According to Experian’s 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, which I saw originally in an online Huffington Post article, Pinterest is now the third most popular social network on the web, behind Facebook and Twitter.

If you aren’t familiar with Pinterest, it’s a website that lets users organize and share images found on the web, from other Pinterest users, or that they uploaded. For example, if you’re redecorating your home, rather than clipping magazine articles, you can “pin” them from an online website or another Pinterest user onto a “board” and keep all of your ideas virtually in one spot. You can relate it to a blog in a way – the board is the category and the pins are the content.

Generally DIY projects, recipes, fitness, fashion and art dominate Pinterest, but creative job seekers are coming up with ways to showcase their talents visually. Business Insider shared some examples in an online article called 7 Cool Resumes We Found On Pinterest.

During last year’s DirectEmployers Annual Meeting & Conference, presenter Shama Kabani encouraged attendees to consider using Pinterest to market their companies to job seekers through compelling visuals. While the verdict is still out on whether Pinterest is an effective tool to add to your social media recruitment marketing strategy, many employers are starting to experiment.

One of my favorite pioneers in social media recruiting, Sodexo, has done a stellar job on their Pinterest careers page. They’ve created boards for career videos, jobs, events, job seeker advice, diversity & inclusion, and more.

Some data that might help you determine if Pinterest reaches your target market can be found in this Mashable article by Christine Erickson titled 13 ‘Pinteresting’ Facts About Pinterest Users [INFOGRAPHIC]. Some stats I found interesting are:

• 68.2% of users are women
• Almost 50% of users are 25-44
• 28.1% of users have an income of over $100,000

The DirectEmployers Association Pinterest page was created earlier this year and I invite you to check it out if you haven’t yet. I look forward to watching the use of Pinterest by companies and hearing more about using the site for the full talent lifecycle. Imagine boards for certain locations to help new employees see where they need to go, current employees viewing and sharing photos from an event earlier that week and alumni keeping in touch with a company’s growth or particular project. Is your company using Pinterest? Do you think it will be effective for recruiting and employer branding?