We’re sure most of you have heard about it by now, it’s the darling of the start-up world: Pinterest. Launched in February of 2010, it has quickly gained respect in the online world.
But what exactly is Pinterest? And what does it have to do with your business
As the clever (yet simple) name suggests, it’s a pin board that lets you share and organise all of the cool things that you find on a pin board. The difference about this pin board is that it’s virtual! You can collate the things you find online and share them in theme-based collections about your hobbies, events, interests, and more. You can also browse through other people’s pin boards for inspiration, you can ‘follow’ them, you can ‘re-pin’ their images to your collection, and you can also ‘like’ the pins of other pinners.
Pinned out yet?? 
Well here’s a pretty example of how DBG client E for Ethel have used Pinterest:
Users of Pinterest are predominantly female, and users are already spending more time ‘pinning’ than they are on Facebook. If you’re wanting to know more about the average user of Pinterest, check out this (awesome) infographic created by Mashable: 13 ‘Pinteresting’ Facts About Pinterest Users
So, I can already hear your minds ticking over – ‘How can I use Pinterest as part of my business’ online strategy?’
Well rather than re-hash something that’s already been done, we’ll direct you to the well thought out list compiled by eConsultancy on 11 ways to use Pinterest as a brand. Some more really creative uses employed by big brands can be seen at over at Marketing Mag’s Top 10 uses of Pinterest by brands. As you can see, when you allow yourself to be creative, Pinterest really does have endless possibilities! Election campaign tool, engagement through competitions, website traffic generator…. the list goes on!
Most important to note, is that Pinterest drives more traffic to retail sites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined (as reported by Mashable). So we’d like to think that maybe people running eCommerce websites out there are sitting up and taking notice of this new medium.
Just this week two of the eCommerce heavyweights, Amazon and eBay, both added Pinterest buttons to the product pages on their websites:
What better way to capture those Pinners while they’re on your site?? If you’re keen to add this button to your website, just check out the Goodies page on the Pinterest website for clear instructions. Note: You will need to have some HTML skills in order to do this, otherwise – leave it to your web developer!
If you’re already using Pinterest – we’d love you to share some stories on how you’re using it, and what you love about it!