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We created the deck above on Slideshare to help explain Pinterest, show how brands are using it, and provide a few recommendations that we hope help you.

Pinterest is growing fast and is particularly powerful as a traffic referral source for retail (mostly clothing) brands. But how should your brand be using it?

We’ve fielded this question from a few clients and wanted to cut through the hype to the real promise of Pinterest for marketers. And since our clients are not clothing brands, we wanted think more broadly about the type of customer interaction and engagement possible through the service.

While some of us at IQ are a bit addicted to “pinning,” it’s important to realize that the behavior isn’t all that new. Thinking back to the social bookmarking services like Del.icio.us that allowed you to collect, tag, and share collections of links, it’s clear that from the user’s perspective, the basic interaction has long been a part of how we behave online. More recently, Tumblr, with ultra-specific blogs and easy re-posting, shows us that people love to browse visually and quickly share what their seeing. The big trend here is “curation” and both consumers and brands are flocking to Pinterest because it makes it so easy.

So why is Pinterest making news? First, the size of the audience, higher-income women for the most part, and the speed at which it is growing is difficult to ignore. Second, it’s becoming a huge source of referrals for many brands, outpacing Twitter. And third, the ability to use the service to engage with customers around the things they love.

Does that mean your brand should be on Pinterest? No. Like any new digital channel, it needs to be part of a larger, measurable digital strategy based on business goals. If one of your business goals is to “promote the brand x lifestyle to affluent, 18-35 year old women,” then Pinterest is perfect for you. Or, if you are already creating great web content such as infographics or sumptuous product and brand photography, Pinterest can help you increase the reach and audience for that content. It’s harder, for instance, to think of ways for financial services brands to use Pinterest, but we’d avoid saying that it’s definitely out of the question.