By now we know social media is a big deal.  Tons of people use it, and they use it often.  The costs for businesses to utilize social media are low as well (can be free if the business owner is social media savvy, or can be low cost if a business utilizes a swell marketing company like ourselves).  Most people are familiar with Facebook by now and even Twitter.  But the young social media site Pinterest may be strange territory for some.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media site with a focus on images.  Users can create “boards” where they can “pin” images.   For example, a user may create a board called “dishes to try” and they may pin images of different dishes they may want to try to cook.  This user’s followers also may see these images, and they may “re-pin” an image.  The whole focus here is discovering, organizing and sharing images.

Who is Using Pinterest?

Pinterest users may vary of course across many demographics.  However, a large portion of Pinterest users are women.  These women are pinning images relating to fashion, cooking, travel, interior design, gardening, inspiration, etc.  If you are a business with a target market of women and you have an image-worthy product or service, you should strongly consider Pinterest.  Garden centers, restaurants, bakeries, boutiques, health centers, fashion brands, and home improvement centers are a few examples of business types that could benefit from utilizing Pinterest.

Pinterest appears to be sticking around for a while, and with a specific user demographic (women) it offers great opportunities for marketing small businesses.