By Paul Cunningham
Must admit to only becoming aware of this new social media phenomenon a few weeks ago and, having done a bit of research, I thought i’d share it just in case any of you also fall outside the 11 million+ registered subscribers Pinterest has to date.
How Does Pinterest Work?
Pinterest is essentially a picture sharing site where registered users ‘pin’ their images to their own ‘pin board’. Now this can be anything at all – it can be random stuff that you just like and want to share with others or it can be a number of images relating to an interest of yours. For instance you might have a passion for 60′s British roadsters, old corporation logo’s, vintage mens watches or a holiday cottage you really need to rent out. As a member you are able to browse subjects and if you come across something you’ve got an interest in you then ‘follow’ it just like you do inTwitter and you will then be notified when any new images are added to the board. You can also leave comments and join in discussions on each of the images that appear on the site.
How Will It Help A Company?
Well if you’re running a business that’s selling or producing something which would benefit from good images (which is pretty much anything) ie clothes, photography, accommodation, artwork etc this seems to be a very good oppurtunity to set up some boards to market your services because your photographs can contain links back to your own web sites product pages. The best long-term strategy from a sales angle would be to be a part of the community spirit for a short time before ‘hard-selling’ your products, ie ‘pin’ a few personal pictures and then over time bring in your items. This approach is possibly not totally neccessary but its just a personal choice when i join something which wasn’t intially designed to be a sales site.

















