Callan Green, senior social media specialist atSony Electronics, never thought she would want a pair of leather pants.

“But I saw enough pins on Pinterest that I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to own them,’ and I went out and bought some.”

It was the fall of 2011 and she was discovering firsthand the power of Pinterest to drive sales.

The image-based, pinboard-sharing social media site launched in March 2010 is now the third-largest social network, behind Facebook and Twitter.

In March 2012, it tallied 2.3 billion page impressions to over 4 million unique visitors a day.

“We were all using [Pinterest] personally,” said Green of the social media team at Sony Electronics, “and realized the power of the platform to drive people’s interest in purchasing.”