Pinterest has just added the ability to create a map pin board, showing both your pins and a map at the same time.  If you haven’t used Pinterest for your property or company yet, now may be the time.

To give you a feel for how a map pin board looks, check out this pin board map for the Top 100 Hotels in the World: 

Here are some options for using the map-style pin board for your properties:

1. Mapping Your Portfolio.  This may be a region-specific pin board, or even showing beyond that, and gives you the opportunity to showcase your communities in a visually vibrant way.
2. Mapping Your Surrounding Community.  This is a fantastic way to showcase local hotspots, whether they are museums, restaurants, stores, or other interesting locations surrounding a given apartment community.  Even better, this could be tied in with a community-specific blog that showcases these types of locations, boosting your other online efforts at the same time.
3. The Risky Option – The Competitor Map.  At first blush, most people would not be interested in creating a pin board with their competitors, but it’s actually a compelling option.  Although you are sharing information about competitors, it also gives you control over how everything is portrayed.  For example, let’s say that you have one gorgeous competitor that just sprang up.  Well, this gives you an opportunity to include all our competitors but that one.  It also allows you to show yours as the top property ahead of all others.  Having control of the narrative is powerful.

There are probably many other creative ways to take advantage of this option, so have fun playing with it!  If anyone has created some interesting maps, please share in the comments!