There’s a new kid on the block that’s making impact and demanding to be taken seriously as the new tool in the social media marketing arsenal – Pinterest.

It’s a social pin board that allows users to collect their favourite images from the web and ‘pin’ them to their boards, which makes it a bit like looking at a virtual magazine. Users can have lots of different boards (or folders) that represent the things that interest them i.e. food/recipes, favourite gadgets, fashion etc. Other users can see the ‘pins’ and if they click on the images it will take them directly to the originating website. They can also repin things that appeal to them onto their own boards.

It’s gaining the kind of momentum that makes Usain Bolt look like he’s out for a stroll on the track! Unique visitors to the site increased by a whopping 429% between Oct – Dec 2011 and while the current figure of 10.4 million users doesn’t sound that impressive when it’s stacked up against LinkedIn’s 150 million or Twitter’s 200 million plus active users, the big difference is in the amount of time those users are staying on the site.

The average Pinterest user is currently spending 1 hour 17 minutes per month on the site. Compare that with the other most recent social networking site Google+ where users are only spending 6 minutes a month and it’s easy to see why you need to consider whether you should be including Pinterest in your marketing mix – if it fits with your strategy.

We will be monitoring Pinterest and its growth and potential for effective marketing and we’ll be posting our findings so check back to find out what we discover.