It’s clear that social sharing is now a common factor in online marketing for small businesses. But it’s not about blogs and written content, Pinterest allows users to “pin” images and video to a virtual bulletin board, which can be shared or pinned. It is important to pin images to your board that are compelling enough to get someone interested in your small business.

The Pinterest’s “Pin It” button is starting to show up on a growing number of web pages. If you sell something that is visual, you need to jump on this. You know I am a big believer in “the early adopters often win” philosophy. Pinterest is the fastest growing social icon on the web. Here are 6 ways you can use Pinterest to grow your small business.

Automate Your Pinterest Pinning: Use http://www.pingraphy.com/ to automate your Pinterest pinning. It’s a free tool that, in addition to letting you schedule pins, tracks your followers and shows metrics for your activity.

Share Other Content Besides Pictures: Beyond pictures of your favorite things, share your Slideshare presentations and videos on Pinterest as well. YouTube videos can be embedded and actually watched from Pinterest.

Optimize Your Pinterest Account: Optimize your Pinterest posts by always including a link, key words and a #hashtag. Pin descriptions can be up to 500 characters and allows search engines to crawl for content.

Use the Pinterest Plugin: Add browser plugins for better pinning: Add Right-Click Pin It (In Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox) to your browser to make adding new pins easier.

Use Pinterest to Highlight Helpful Resources: Are you an expert in your field? Use Pinterest to create a resource center with pins that link to a well trafficked blog series at your site.

Check out who’s sharing your content on Pinterest: Want to find out who’s pinning what from your site? Plug this into your address bar:  http://pinterest.com/source/[your web address (minus www or http)]

Remember that Pinterest is a social network. Don’t advertise 100% of the time.  Repin, share and comment to connect with other people.

Have you had success with Pinterest? Tell me your story.

If you need to perfect your social media skills using Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn grab a copy of my latest ebook: How To Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online today. www.succeedasyourownboss.com/products

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.