Pinterest’s website says that it’s a ‘virtual pinboard.’ Many people call it ‘Picture Twitter.’ You create boards and pin pictures to them. These boards are fully customizable and you can share them with your friends.

Pinterest has new users every day and is now driving tons of traffic. It’s new, but like all social media sites, it offers powerful branding opportunities for your business. Here are 10 tips on branding your business with Pinterest.

1. Don’t Just Pin Your Products
Don’t only make pinboards for your products and services. Make boards for all things related to your business. For example, if you offer interior decorating, give them boards with colors schemes that are commonly used in the industry. Make boards with unique content your followers will like or find informative.

2. Make Friends
Seek out popular Pinterest users and make friends with them. Post on their boards and they’ll post on yours. The site is still new, so a little bit of networking can get you into the ‘in crowd.’

3. Add a Pin Button
On your profile’s ‘Goodies’ page, you’ll find a Pin It button that you can download and put on your site. This allows other Pinterest users to automatically pin your content with just one click.

4. Choose Niche Categories
People find your board by searching for niche categories. Choose as many diverse categories relevant to your business as possible so that you’ll show up in lots of searches.

5. Show Your Business Inside and Out
GE did wonders for its branding by creating a board devoted to how they create products from the factory floor up. If you create a board that showcases the process of doing what you do, this gives your customers a peek inside your business.

6. Engage Your Audience
Ask for opinions and comments on your boards. Pinterest allows you to reward the most useful answers with a discount or giveaway.

7. Crowdsource
Ask your customers to take a picture of themselves with your product and pin it. They’ll tag you in the pin and you can then repin it on your VIP board. Several companies have used this branding strategy very successfully to gain more exposure.

8. Daily Themes
Create a theme and launch a new pin each day. This is a great branding strategy because it gets people to check back with you every day to see what you’ve posted.

9. Me + Contributors
This is a really nice feature that allows your followers to contribute to your boards. It’s a wonderful way to get them involved directly with your business, which in turn helps with your branding.

10. No Self-Promotion
Avoid any kind of self-promotion. This will destroy your brand on Pinterest. It makes you look like you’re just there to make money off of people, and Pinterest users aren’t into that.

Before you get too active on Pinterest, keep in mind that the audience started out as young, adult women. Topics like recipes, interior design, clothing, and do-it-yourself crafts are huge. Topics that don’t appeal to this demographic aren’t, although this is gradually changing. Make sure that there’s a matching market for your brand on Pinterest before you invest too much time.