Pinterest has become undeniable social media force in recent months. It has grown exponentially, in users and content, and is now the 3rd most popular social network in world behind Facebook and Twitter. The unique aspect of Pinterest, and where the business opportunity comes into play, is the amount of time users are spending on the site.

With this much opportunity to be seen and shared, it is clear to see why companies such as Whole Foods, Southwest Airlines, and Sony have put such an emphasis on being relavent on the site. Here are some tip to maximize the opportunity:

Avoid the Cheese

Consumers today are savvy. They can spot a fraud from a mile away. Users that are overtly trying to sell their wears are going to be ignored and dismissed as SPAM by most Pinterest users.

The best way to guard yourself from this is to be authentic. Assimilate into the site and don’t let your pins and boards look like advertisements. Spend some time on the site browsing around and get a feel for what the top brands are doing before you jump in head first. Check out the boards below for some inspiration:

http://pinterest.com/wholefoods/

http://pinterest.com/travelchannel/

Be Beautiful 

Cell phone pictures, no matter how good, are not going to get pinned and re-pinned as much a high-resolution photos. The quality of your photos matters even more when you first set sail on building our presence on Pinterest. Even when you have a relatively small number of followers, users will find quality pictures.

If you dont have a high quality camera, try using a free photo enhancement suite like PicMonkey. This way you can clean up your pictures, make them more brilliant, and insert small text for an added branding layer. For more visual niches like food or design, this is not as hard. But, for companies in more ‘professional’ industries this could pose a little bit of a challenge. So, be creative. Be unique.

Engage & Be Active

Another tell tale sign of a company abusing Pinterest is one that only shares its content and does not participate in the other aspect of the site. This is an easy problem to solve. Just spend some time on the site. Search some keyword that are relevant to your niche ,and re-pin. Follow individual users and share their content. Showing that you are engaged with your customers gives your company a more personable voice and leads to more followers and more traffic driven to your account.

Do you have a favorite company on Pinterest? Please share in the comments!