Something very “Pinteresting” is happening.

In a little over a year, Pinterest has become the #3 social network traffic site behind Facebook and Twitter. While Pinterest is also a social sharing site, its concept clearly differentiates it from the others. “Pinners” setup Pinboards based on their interests and “pin” images they like, seen mostly online, and want to keep as reference. Pinboards run the full gamut of titles or interests, but since the vast majority of Pinterest’s participants are female, the top categories are fashion/beauty, home, and cooking/food.

It is the cooking/food Pinboards that offer an an enormous opportunity for food producers and foodservice operators. “Pinners” post images of products, finished dish photos, and recipes they like. While Pinterest currently does not offer paid advertising opportunities, it has stated the intention to do so at some point in the future. For now, though, companies can set up Pinboards, and many are doing so. In fact, since February of this year, the number of companies promoting their Pinterest activity has grown from 0% to 24%, mostly via email and links from their websites.

Social media as a marketing tool has grown steadily, but the Pinterest concept is unique in the sense that it has created a huge virtual window shopping opportunity. Pinners can “repin” images from other Pinboards, and they have a propensity to purchase items they see on Pinterest. In fact, a recent survey by PriceGrabber indicates that 21% of respondents purchased items they saw on someone else’s Pinboard.

Food marketers and foodservice operators with consumer content rich websites, stand to gain the most by tapping into this phenomenon. “Pin it” links from product pages could likely become commonplace along with the “like” icon. It is the direct link via “pin this” that gives Pinterest an edge in delivering a direct contribution to sales that, so far, other social sites seem to have been unable to do.