Can you afford to ignore the new Pin-Up in town...?

With Apple launching the new iPad next week, Samsung and ASUS following closely with new Tablets and Sony, HTC and LG all announcing their 2012 flagship Smartphone’s, you might feel like a darkened room is preferable to investigating a relatively new social media app. But before you run back to cave and put your ‘Do Not Disturb, Luddite at work’ sign on the door, read on. Because Pinterest is, well, veeery P-interesting...

Remember when a Sunday afternoon could be frittered away with scissors, magazines, and a glob of BluTac? Making mood boards for that crucial redecoration of the living room? Snipping out inspirational photos and sayings to divert you away from the biscuit cupboard? Plastering your student digs with witty quotations and denim clad movie stars? It can’t have just been me. Well, cast aside your faded, dog-eared cut-outs – there’s a shiny new Pin-Up in town, and it’s a tool you can’t afford to ignore.

Pinterest enables you to pin images (either uploaded, or found on the internet) to your own personal ‘board’ which is as visible, or invisible as you like to your online audience. It’s a fantastic tool for an individual or a small company – instead of a lengthy, wordy ‘About Me’ page describing who you are, and what you do, it delivers an immediate visual impact. It’s an illustrative smorgasbord of who you are and what you’re all about. For creatives it’s a gift, an interactive portfolio of sorts. But it is also an opportunity for entrepreneurs and employers in all sectors.

Think about what an image of, say, the moon landing, an iconic moment of success and triumph, will say about your ability to push the limits, succeed and be the very best. What is more, having a company Pinterest board could draw your employees’ idle hands away from Facebook and give them an productive outlet for their inevitable internet trawling – a weekly motivation board (as amusing, in-joke ridden and creative as possible), created by the people for the people is much more use than endless pictures of cats chasing laser pointers... 

Technology and business are inextricably linked these days, and Pinterest looks like becoming the next ‘cut-out-and-keep’...