Share the things you love.

Pinterest is designed to foster and share things you enjoy with like-minded individuals. Pinterest should not be used purely as a tool for self-promotion.

Clicks count.When you post interesting photos at your site, Pinterest offers you a unique, visual opportunity for promotion, marketing, and getting feedback to and between a virtual crowd.

Once an image is pinned [to the member’s board] it can be liked or repinned by people who have visited the board, and thus, it becomes an item of social sharing.

Product testing. By checking how many times a photo has been pinned and liked, Pinterest can function as a virtual focus group for testing brands and designs, to run contests, and to drive sales.

As an example, the DIY marketplace Etsy has 54,000 followers and has created 26 boards with more than 700 pins.

Their images show the artful nature of products and engage the viewer.

Priceless.

Some products on Pinterest have price tags displayed in order to promote purchasing, but typically images are simply designed for sharing and brand promotion in this unique marketplace.

The hard sell.As a social network, companies need to be careful of hard-sell tactics on Pinterest. It’s more effective to promote a lifestyle through imagery.

Color

Engage.

Repin.

Like.As a visual board, it’s critical that brands include images that are fun, vibrant, and full of color.

Collect.

As an example, a typical Pinterest member might be redesigning her living room. As she searches through myriad sites for furniture and accessories, she can pin her favorites to her Pinterest board

Choices.Companies can benefit greatly by creating their own Pinterest board to test designs and concepts.

When compared to the expense of traditional focus groups, not only is Pinterest more cost effective, it can reach a larger, broader audience.

Pretty packaging.

Make sure you have images on your website that lend themselves to sharing.

• Get started by creating your Pinterest pinboard. There is a waiting list, so create yours today.

Track results. Place your new photos on targeted landing pages within your site so that you can easily collect data about which designs are shared most often and clicked.

Use Google Analytics or other tracking software to monitor inbound clicks to those landing pages that come from Pinterest.

Participate.

Pinterest is just one component of the social network. It is not a replacement for other well-established networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn COMBINED.