Pinterest is the new social networking site that is growing like wildfire right now! With all of it’s beautiful pictures, easy to use, easy to share format we are flocking to Pinterest to see a whole new beautiful world out there.

There have been a lot of articles written on Pinterest lately but one that really stuck out for me was Copyblogger’s blog “ 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest.’”  There are a lot of great suggestions on how to use Pinterest to market your business effectively on this latest social media craze. Why bother you say? Well, Pinterest has close to five million users and is rapidly growing by leaps and bounds. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending at average of 15 minutes a day on the site.

So here are a few of my favorite tips from the Copyblogger article I thought would help you to make the most out of using Pinterest to help your business attract new followers:

* Be sure your feature your business name on your profile for maximum exposure. Use your business name as your username. If you have already set up your profile, you can go in and change your profile name to your business name.

* Do not forget to add your website URL in your profile. Also, connect your account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts for maximum exposure. Not only will it help you gain followers, but making this connection adds social media icons under your profile picture that link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

* Come up with creative and interesting board names. They get shared  whenever you pin something, so make them enticing. Be creative, but keep names short.

* Comment on other people’s pins. Just like tagging, this feature has not really caught on yet, so use it regularly to really engage with other users. And be sure to “Like’ other people’s pin to give a thumbs up when you want to recognize great content.

* Mix pinning your own unique finds with doing lots of ‘repinning’, which is repeating someone else’s pin to your followers. The person whose image you repinned gets notified via email, and they also get a credit on your pin, which increases their following.

* Feel free to pin your own blog posts, but don’t over-promote. Follow the usual etiquette rules of any other social media site, and don’t be the boorish one at the party who only talks about himself.

* When you pin an image, ad a description under it. Be smart about these descriptions- a good description will stay with an image as it gets repinned all over the Pinterest world. If the image is something from your own site, definitely use your business name in the description.

*   Create seasonal of holiday boards that relate to your business. Example:  Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, etc. Users love these.

*   Add a prominent Follow Me on Pinterest button to your website to advertise that you are a pinner!

*   Make sure you have a Pinterest button added to the footer of each of your blog posts so your readers can quickly and easily share your content on Pinterest.

*   Watch for trends. Click on the “Popular” link on your Pinterest home page to research what’s catching on with pinners.

*   Thinking about freshening up old photos, or going back through your blog archives and adding new fresh photos? Now is the time! Remember- the prettier the picture, the more pins you will get!

* Be yourself. Pinterest is all about personal expression, so don’t be afraid to pin stuff that represents who you really are.

Are you using Pinterest as a marketing tool? Any other great tips you would like to share? To see my boards click here. If you would like me to ‘invite you’ to set up an account at Pinterest (which means you will not have to wait to be put on a waiting list), comment below or email me here.

All photos from Pinterest, of course.

About the Author: Beth Hayden is a blogging coach and Pinterest marketing convert. You can follow her pins at @bethhayden.

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