Pinterest is providing businesses and savvy entrepreneurs with a new platform to market their products and services. And, as with any new platform, learning what works best and what doesn't when it comes to marketing can be a challenge. Pinfluence is a complete guide to Pinterest marketing that will teach you how to effectively raise awareness for your brand, product, or service, drive traffic from Pinterest to your website, and connect with current and potential customers.  You will learn:

• How to create a powerful Pinterest profile, your Pinterest brand strategy, set up boards, pin and repin images, and get into conversations in the Pinterest user interface.
• Pinterest marketing techniques, including great content creation, how to optimize websites and blogs for pinning, and how to start growing your followers.
• How to integrate Pinterest with other social media tools (including Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) and how to track trends and monitor conversation on Pinterest.
• Advanced Pinterest marketing techniques, including how to grow your audience, how to use the Pinterest iPhone app, advice for special types of businesses (B2B companies and nonprofits), and how to make your pins and boards "sticky" so they capture public attention and influence people to change their behavior.
• Pinterest copyright issues
• And more...

Pinfluence is for anyone who wants to join the likes of companies like Whole Foods, Gilt, West Elm and others, and harness the marketing power of Pinterest to grow their business.

BETH HAYDEN is a nationally known speaker and social media expert, and founder of Firefly Digital Marketing. She regularly contributes to the web's top social media blogs, and her featured post on Pinterest marketing for Copyblogger.com is one of the site's most shared posts. Beth frequently speaks about blogging, content marketing, and Pinterest at conferences and events across the country.

Pinfluence will give you the tools and tips you need to create visual content that is so compelling that you may not even need to distribute it yourself; your readers, fans, and followers will do it for you!  Here are some quick guidelines for great pinning:

• Your images should be beautiful, remarkable, and interesting.
• You want to post pictures that are attractive and well lit. If you plan to upload or pin a lot of your own photography, this is good time to invest in a great quality digital SLR camera. Remember that good-quality photography will get more attention on Pinterest.
• Don't make your images too tall and skinny, or pin anything that is over 5,000 pixels tall. This is crucial because the "Repin" and "Like" buttons are at the top of each pin. If a user has to scroll a long way just to see the entire image, then it's very unlikely they will scroll back up to repin your image.
• Remember to caption the great images you create with keyword-rich captions so that people can easily find them when they search. Keyword-rich means that you want to use terms that are specific and meaningful to your potential customers. For example, instead of a caption saying, "Our lovely spring bouquet," use some specific words and say something like, "Our lovely spring bouquet of white hydrangea and pink roses."