Pinterest As A Marketing Tool 09/14/16 | Four Columns Marketing Before you dismiss Pinterest as a silly website women use in their free time, let us share a few facts with you. Since it began in 2010, Pinterest has grown to over 100 million active users from all over the world. Pinterest is much more than a visual bookmarking website; it’s become one of the leading social media channels, especially for businesses. The average user spends almost 15 minutes on Pinterest each time they log in - many will testify to its addictive nature. It’s almost impossible to open the app or website and browse only a few pins. Another feature that sets this channel above some of its competitors, is the average shelf life of a “pin” or post. While a post on Facebook may appear visible to those whose algorithms who make the cut, the shelf life of a Pinterest Pin is approximately four months. In fact, almost 80% of pins are re-pins, meaning content is constantly being recycled. For businesses looking for an online platform to push content, drive customer engagement and increase traffic and business leads, Pinterest may be the ideal social media channel. Try using Pinterest in your marketing strategy and watch your content get shared, recycled and engaged repeatedly. See below for a few tips for using Pinterest in your marketing strategy. Set up a Pinterest for Business account Use or collect crisp, clear and appealing images to use in your pins Create captions for your pins encouraging users to share or engage with the content in some way Try re-pinning your pins every month to widen your reach Start following similar companies or businesses with the sort of pins you’d like to create So the next time you want to roll your eyes at your wife or teenage daughter for logging into their Pinterest account, try taking advantage of the benefits this social-media-channel-meets-social-e-commerce-site has the offer.