FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — For Karen Reinstatler, pinning is the new window shopping.

The owner of Pink Slip Threads, a Pompano Beach, Fla., women’s clothing store that also sells gift items, said new social network Pinterest has given her customers the opportunity to see her store without having to ever set foot in it.

“It’s so visual,” Reinstatler said. “I can post pictures, and it can automatically link them to my website.”

Pinterest, launched in March 2010, allows users to share images they like and pin them up on virtual “boards.” People use it like a scrapbook or collage to collect pictures of items, places, people and anything that catches the eye.

Many companies are tapping into the online site to connect with their clientele.

“It’s a really natural fit for real estate,” said Jill Moylan, owner of Home Advantage Realty in Columbia, who has a board for all the company’s listings and for each of the agents. “It’s really popular in the South, with women in particular. Because they drive most home buying decisions, we decided to jump in and see if it could help us.”

Moylan said she has seen higher traffic to her website because of the Pinterest boards.

“It’s the sort of thing that grows and grows as it goes along,” she said. “We have had success. We use Twitter to drive to Pinterest. It’s kind of a big circle.”

Pinterest is a good tool for those relocating to the city who want to get a feel for it and for home buyers who want to look at inspiration boards for features they might want in a house or decorating ideas.

“It makes us look current and fun,” Moylan said. “We like our real estate to be fun and we feel like Pinterest is just another way to do that.”

With wedding planning, Shelley Cameron, the owner of Better Half Weddings in Deerfield Beach, Fla., uses the site to interact with her clients by having them create their own boards to pin images of flower arrangements, dresses and other wedding details.

Through pinning, Cameron finds out the taste and vision that her brides have for their big day.

“It’s convenient to have everything there,” said Cameron. “Instead of exchanging emails with our ideas, we pin photos on boards. It’s also eco-friendly since we don’t have to print anything.”

Maria Harrison, a partner at Fort Lauderdale marketing company Bullseye Strategy, said that Pinterest is a growing medium that businesses are tapping into.

“What’s exciting about Pinterest is that they’ve hit 10 million users faster than any other site in the U.S.,” Harrison said. “They’re generating more referral traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.”

During the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association’s meeting in May, Harrison made a presentation called “Pinning for Profit,” where she explained how to create a Pinterest business strategy and the best practices to develop growth.

She suggests using the site to create industry-specific boards, track what’s trending and become familiar with the free online statistics service, Google Analytics, to find out the real value of Pinterest to a company.

“To find an unpaid channel (like Pinterest) for businesses to develop themselves is unheard-of,” Harrison said.

Even though the site’s current users are about 70 percent female, Pinterest is continuing to grow. Early this year, it became the third most-popular social network, behind Facebook and Twitter, according to a report by Experian Marketing Services.

“Everything can be a fad,” said Andy Royston, creative partner for Tropical Sun Design, which helps companies manage their social media sites, including Pinterest. “But it’s nice for a business to be on the crest of the latest wave.”