Last week I attended a webinar on Pinterest for business. If you haven’t checked it out yet, Pinterest http://pinterest.com is social networking tool for pictures. You sign up, create a space (aka board) on the Pinterest site and “pin” images or videos you find on the web on your board. (You need to download an app to “pin”.) The idea is that you maintain your online bulletin board spaces, you can check out or follow the boards of others. It seems as if a lot of people use them to gather pictures for a wedding or house makeover they are planning.

Pinterest is growing rapidly. In January they were just shy of 12 million users (86% are women). Businesses and marketers are starting to look at how to use it. It can be a great tool if your product or service is visual. If not, Pinterest may not be a great tool for you. It’s great for nail polish, not so much for dental floss.

Here are some of the tips I heard for using Pinterest as a business:

• See what others are doing and learn from what seems to be working
• Be strategic, think about who you want to reach and what would interest them. Think about keywords they might use to find you or someone like you, use them in your boards and descriptions.
• Start a board – you may start a couple, but maintaining one well is a good first step
• Keep it going. This isn’t a build once tool.
• Align with your social media strategies. Mention you board in the blogs, Facebook, newsletters.
• Interact with you potential target market (follow them, repin them, comment)

And here are some of the top activities:

• Home
• Arts & Crafts
• Style/Fashion
• Food
• Inspiration/Education
• Holiday/Seasonal
• Humor
• Products
• Travel
• Kids

I’m not the biggest pinner, although once I found a topic that interested me I got into it a little. http://pinterest.com/attreacy/bands-i-ve-seen-in-2012/ If you haven’t checked Pinterest out, you might consider it.