Imagine if you could sneak into your customers homes and strategically place pictures of your product where you know they’ll notice them, or better yet, purchase them.

Well that is exactly what Pinterest is doing for the online marketplace — and bloggers alike. Pinterest, which is essentially an online pin board of your favorite things, has experienced exponential growth only a few months. In fact, from September of 2011 to December, the site experienced a rise of over 5 million unique users.

So how can you jump on the bandwagon? It couldn’t be easier. By simply setting up a Pinterest account you can start pinning your own products for anyone following to see. Of course, don’t over do it. Like any form of marketing, blasting customers with your message will never result in a positive outcome. Rather, create boards tailored to your company’s personality. Are you selling handbags? Well how about making boards based on the seasonal trends? In Spring you can pin products, crafts, and colors all relating to Spring — and why not throw a handful of images from your most recent online lookbook, too? The more people that follow you, the more opportunity you’ll have for those images to go viral.

As for bloggers, you can use this same method by pinning your most recent creations, designs, or featured images from your blog. By including a descriptive caption, you can entice your followers to click through to your blog. Again, just don’t get on a marketing soap box and blast your images — wrap your valuable information around related pins to give your followers some variety.

Happy pinning!