Besides now being the number three most-popular social network in the U.S., many companies indicate that Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic to their sites than even Facebook.

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to visually share, curate, and discover new interests by  posting, also known as ‘pinning,’ images or videos to their own or others’ pinboards (i.e. a collection of ‘pins,’ usually with a common theme). Users can either upload images from their computer or pin things they find on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet, Pin It button, or just a URL. Using a visual emphasis, the social network is very much focused on the concept of a person’s lifestyle, enabling you to share your interests and preferences with others and discover those of like-minded people.

As far as using Pinterest for your business:

• Start with making boards on a specific topic which relates to your industry. Pinterest is about visual content so you will need to create pinboards that highlight your best visual content as well as promoting other users’ pins.
• If people love your products, there’s a good chance you’ve already debuted on Pinterest. Here’s a trick: Check for yourself by going to pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com to see the users pinning your photos. You may find that customers pin many photos, have photos that get re-pinned or liked, and even have some Pinterest followers comment on their pins.
• Promote your account through other social networks as well as your website. Add the “Pinit” button to each of your products on your site. You can find it right here.
• This infographic put together by Pinnable business provides information on how to optimize every pin you post — it includes best practices for sizing, linking, sharing and repining.
• Engage with other users and follow those that you think may follow you back.

Some examples of how brands are using Pinterest to react, share, and convert:

Chobani’s Pinterest account doesn’t just feature its different yogurt types, but it also shares recipes of how users can use its products differently. Chobani also has a featured board called “Nothing but Good,” the company’s tagline, which only showcases fun and funny pictures that go along with its brand image; there’s no yogurt to be seen. In this way, Chobani is embracing the main goal of Pinterest -- to focus on the concept of a person’s lifestyle and encouraging users to share their tastes and interests with others and discover those of like-minded people.

With more than 100,000 followers, the online shopping website, Etsy,  is one of the most popular on

Pinterest. As a retailer of homemade and vintage goods, Etsy creates pinboards that really take to heart what its brand stands for. They show you how you can make your own products and how to put their products to work in your daily life, which again, emphasizes the lifestyle philosophy that Pinterest promotes. They provide their customers with new ideas for how they can use their products to give them more reasons and incentives to buy from them.

Minted is a great example of a paper company that has created  themed pinboards that show unique ways to use paper, mixed in with other related lifestyle photos, such as in its “Trick or Treat” Halloween board.

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