Pinterest and Marketing

Pinterest is the social media sharing site du jour, a cornucopia of images "pinned" to online walls, loosely organized by interest. Pinterest supports hashtags (like Twitter's #) and encourages "repinning" to spread the word, two important elements for building buzz.

Less than two years old, the site's audience is largely female, says Mashable, and that's attracting the interest of marketers who target women.

For example:

• Whole Foods Markets "pin" photos of food products, grouped by category or occasion, to its Pinterest wall. It has more than 18,000 Pinterest followers!
• Walker's Shortbread. The Scottish company "pins" photos of its food products to Pinterest, along with "pins" of its favorite bloggers (sharing!) and items of interest such as "all things Scotland."
• Nordstrom. Want to see the latest fashions in full-color, large-scale photos? Nordstrom "pins" its collections on Pinterest.
• Real Simple, Weddings, and other lifestyle mags are reaching their audiences through Pinterest.

Will Pinterest become a staple of social media marketing? Or will another new site emerge as the next new thing?