If you’re in business and targeting consumers, there’s a new social networking site that’s about as hot as anything gets online these days. The new object of consumer affection, admiration and flat out obsession: Pinterest,  a social scrapbooking site.

How popular is it? The site’s attracting 10 million unique viewers a month online. It’s addictive to the folks who use and contribute to it. It’s Facebook on steroids.

The premise is simple: Users create a portfolio of pictures on the site and encourage their friends and followers to view the contents. There’s a “Pin It” extension that can be added to the user’s bookmarks bar so they can easily click images they find on the Web and post the to their Pinterest scrapbook.

And yes, there’s an iPhone app that can can do the same.

Pinterest takes a real-life phenomenon — scrapbooking, which became a multi-billion dollar industry among mostly housewives — and turns it into a simple, online activity. No books, no glue, no scissors necessary.

Users simply add the visual image of something they fancy to their Pinterest board, perhaps with a comment or two. Others view the image, make their own observations or ask questions. For business, it’s a way to let your customers or fans do the advertising for you.

By pinning an object’s image, the users essentially endorse it — it remains up to the viewer to like, re-pin or comment on what’s been posted.

For now, the site’s blissfully uncluttered by ads and other commercialization. Which may be why it’s so appealing to users, inundated at every turn with online pitches, pop ups and advertising.

The sites roots are in the midwest and the style and tenor of its set up and execution are pretty straightforward and no-frills. It remains to be seen if the folks who run it can keep it that way.

For a more detailed analysis of Pinterest, read the deconstruction of it here.

Tags: consumers, Pinterest, social networking