Photo courtesy of Technology Therapy Group.

By: Kristen Watson

Today, while on my daily Pinterest binge, I noticed something new.

"Promoted" pins.

Recently, the newest feature of the ever popular social media platform, Pinterest, made it's debut. Following their fellow social media competitors, Facebook and Twitter, marketers can now market their product with more efficiency (with a little cash, that is).

So, how do they work?

• Advertisers looking to promote their pins now have a new landing page, just for them! From there, they will fill out a short form stating what business and which Pinterest account they would like to use.
• Once your business account is set up, you will now have access to the "back end" of the site and are able to create new "promoted pins" and even have access to their all-new analytics tool.
• You can even download a "Guide to Pinterest for Business" here. 

Photo courtesy of the Pinterest Blog.

Heavily based on SEO marketing principles, as reported by this article, Pinterest is focusing on two positives of their promoted ads: natural integration and an interested market.

• Natural integration refers to the actual presentation of the paid ad. It looks like any other pin, except it has a small, "Promoted Pin," banner at the bottom. Unlike Facebook, who does quite a bit more to make ads stand out.
• Pinterest has promised a "non-intrusive" approach to promoted pins for users. The algorithm still hasn't seen the light of day, but it's based on "related" pins the user has either recently pinned or searched for.

Will promoted pins make Pinterest millions or will it only annoy their dedicated user-base? Only time will tell, until then, any predictions?

This blog can also be seen on the Eagle Strategies Blog.