Pinterest...isn't that just for recipes and fashion?

Last week at the National Main Street conference, a topic that kept being discussed was the new craze in social media, called Pintrest.  Many Main Street directors had still never been on the site, but the speakers all instructed us to start learning about it.  Recently ranked as third in the social media websites (behind Facebook and Twitter), Pinterest has shocked all of the marketing experts and it has grown faster than anyone could have imagined.  If you are not familiar with the site, here is a brief summary of what it can do.  Pinterest is a virtual pin board.  You create your board topics such as recipes, places that I would like to travel, craft projects and etc.  The pictures that you "pin" then lead back to blogs which show tutorials/recipes or the websites that they were originally found on. 


Latte Art which can be found on
ilovethewell.com and also on Pinterest.

 So how does this apply to small businesses?  Well, if done correctly you can lead more people to your blog or website by pinning pictures that are interesting to people.  For example:  There is a trend called Latte' Art.  If you search on Pinterest using those words, you find hundreds of pictures of designs made into coffee drinks.  Jacob's Well has a post on their blog where they show some of their latte art creations.  By pinning one of the pictures and labeling it "latte art" it pulls up anytime anyone searches for it.  If they click on the picture, it will take them to the Jacob's Well website.  Clear as mud??  You really have to play around with it to understand how to make it work. 

El Dorado Main Street now has a Pinterest account.  While we just started it today and are learning how to make it work for us, we will be helping other businesses do the same...when we figure it out.  Believe it or not we are getting help from high school students on how to do all of this stuff.  Find our Pinterest boards HERE