By now, I am sure you have heard of a promising social network called Pinterest. Within the past year, Pinterest has become the fastest growing social network. As of January, Pinterest has had more traffic referrals than LinkedIn, Google+, and Youtube COMBINED! This up-and-coming site offers its users the chance to create their own lifestyle magazines out of virtual bulletin boards by "pinning" photos they like to their own personal pages.

Although Pinterest is currently dominated with photos of beauty and fashion, some auto dealers have started to incorporate Pinterest into their marketing efforts.  These auto dealers are recognizing the massive opportunity in this booming social frontier, as content on Pinterest is shared and followed rapidly. Other retailers have already foreseen the hype. Pinterest is an excellent way for dealers to showcase their offerings in a fun ( and completely free) picture-oriented environment. Here are 3 tips to help auto dealers create a great social outreach campaign out of the fashionable Pinterest platform:

1. Your content should be personal, not promotional.

If you only pin items related to your dealership, it is very unlikely you will make any progress on Pinterest.  Instead, try sharing some of your genuine interests – sports, cooking or music – with just a dash of promotional content. The majority of your boards and pins should be related to personal interests rather than promotional offerings. You want to be able to relate with other Pinterest users.  Create a board with cool car designs and images of your dream vehicle (with a couple of your offerings sprinkled in). You can also use this space to showcase organizations or causes that your dealership supports – teams, foundations, charities – or even just pictures that caught your eye!

2. Incorporate your Pinterest account into your web presence.

After creating a few boards for people to like and share, add the Pinterest "follow-button"  to your dealership website to help build your followers. Then, promote your Pinterest presence on other social networks by encouraging your Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and blog readers to subscribe.  Pinterest is a social network – so it can’t just be about you. Start following users that you would like to see follow you, and they are likely to return the favor.

3. Make Pinterest a routine.

The key to any social media endeavor is consistency, and your Pinterest account will only collect dust unless you block off some serious time to curate it. Fortunately, even a small number of followers can lead to a huge gain in traffic simply because the picture sharing platform is so novel. Users are more likely to explore the profiles and homepages of other Pinterest accounts because the site is currently the cutting edge of social networking, and the businesses that actually use it are few and far between. So take advantage of the opportunity before everyone else!