Pinterest is visual. Unlike some other social medias, Pinterest is primarily visual and therein lies the first hurdle. If you have nothing on your website that's visually appealing, you may want to rethink your website strategy. Pick visually interesting or curious pictures to pin.
Pinning only about your offers is lame. There are so many neat things that you may be interested, it's hard to be focused only on posting offers from your site, unless you are totally self centered! Even as a brand, it's better to engage and share pins that others have selected.
Commenting and "liking" is good. Be generous in noticing the cool things that others have posted and mention them. If you use the @ sign, the person you are mentioning will be tagged and that's a compliment.
Pinterest links are followable. Google does follow the link, so be sure to use keywords when creating a pin. From an SEO standpoint this is awesome news -especially if your link is picked up by others. This may change in the future, but for now, it's an SEO goldmine.
Pinterest users skew toward females. Just as any other social media marketing, it's important to know who your customer is, and where they are "hanging out". Pinterest has a higher proportion of females to males, unlike Google+ which has the opposite skew. Who is your customer? Does Pinterest make sense for your demographic?
Pinterest is addicting. People who start using Pinterest spend an average of 15 minutes each day "pinning". Also, because "pinning" can be done as Pinterest users roam the web, there are chances that this number may be under-reported. Although this is still less than the average 23 minutes spent on Facebook, it's a remarkable time commitment for a relatively new platform.
Infographics are favorites. When it comes to social media, infographics are highly favored among pinners. Memes and humor are also virally pinned, so if you are great with creating these, start posting them on your blog or somewhere that others will pin them.
Connect Pinterest with Facebook and Twitter. Connecting with 'friends' and finding them on Pinterest creates a whole different dimension to the relationship. I never knew Bob was interested in motorcycles until he started repinning my pins, even though we were connected through Twitter, Facebook. Google+ and Linkedin! Go figure! Understanding this helps me relate better to the people I am engaging with, whether they are potential customers, current clients, vendors, partners or business relationships - having that connection is powerful. This is what we call business intelligence or "lead intelligence" - understanding the psychographic information is important in appreciating motivation.
Pinterest profile is important. Don't neglect to fill in your profile information. Use keywords to help your profile get found.