Have you begun using Pinterest as a marketing channel? How does it compare to other social sites?

I just started looking into this yesterday. When I asked people about it the response was overwhelming. People love it. They especially love the organization and visual appeal. Most people are using it for hobbies and interest. So I think it would be good for businesses that are creative or that target very busy women and moms. I have not seen examples of this used well for business. I excited to see what others have found. Great question.

Pinterest has a lot of potential as a social community/networking channel. Check out this post by Michael Vandervort (@MichaelVandervort) on Twitter. Also, WilliamTincup (@WilliamTincup) might be another good resource as he's tweeted/FB'd about it recently, I believe: http://www.thehumanracehorses.com/2012/01/11/interested-in-pinterest-why-you-...

Over here at DigitalCoco, we're pretty interested in seeing successful results (and failures) of using Pinterest for clients. Would love to see some early case studies.

I can only agree with the other commenters and add that Pinterest has my interest. I am diving in this week to hopefully breathe some life into what has been a dormant account since I signed up.

I'll also check the links that Ann and Crystal shared in their answers. I'll be investing some time with Pinterest over the next 30 days with an eye towards its B2B potential. I'll share anything I learn via an additional comment in this discussion and probably through a blog on the subject too.

Pinterest was a hot topic in a recent #B2Bchat on twitter. Thanks for asking a question about something many of us are curious about Lauren.

More good ideas on using Pinterest for business here:
http://agbeat.com/real-estate-coaching-tutorials/how-to-earn-influence-on-pin...

That article may be specific to real estate, but still there are some good thoughts that apply to general business, too. At the same time, the ideas therein are also a good set of prompts to think about how your business might "tell its story" visually beyond Pinterest, and on other social networks... like Instagram, Facebook, or Google+.

At Liberty Jane we have seen our traffic from Pinterest surpass our Youtube & Facebook efforts. And that is amazing as we've got 12,300 FB Fans, and 7,300 YT Subscribers. We are documenting our lessons learned at http://www.marketingonpinterest.com

Jason Miles
Liberty Jane Clothing

I am having a blast using pinterest, but besides the organization (boards) I can't really see how this is much different than tumblr.

In the early going, Pinterest appears to be a place that rewards great, visual content (duh). BUT, I think brands should be careful, simply pushing all of your content (visual or not) to drive traffic to your site will be sniffed out by Pinterest early adopters as overly promotional.

Interestingly enough, look at Mashable's boards on Pinterest - almost every post links back to mashable.com. It may be working for them, but I've observed that a very organic and innocent (from a marketing perspective) approach can still yield some compelling traffic data.

I started using Pinterest recently and it has already started sending few visitors to my site,i think as Pinterest gain more users in Hong Kong,it can become a potent marketing channel.

We have started to test Pinterest for XinXii. Our pinboards are perfect inspiration for indie authors. Pinterest offers the possibility to express visually the philosophy of XinXii – namely, to support the indie authors when writing, publishing and marketing their books.

http://www.pinterest.com/xinxii
http://www.pinterest.com/xinxii_en