Pinterest: the new way to engage an audience.

The days of just having a website or delivering web content through Facebook are over. If a company has an e-commerce presence, Pinterest appears to be on its way to become the latest platform that retailers have to pay attention to. Not only does Pinterest look great, but it is also easy and straightforward to use. Because it is so accessible, Pinterest has become increasingly important when it comes to online referrals. In fact, in January of this year, more referral traffic was driven by Pinterest than YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+ combined according to Shareaholic. In the United States alone, Pinterest had more than 11.7 million unique visitors - most of them female.

Though e-commerce brands may immediately realize the benefits of Pinterest because it allows them to simultaneously display and sell their product, it is a platform that can provide benefits for brands that are not actively targeting e-commerce. The content of Pinterest is nothing but marketing materials.

One of the best examples of how to use Pinterest and pay attention to the consumer base has to be the yogurt brand Chobani. Their digital communications manager, Emily Schildt, stated that Chobani decided to join Pinterest after noticing that fans of the yogurt brand were sharing pictures and recipes on Pinterest. Now Chobani is actively engaging their 2,000 followers. There is a message to be learned here, pay close attention to what your consumer base is doing and it allows you to target them more effectively. By promoting content that people are interested in, companies are able to drive traffic to their site. It is just important to establish value instead of simply promoting a marketing message.