easy to keep must-try recipes in order, but it's also a great tool to help get you out of the midweek dinner rut. Discovering interesting new dishes is easy. In the mood for salmon? Search for it on Pinterest and tons of ideas will pop up from other users. It's fun to create different boards for different occasions and different kinds of foods, too.
For instance, Annalise Sandberg (a.k.a "Completely Delicious" on Pinterest) of Salt Lake City, Utah, has created eclectic chow boards to cover all bases, including "Baking Inspiration," "Dinner Inspiration," "From My Kitchen" and "Booze Inspiration." You can also collect all the recipes you'd like to make that week onto a single menu board. Or if you just like looking at pretty food photography, Pinterest will keep you entertained for hours.
4. Create a Collector's Showcase
As a hobbyists or special-interest enthusiast, you can pin photos of your personal collection and display them on the striking Pinterest interface. Or you can collect images from around the web and create a wish list board. For example, Trina Prenzi of Midland, Mich., hosts several collection boards, including "Aprons," "Beautiful Bottles," "Birdhouses" and a "Stamp Collection." The site's also a great way for crafters and DIY-ers to showcase their wares online. So whether you love leopard print, like to knit potholders, or enjoy collecting Star Wars figurines, Pinterest is a great place to show off your treasures.
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5. Throw a Party
Stay organized by creating a board filled with decorating and food ideas for your next party or event. If you have a theme in mind, it's easy to pin ideas as you're perusing the web and collect them in one place. Graphic designer and blogger Amy Locurto's "Party Ideas {By Party People}" board is chock-full of unique entertaining ideas. You can also make boards of gift ideas for friends. Pinterest is great for wedding planning, too -- it can replace that massive binder that's packed with torn-out pages from bridal mags.
6. Plan a Travel Itinerary
Whether you're dying to visit Italy, Alaska or St. Louis, Pinterest can help keep all your travel plans in order. You can pin reviews of great restaurants, sights and hotels. Create a "Travel Bucket List" board of places you'd love to visit one day. Also, be sure to pin your photos once you return from your vacation to make sure all your friends know what a wonderful time you had. Artist/blogger Ivy Newport has stunning boards dedicated to "Greece," "Italy," By the Seaside" and general "Travel." Or create a "Mental Vacation" board so you can get away any time you'd like.
Ready to get started? You can visit the site and request an invitation, or get an invite from a friend who's already signed up.
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This story originally appeared on SecondAct.com
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Comments:
My favorite idea is the menu/food board as a way to organize favorite recipes. Now I keep different blogs in my favorites folder but with a board I can easily access all the recipes and sources. I just now got on Pinterest after hesitating for a while and I love it. It can get addictive but the potential for using it as a marketing tool is HUGE. I would say even better than Twitter or Facebook.
Kara, I have to say you have come up with some individual and new suggestions I haven't heard for Pinterest! Well done! I am certainly intrigued by the party theme!
It's in anteresting idea. I can see it to be great use in some aspects but not others. I'm a Danville, CA chiropractor at Lifestyle Chiropractic http://www.lifestylechiro.net/ . I'm not sure if that would help that business. However, being a member fo the Search and Rescue team for Contra Costa and being a outdoor gear lover I could make a gear wish list. There is where value could be. Thanks for sharing. Now all I need is an invite,
Love the idea of a travel pinboard, thanks!
I just started on pinterest and I think it will probably be better for my business that face book because my business is very visual. I just pin my pictures from website and people repin them.. I sell wreaths so a picture is worth a thousand words. As for sales nothing yet, but we will see. If not it is just another way for me to get my name and products in front of people.
Pinterest is a place of "Positivity" and people's actual "interest", while other social media websites have slowly turned into a more negative approach "Venting" space where people post their complaints about work, other people, or even just negative thoughts about their life. People want to see something that makes them smile and happy. Pinterest is doing just that.
I think the main reason why Pinterest so suddenly became such a big hit is that Pinterest surrounds "Positivity" of what people like and is interested. While other social medias have turned into a "showing off" or "venting" space about daily complaints about work, friends, drama, or what they just recently bought...etc. Most people still prefers "Posivitiy", something that make them happy. ^__^
Pinterest is definitely an interesting product, however they are not along. There are some more products that deserve user attention. For example inQuber (inquber.com). The idea behind it is more or less like pinterest one, however they have different contents - more entertainment, more for men. And they have some interesting features pinterest lacks.
What i think is that pinterest will be more useful for the restaurant, travel and home decor kind of businesses and not be helpful that much for all the businesses. And i have read so many articles on pinterest but till date i could not understand that exactly what one can do to promote their business with pinterest. But i will make more analysation on this social network and will find out the way how to publish own business with it!
Thanks for sharing ... Pinterest is a fascinating case study in how the social web has evolved over the past couple years. I've been reluctant to dive into Pinterest because 1) my business doesn't really lend itself to images and 2) I'm pretty busy creating blog, video and podcast content. I'm going to give it another shot though, because I see the value referred to above.
Pinterest: scrapbooking, jet-propelled by the internet.
It's amazing how that one simple idea can grow your company.
Flavor of the season.
Pinterest's success really isn't all that surprising. On Facebook, graphics, photos and videos go viral faster than anything else. Pinterest harnesses our obsession with visuals and builds an open network based off of common interests. It's genius and simple.
Many companies are jumping in the Pinterest wagon because the site already proof to be a great source of web referrer traffic. And those visitors are very responsive!
The phenomenol growth of Pinterest's traffic is just outstanding. Within the last three months the site got a vertical boost in Alexa traffic graph. This proves that this is how a unique & new idea works.
seems a little bit biased post..
Online marketing trends show that Pinterest is not a site marketers will want to dismiss. It's being reported that Pinterest.com is the fastest growing website in history. Part of the beauty of the site is that the pins are all mini ad referrals. The uses are absolutely endless. It'll be interesting to see how Pinterest monetizes the site. After several years and VC funding, we are finally seeing Twitter beginning to monetize their site. My fingers are crossed that Pinterest creates long-term value for both users and marketers vs. a here today and gone tomorrow fade.