Pinterest is one of the newest social applications which was designed to allow users to “pin” photos of the things they are interested in and share them with other users. This is a great way to connect with people that have similar tastes in products, food, art… and the list goes on and on. You have to request an invitation to join the community (it took about two weeks for me to receive my invitation after I requested one) or receive an invite from a current Pinterest user.

While Pinterest is still fairly new, there are a handful of brands that have started to use the application. One such brand is Saveur Magazine. They have several boards that have collections of desserts, travel destinations, cocktails, and more. When you click on the large version of the board, it links back to Saveur’s site. For example, if you see a photo of something that looks mighty tasty on their “Recipes” pinboard, you can click on it, and voila! it will take you directly to the page that contains the recipe for that item.

Another brand that is killing it on Pinterest is west elm. west elm (they don’t capitalize their name, don’t chastise me!) is a home furnishings store. They have pinboards that are categorized by look and style. Some of their boards include Modernist, Naturalist, Modern Macrame, Houseplants and Just Because. They do Pinterest a bit differently than Saveur Magazine; west elm also pins things from other pinboards, as well as design blogs. They have really grasped the social aspect of Pinterest; it isn’t just another platform to hawk their wares, it is a place to go and be social with people, create relationships and trust, and really take advantage of the “soft-selling” aspect of social media.

Into fashion? Look to Bergdorf Goodman. They use their pinboards to show some of the most recent fashion trends, all neatly organized into categories.

Pretty much anything and everything you could be interested in can be found on Pinterest. And hey, while you’re there, Follow me!

Plus,  EnrollMark and GannettLocal, our own brands, are on Pinterest!

Happy pinning!

How do you use Pinterest? What are your favorite brands or users to follow?

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