Pinterest has long been a secret weapon for businesses of all sorts. All it takes to engage with passionate Pinners are beautiful, interesting, or relevant photos, articles, and videos shared in aptly-named boards. That formula makes it easy to stay in touch with the site’s users, in particular for businesses with a target that lines up with Pinterest’s largest demographics. Thanks to Pinterest’s new Promoted Video feature, however, it’s now possible to promote your business.

This ads service allows Pinterest to keep up with social media competitors such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. There’s a chance that Pinterest may surpass the video features on other social networking sites, however, even though the great trio offered video ads first, Pinterest’s platform is distinctly different. It’s designed to appeal specifically to Pinners. You can create a promotional video for a product or service and advertise it on Pinterest, hopefully reaching a significant portion of the platform’s 100 million monthly visitors. To make sure you reach your target, there are featured Pins shown beneath each Promoted Video.

As a result, Promoted Video is not passive. It doesn’t encourage people to sit there and mindlessly watch a video as they wait for it to end. The design makes Pinterest’s videos interactive – the Pinners get to participate. They see a product in the video, then they see Pins devoted to it, which also means that they can quickly and easily purchase the item they just saw.

Imagine the implications. Mind you, the video player is fully integrated into Pinterest, so the entire process – from watching the video to seeing the featured Pins to buying the product – is seamless. Think you’ll try it?