Landing The Pinterest Mothership

I joke about everything, having said that, I also want you guys to have as much 'actionable tactics' as I can muster. Therefore, here's the biggest brain-dump I could put together on the 'hot as a firecracker' social channel of Pinterest. So let's give birth to this thing and move along!

• Upon first creating your Pinterest (business) account, be sure to identify your account with the proper profile criteria.
• In addition to your company name, logo or identity, include a matching description of your brand, and any associated social media links. Add your website URL to ensure the Pinterest board becomes another touch point on your overall social graph.
• Creating a unique board also provides an opportunity for you to tell a story about your brand or service. Your description should include keywords, storytelling, and a unique flair that will differentiate you from the competition.
• And regarding the competition, take time to research the other guys before you start pinning. Avoid repinning the same photos, and look for photos that are unique. Seek out images that are vibrant and expressive, and that support your brand message. 
• Be “Pinteresting!” - sorry.
• Whenever possible, include links back to the website from which you pinned. Create links with a tracking tool such as bit.ly to see what pins are performing the best.
• When creating “boards,” strive to maintain the same architectural structure as your site map. Therefore if you have an area on your website that dictates products and services, make sure you have a board to match that page.
• Upon creating your pins, give a vivid description of the product and/or service, and a truncated link back to the page of origin or your website’s homepage.
• “Repinning” is the process by which you search for or find pins through other user profiles on Pinterest. When repinning an image from another board, fill out the description as it pertains to your brand and/or service. This will take someone else's pin and created an environment that supports and nurtures your brand.
• Try to focus beyond simply getting traffic to your Pinterest account. Use the available online tools to identify popular users, and follow them. These services allow you to break down search terms to determine who has the top slot within a category. From there, you can follow the user most closely aligned with your brand.
• Think of your boards as unique pages within the catalog. Each board represents a particular product, service or information point that you might want to expand. Therefore, take your time within this board, and even more time giving proper image descriptions.
• One driver of traffic to your website can be a “pin it to win it” competition. This is where you ask users to take images from your site and connect to their boards. Explain how they can hash tag back to your content, allowing you to determine the winner.
• Another way to get involvement on your Pinterest boards, is to allow “me-plus contributors" upon initial setup so your followers can add to boards with their own pins. If you use this tactic, heavily moderate the process to avoid getting inappropriate content on your Pinterest boards without your knowledge. You can gain additional traction by inviting your staff and people closely associated with your brand to contribute.
• An additional tactic is to create a board called “offers,” “sales,” “coupons,” or any other call to action that you would like. Here you can put up pins for a limited time that allow users to access special downloads, sales and deals.
• Just like starting any new social channel, you have to build followers. One of the ways you can build followers to your Pinterest account is by asking people from other social channels to follow you. Post requests on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other channels. It’s also a good idea to ask your audience base for materials to be repinned. Utilize this is an opportunity for communication and engagement.
• Remember that Pinterest boards can be short-term if you choose. It’s OK to create boards that might circle around a campaign, and then go away. Before you start a new board, take the time to search Pinterest and make sure that there is not another board covering your topic with greater efficiency. If you do find one, it might be best to start by repinning some of their material. That allows you to create positive social engagement while doing due diligence simultaneously.
• Another business use for Pinterest is to piggyback pre-existing social channels that already contain content. For instance, if you have a YouTube account with an array of videos supporting your brand and messaging, you can pin that content. If you've assigned a social steward for your brand to create Instagram photos or related content, they can pin hat to your boards as well.
• If you're not already doing so, placing strong visuals on your blog articles can provide another source of content to pin. Make sure you have an image or images of appropriate “pinning” size that would be applicable to the content. Infographics or data visualization elements that you create, or that you find online, are also great ways extend thought leadership within your space by repinning.
• Interested in finding out who is repinning your blog post material? Find out by doing the following: http://pinterest.com/source/--->yoururlgoeshere.com<---/
• If you create materials such as e-books, physical books or other related content, it is also important to take the cover image and pin it on your boards.
• Depending on the nature of the rewards programs that you may have implemented within your business model, you could also create a board with photos of your customers.
• There is an array of different sharing buttons used to connect your audience to your online content. Facebook has the “share” button, Google plus has the “plus one” button and Twitter of course has “Tweet this” button. In the same fashion, Pinterest has a “Pin it” button for your site. This will allow your audience to further extend the company’s message by pinning your material on their Pinterest boards. There is also a “follow me” on Pinterest button that can be utilized to take you to the head of your Pinterest page.
• You can also utilize Pinterest as a research tool. By researching heavy users of the application within your category, you can determine their likes and dislikes based upon the material that they pin, comment on, and repin.
• For businesses or departments creating a thought-leadership model, it is important to connect to social channels such as LinkedIn.com, and slideshare.net, and repin material back to these boards.
• Like many other social channels, Pinterest utilizes #hash #tags. In addition to rich descriptions within each pin, you should also give a rich keyword index utilizing hash tags.
• Pinterest also utilizes @handles. This gives you a unique opportunity to speak directly to another Pinterest user. All the same best practices apply with standard communication and engagement.
• Another possible execution to utilize Pinterest for business is to showcase your business's culture. You could create a board that speaks specifically to your staff and culture. Here, you could place photos of staff members, events, and related business functions that can build morale, and support a “behind the scenes” look at your business.
• Savvy companies utilizie Pinterest as a way to create feedback from their audience members. Allowing your user base to upload ideas likes, dislikes, and other related content will give you an edge on your competition.
• Another interesting tactic is to utilize Pinterest for educating users on products, support and other initiatives brought about by your brand and service.
• Maintain consistent pinning - ideally a daily basis. Try not to pin too much at one time, because Pinterest often looks at this as spamming and can blacklist your account.
• I highly recommend that social media managers responsible for a Pinterest account download and utilize the iPhone app. In provides a way to maintain constant connection to Pinterest boards.

Great reference list: http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing/

If you have anymore that I missed, let me know, I'd be happy to add them and give you my undying adulation.