Although Pinterest is a relatively new form of social media, it’s rapidly gaining ground.

The social network can be used to great effect as a way to engage your brand’s audience. Where Twitter is all about words, with Pinterest piccies matter.

With this is mind, it makes sense that Pinterest suits brands with high visual appeal, such as clothing labels, photographers or even events businesses.

Fancy climbing aboard the bandwagon? Here’s how to maximise marketing engagement with your business through Pinterest:

Add ‘follow it’ buttons and ‘pin it’ buttons to your website to allow users to share your content on Pinterest

• Create and contribute to relevant group boards
• Put an RSS feed of your Pinterest board on Facebook or other social media pages, for extra multi-channel marketing benefits
• Make the most of keywords when tagging your images. This will help allow other users to find your content
• Invite people to Pinterest through your existing social media for an integrated marketing experience

Unlike many other forms of social media, Pinterest allows users to decide which updates they want to receive and which boards they want to follow. This choice is an important distinction from other social networks as it enables users to set their own level of engagement.

For businesses that understand social media and are able to engage their audience with genuinely interesting content, this is a good thing. Those for whom social networking’s still a bit of a head-scratcher will need to brush up on their skills if they’re to make a success of Pinterest.

Want to quickly climb the ‘must-follow’ rankings? Then it’s essential you take the time to create interesting, relevant, appealing Pinterest boards. In return you will receive better brand awareness and increased site traffic.

Jo Macdermott is the chief Marketing Consultant from Next Marketing in Melbourne. Next Marketing is a full serviced Marketing Agency working with small and medium sized businesses.