Pinterest- the visual micro blogging site- is all the rage these days and “pinning” to a collection of virtual pinboards has become a trendy way to categorize and share inspiration-from beauty products to foodie favorites to home improvements-like never before.

According to HelloSociety, the large majority of Pinterest Influencers are young women, between the ages of 18 and 34. These ladies are smart, qualified shoppers-57% of them have earned at least a 4-year college degree and many of these busy women are employed as designers, teachers and bloggers.

The most remarkable thing about these Pinning Powerhouses is that they’re actively converting their pins into big time sales for companies that are savvy enough to leverage Pinterest for business- 88% of users reported purchasing a product they pinned and 49% have purchased 5 or more products that they have pinned or repinned. What’s more, Influencers on Pinterest spend a lot of money- on average, purchases driven through Pinterest are $168.83 per check out- nearly double that of Facebook and Twitter. Simply put, Pinterest-nor its potential-cannot be ignored.

A Pinboard of Opportunities

The site- now, with over 28 million members worldwide-is a referral driving machine-directing millions of visually inclined users to retail websites with the click of a button. And, according to Beth Hayden, author of Pinfluence, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined.

Pinterest presents B2C and B2B companies with an extraordinary opportunity to build brand identity and benefit from referral traffic either through direct leads or SEO. The San Francisco based company even offers tips, tricks and tools to capitalize; here are our 5 favorite Pinterest for Business tips from around the web:

1. Quick, Get Started: Create a business account, verify your website and add the “pin in” button to your site- this makes it practical and efficient for your customers to share everything that they love with people that love them.
2. Tailor your board: Check out Pinterest’s web analytics tools to determine what moves your audience, customize your site to fit what users are really interested in & go from there. Post original content as well as content from a variety of reputable sources to increase your brand authority.
3. Captivate users: It’s no secret that the most alluring images and videos get pinned the fastest.Draw in users with beautiful, high quality graphics paired with original, interesting and in-demand content that links back to your website. Cut through clutter created by thousands of thumbnails with title descriptions that immediately describe your image and terms you want to be found for.
4. Establish your brand: Pinterest is entirely visual- users want to see what you look like, who your employees are, what inspires you and what you believe in; utilize your boards to communicate those pieces of information directly with your audience. Make sure to stamp your logo or URL on proprietary graphics or photos to ensure you get credit! Sometimes through repinning, the links to your website get lost. This is a way to ensure your brand is reinforced regardless.
5. Embrace Collaboration: Consider developing a group board- open to the Pinterest community-where your customers are able to pull products and services from your website to post on your company’s Pinboard- not only will this be a tremendous help, but your products will be exposed to all of the brand evangelists’ followers who may also discover that they too are inspired by your brand. Each time a pin is added, your customers are reminded of you!

Follow Yellow Duck Marketing on Pinterest.