At first I wasn’t sure what the whole Pinterest fad was about, I didn’t understand what it was and I couldn’t figure out why all of my friends were obsessed with it. I finally joined the bandwagon and made an account and I fell in love with the site. Pinterest has given me countless recipes, craft ideas, and outfit inspiration over the past year and I highly recommend that you start exploring the site if you’ve never been on it.

So now that I’ve raved about it, you’re probably wondering “What exactly is Pinterest?”

Mashable defines Pinterest as “a social network built on recommendations. Members “pin” things to the site they like, usually photos. Like Instagram or Tumblr, the entrée for brands doesn’t seem immediately obvious, but, as the list below illustrates, there are opportunities.”

Below is a screenshot of my home page on Pinterest.

As you can see, Pinterest is a very visual site, it is basically the online equivalent of cutting pictures out of magazines and pasting them in a collage.

Since it was created, Pinterest has seen enormous growth. The site has five million users with 1.5 million unique visitors visiting it daily. Last year Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than social media monsters LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube, combined.

Pinterest’s rapid growth has made it an extremely valuable marketing tool. socialmediatoday.com tells the success story of how one pin on Pinterest helped launch an entire company. Read the full story here: Pinterest Success Story.

Below is the picture that completely revolutionized RodWorks and made them an online success.

Top brands that market themselves on Pinterest include Whole Foods, Martha Stewart, and Better Homes and Gardens. These companies market their brands by posting not only their products, but craft ideas, inspirational quotes, and recipe ideas to help generate brand loyalty.

Companies have been created that will set up a Pinterest account for your business and create boards to promote your brand as well as pin and repin collages and images.

CopyBlogger has an extremely interesting and helpful article about Pinterest marketing, 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest, and I highly suggest that all marketing majors read it!

Happy pinning!