To say that 2012 has been a great year for Pinterest is, well, a pretty vast understatement. The online pinboard has seen explosive growth to the tune of reaching nearly 30,000,000 unique U.S. users in July 2012. And although the site began as a tool geared toward individuals, the recent release of several business tools (including Pinterest pages for business) have given brands and companies increased functionality and more incentives to use the site.

The keys to Pinterest aren't much different from any other social network. You want to grow your audience and present compelling content that inspires them to comment, share and come back for more. Yet where as other social networks play host to a variety of content, Pinterest is built around images and that's why creating eye-catching images that people want to share is so important.

Don't worry I'm not suggesting you buy a copy of Adobe creative suite, an expensive camera and instantly transform yourself into a photographic genius. Instead, there are a few easy things you can do to make your Pinterest images more appealing and, as a result, more widely shared. Let's dive in:

Include text on your image. At first blush, this might sound a little counter-intuitive after all, if you're pinning a beautiful image, why would you want to obscure it with text? Yet more Pinterest users are responding to images that also include text on them, rather than confined to the accompanying description. Play around with a free photo editor like Skitch or Pic Monkey and see if you can add a few words or a short sentence to a photo. That way, you'll help add immediate context to the image and that makes people more likely to engage with that piece of media, especially if it's relevant to them.

Source: vi.sualize.us via Aly on Pinterest

Maintain an ideal description length. The length of a photos description has an impact on how much its share dand research shows that between 200 and 300 characters is the ideal length for a Pinterest description. Does that mean that every single Pinterest image description you write needs to fall under this umbrella? Not necessarily. But its a good idea to make sure that the majority of your descriptions are within this range. Of course, this is also why its a good idea to keep an eye on your Pinterest activity. Are there certain pins that receive more comments and repins than others? Use those success stories to help drive your Pinterest posting strategy.

Label your images wisely. Anytime you publish a photo on your website or blog, it could, theoretically, end up as a pin. To help entice more pinners to share your content, make sure youve clearly labeled your image. Instead of using a generic or default photo name, pick a clear, concise title before you upload the image onto your site. Once you do, that title will be the information thats included with the pinand the easier it is for users to ascertain why they should care about an image, the more likely they are to share it.

Of course, this isn't just a good idea for Pinterestits a simple way to boost your blogs SEO, too, especially when you couple a strong image title with optimized alt text. That, however, is a whole other topic!

Encourage pinning. Many Pinterest users are hesitant to share images because theyre concerned about copyright issues. If you want to encourage others to share your pictures, let them know! Include some text on your site or blog that says something like Feel free to pin. Its not unlike asking someone to retweet something on Twitterand although you (like me) might have a personal preference when it comes to asking for RTs (I dont like it), research shows that clearly defining an ask works, so dont hesitate to give it a try and see what sort of results you get.

See? No cutting-edge Photoshop skills requiredjust a few easy tactics that can make your Pinterest images infinitely more shareable and, as a result, more effective. Give them a try and see if the changes influence your Pinterest sharing stats, then feel free to stop back by and let me know what you found!