Picture this - Pinterest

Every so often someone has a simple but brilliant idea, and everyone else thinks why didn't I think of that.

Pinterest is currently the fastest growing social media platform. It's founded on images. Basically you pin a picture to your board, and people can like, or repin, follow you, or go to any linked site.

Your pins can be organised by categories or boards. It's worth thinking carefully about the names of these, as they form one of the basic ways of searching within Pinterest.

You can create a virtual shop-window using Pinterest. Interesting content will get likes and repins. Popular users gain followers and can get huge exposure.

Sony decided that Pinterest was worth investigating. To their surprise, Sony products were already featured, placed there by fans and users of their products. So they did the research, found out what search queries were being used, and what images were most popular, then created their own pages. They are now among the most successful users of Pinterest.

More about the history of Pinterest from Wikipedia.

Here's a cautionary tale about copyright and Pinterest: Copyright violations on Pinterest