In the ever-changing landscape of social media platforms it’s easy to see new services burst onto the scene and quickly fizzle. However a new player has come onto the scene and you’d be remiss not to know all about it. I’m talking, of course, about Pinterest.

If you visit the site they describe the service as a “Virtual Pinboard” where you can find, save and share your favorite online resources by “pinning” a photo and link. For fashion and lifestyle enthusiasts it’s the perfect marriage of form and function. As the service has picked up users it’s also seen the rise in business profiles. Brands like Nordstrom and Land’s End create boards of products to increase exposure and accessibility to their online shops.

Thinking further Pinterest is somewhat analogous to Twitter. However instead of tweets and retweets (mostly text) you’ll find pins and repins (exclusively images). Pinterest users have a home page full of the pins of those they follow just as you would see on Twitter. with tweets The similarities diverge, though, when you start to notice a lack of conversation on Pinterest. On Twitter we chide users who simply push out content without ever engaging with the community at large. So why, do we not see a similar trend on Pinterest?

I think it’s safe to say that most individuals see the service as a personal bookmarking site with other users serving only has the source of their newfound content. If we return to the analogy of Twitter most of us will remember a time where tweeting was simply a land of 140 character status updates. As time passed and users evolved we started to see the hashtags, retweets and conversation that make Twitter the powerful tool that it is today.

For brands, taking a look back at social media history (however brief it may be) will show that Twitter is a valuable lesson on how to take Pinterest to the next level. Being a content provider can only take a profile so far. Engagement is the next natural step.

As an individual user how do you use Pinterest? Do conversations drive your pinning experience? We’d love to hear what you think!

Caitlin Olmsted is an Account Director at Epio Solutions.