Pinterest: Open for Business

Finally, businesses are catered for on the popular image-based social media site, Pinterest!

Pinterest's premise is to provide an online space where users can curate their own pin boards of things they love, places that inspire, destinations they want to go, anything that's important to them that they want to share.

For the tourism business, this is great news. As a tourism product is experiential, images and video are what inspire and resonate with potential guests.

Some of the specific features for businesses which have been released previously include 'pin it' buttons, which you can add to your website allowing people to 'pin' their favourite content from your site. Awesome tours, stunning destinations and beautiful accommodations can all be pinned from your site to pinboards so users can bookmark and share your experience with their networks.

Newly released are widgets for your websites (we love widgets!) which mean you can install a bit of code and display your recent pins, or favourite boards on your website. This is all helpful to create an integrated experience across the places you're found online, and make your content and business more discoverable.

Of course, measurement is important and you'll be able to find out what people are pinning from your website or blog using the new business features. That's a great way to find out what images connect and inspire your potential customers!

If you already have a Pinterest page, you'll find it's really simple to convert it into a business page and get your website verified and linkto it from your Pinterest page. For new businesses, you can sign up quickly and start using the features that help you engage with your community by integrating across Pinterest and your website.

As they say over on Pinterest, happy pinning!