Social Media is a tough industry - the only way a good social network can succeed is by being extremely popular, and it takes a lot of criteria for that to happen. A social network site either has it or it doesn't, and Pinterest apparently has it in massive quantities.

Pinterest is an extremely young, but suddenly thriving social network that acts as a virtual bulletin board, and it's helping businesses increase traffic. Users share images and links they like, file them under specific categories, and other members can view and share them.

This is what makes social media so relevant to any business; people talking and sharing information about your products, services, and brand. By feeding the social networks great, share-worthy content, you are providing (for lack of a better term) bait that other users can share to attract more traffic.

Pinterest is currently struggling to keep up with their surging growth, so currently the service is invite only. Go to www.pinterest.com and sign up for an invite, or ask around, you may already know somebody using the service.

Like any social network, it takes time to curate yourself on Pinterest - populating your board with quality content should be your first goal. Similarly, you won't start getting fans on Facebook if you've only posted to your wall twice.

Pinterest has already proven to be popular for retailers, with some retailers seeing their referral traffic more than double in just a few months.

Is your business using social media? If so, has it had an impact on your business? Let us know in the comments!