The new kid on the block, in its astounding rise from nowheresville, is now officially one of the big boys. This most vertically trending social media site has captured the imagination of millions of people, and is rapidly growing. A strong creative element makes this beast as unique as they come.

Ranked the third-largest such network, after Facebook and Twitter, this belle of the social media is being used by all sorts of brands in all sorts of ways. We’ve seen it becoming an important part of marketing for many. Frank Kern, a hugely successful and much respected Internet marketer recently joined Pinterest too and is just one of the marketing gurus who find Pinterest irresistible.

In November last year, Pinterest rolled out special accounts for all sorts of businesses. Here’s what they wrote on their site: “Whether you’re a publication, brand, designer, blogger, retailer, online merchant, non-profit organization, institution, or local business, we’d like to get to know you better so that we can provide the right tools and support to help you inspire people on Pinterest.

If your organization is new to Pinterest, sign up on Pinterest for a business account. Existing accounts on Pinterest can be easily converted by following the steps on the business site.”

THE APPEAL TO MARKETERS

One of the common problems for small businesses is: You have a great product or opportunity, but your marketing budget doesn’t match those better established competitors. Pinterest Marketing can help you level that playing field.

Network marketers have problems with recruiting. Pinterest images can lead your prospects to your network marketing blog or website, for you to convert them.

Daily unique visitors for Pinterest are estimated to be about 2 million, and the average time on the site is 15 minutes/day per visitor.

For those with no inkling on how Pinterest works, it can be difficult to believe that these boards can result in referral traffic to their websites or blogs. But the fact is that in 2012, Pinterest drove the maximum traffic to websites, when compared to the combined traffic from sites like LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit etc. If you are looking for social media tips, one huge tip is to start utilizing Pinterest!

The attraction this site enjoys is because it uses beautiful picture messages to convey stories without using bland, unadorned words.

The first step to Pinterest marketing is obviously is to get a Pinterest account and create a professional-looking profile. Always upload a professional picture, as that is your brand. A well-lit headshot image of yourself, even if it’s a business profile, can be very powerful. Remember – people buy from people!

You can then create online “boards” (collages) for different topics, and add images and videos to your boards by “pinning” them. It’s almost like a virtual pinboard where you can “pin” interesting images of your own or those you find over the Internet – as long as they’re copyright free.

Pinning has to be done strategically. Your pins should paint a picture of your business and reveal the possibilities. Keep them diverse. Don’t just stick to promoting your business and products. Create boards of your interests and have fun! Here’s a few of my own boards to give you an idea:

Users of Pinterest can follow other users to stay updated with their pins. They have the choice to follow a specific topic, category or a single board within a user’s account.  Users are also allowed to comment on other pins, which is great for interaction. When a user “repins” your images, it’s almost as if they’re referring you to people they know.  In the world of social media, being socially endorsed increases your chances of gaining new clients.

I have also recently started using a free tool called Pinstamatic which has really helped enhance my Pinterest pins and increased my traffic. You can view a super quick tutorial I did on this below.

• Back Links: Pinterest links your images back to your websites, blogs, lead capture pages, content pages or even press releases you want to send people to, with the use of a photo pinner or uploader.  This way, all interested users are directed to your website once they click on your pin board.

This will work ONLY if you make your pins as appealing as possible, to get the most mileage out of your Pinterest Marketing campaign. Everybody loves images, and just as we spend hours on end on photo albums, you can achieve the same impact with creative image pinning.

• Keyword Usage: Using targeted keywords in your “About us” section and “pin descriptions” is an essential part of your SEO efforts – an excellent way to increase your referral traffic and a great Pinterest Marketing strategy, with the possibility of gaining page one ranking on Google or Bing.

• Networking: Just like blogging, Pinterest can pave the way to building relationships with bloggers you like and would like to exchange links with. You can post meaningful comments, share helpful resources and link to a bloggers content if it’s related to your niche and if you feel your readers can benefit.

While Pinterest doesn’t allow affiliate links, you can still earn commissions by promoting your own blog or website selling affiliate products or promoting network marketing.

If you’re a network marketer use Pinterest marketing to produce theme boards, based on the different groups on your website. Be totally interactive in your approach, discuss with others, let others share your pins with their followers and friends. Lead them to your website or blog but don’t sound promotional.

But just as even the best steak doesn’t appeal to a vegetarian, you need to put the right message in front of the right people. Before commencing Pinterest Marketing, you must make sure if Pinterest is suitable for your market.

Here is a great Infrographic I found by Karen Leland on Entrepreneur.com which gives some great social media tips on using Pinterest.

Pinterest has a totally different demographic when compared to Facebook. While many people on Facebook are teenagers with little or no disposable income to spend; a majority of users on Pinterest are women aged between 25-34 years, and they all belong to the $50,000 plus annual income bracket. More than 50% of them are parents and the great thing is – they spend hours on the site. They are prolific shoppers and end up spending a lot of money buying stuff promoted on Pinterest. Research shows that around 81% of American online consumers trust the recommendations coming from Pinterest.

So the above statistics and social media tips reveal that we marketers have a goldmine on our hands and Pinterest is vital to be involved in.

With Pinterest generating much more website traffic than Google +, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, and with the users willing to buy, what else can a marketer ask for?

More than 100+ brands are currently using Pinterest Marketing in their online marketing campaigns.  Unmetric, a social media-benchmarking company recently assessed the most popular boards that generated the most followers, likes, repins and comments. Not surprisingly, the most popular branded boards are all women-friendly: food, fashion, weddings and home. This is a fact that many have capitalized on in their Pinterest Marketing campaigns.

While the majority of Pinterest users are women, the trend is changing quickly. Men are taking an interest in this high-voltage platform and a whole lot of products are beginning to do well.

Social Media Tips: Just Pin It

Everything about our lives revolves around networking with others, whether it’s personal or business-related. Pinterest is becoming a much sought after venue for entrepreneurs to introduce their products and services through visual images instead of marketing through words alone. Use Pinterest creatively to develop your brand.

If you come up with images with/without text overlays, graphs, videos, charts, Slideshare presentations and anything worth sharing – if it’s relevant to your business and your customers – pin it!  That really is one of the best social media tips I can give. So there we have it, don’t forget to connect with me here on Pinterest. Please get in touch if you need any help or post a comment below if you have your own social media tips.