British brands are beginning to experiment with Pinterest with Harrods inviting customers to create a mood board, which will be the inspiration for a ‘Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Street Party’ window, while Confused.com has a competition to win some Butterfly Twists folding pumps.

The campaigns come as Pinterest is revealed to have grown into the third most popular US social network.

To take part in the Harrods’ Pinterest competition your board must be titled ‘Harrods Street Party Window’ and once complete, you have tweet Harrods’ a link to your board (@HarrodsofLondon) including the hashtag #HarrodsWindows.

There are already a few dozen boards up on the Harrods’s Pinterest page. Harrods is promoting the competition on its Facebook page, where it has 202,000 fans, and via its Twitter account, which has more than 101,000 followers.

The Harrods’ Pinterest idea could be huge as the build up to events surrounding the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee gather pace.

It touches on the interest in the many events being planned and people’s love of taking pictures, which nicely intersects with what Pinterest can deliver.

Harrods has also created its own themed board that includes images are of past Harrods window displays, Union Flags, afternoon tea and royalty to inspire potential competition participants.

The winner will be brought to London and put up in a top hotel in advance of the official unveiling of their window next month. The deadline for entries is Thursday 19th April.

Price-comparison site brand Confused.com has launched a competition to win one of 10 pairs of Butterfly Twists folding pumps as part of a PR campaign highlighting the dangers of driving in heels.

A promo video on YouTube linking to the competition page on Pinterest features a woman in huge heels walking through town and being admired by men, but all of her sophisticated elegance comes apart when she gets to her BMW and struggles to operate the pedals to her car whilst still wearing her heels.

To win a pair of Butterfly Twists folding pumps people have to follow Confused.com on Pinterest to be added you as a contributor and they will need to Pin a picture on its ‘Driving in heels competition’ board of themselves wearing their most extravagant heels and then label it “I want to win a pair of Butterfly Twists with Confused.com”.

So far not a lot of pins, but again a good idea and a neat addition to an existing campaign.

Pinterest now third largest social network

According to a new 2012 trend report from Experian Pinterest is now the world’s third most popular social network in the US, based on number of visits, surpassed only by Facebook and Twitter (see table below).

It is for many a social network that has come out of nowhere rocketing to become a a top 10 social networkin December and exploding in the UK. We have since seen many take it up. Most recently the Obama team added Pinterest to its social media campaign.

Maybe none of that should come as a surprise after we read that Pinterest is now driving more traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.