Mad 4 Blog

Everyone’s favorite social media can-do giant Facebook hit 1 billion users last week. Despite shaky ratings in recent months – and its notoriously troublesome debut on the stock market last May (as of August, it fell to half its public offering price) – the landmark prompted CEO Mark Zuckerberg to announce it as his own Facebook status on Oct. 4.

And by the way, that’s active users, not just those dummy accounts used to exploit friends and earn extra tools in Farmville. That’s one of every seven people on the planet.

What does this mean, exactly, for social marketers?

For some, it might indicate a crowded marketplace where everyone already is and has been. These people might choose to put their energies into developing social media where they can catch the wave of newness and hook an untapped crop of customers and investors – a new audience, a fresh set of eyes. Maybe Google+? (Just kidding.)

Others might see that number as 1 billion existing opportunities to advertise, network and connect. This might be the time to sit down and look at existing Facebook strategies to see if you’re up-to-date and doing all that you can to communicate with your friends and followers through this powerful (and still preeminent) forum.

But it doesn’t only matter where Facebook has been or even where it is now. Marketers may want to consider where Facebook is going from here. Zuckerberg has promised that Facebook is now focusing intently on developing for mobile – which may be that new forefront that advertisers seeking the ‘next best thing’ are actually seeking. Sometimes you have to look backward to look forward.

Are you already taking advantage of Facebook’s many tools and techniques to connect with those who might be interested in your brand? Have you looked into emerging strategies and updated your toolbox? Or are you still just sending out a message to existing friends now and then to remind them that you’re still there? Are you ready to give up on Facebook and move to somewhere shiny and new?

With Facebook hitting its 1 billionth user, it’s a great reminder for you to take stock of your social media game to find out where your time, attention and budget should be allocated. Let us know if you need any help checking to see if there’s any room for improvement in your long-term social media outreach plan – and please share with us about what you’re doing to stay relevant in these fast-changing times for online and mobile marketing!

So we’ve spent the past two weeks talking about the appeal, growth and users of Pinterest. Now it’s time to talk about how you can harness this knowledge to market your website by using Pinterest’s social media strengths. It’s actually fairly easy to optimize any e-commerce site for Pinterest. Here are the three simple steps:

1. Update your product info. Generic photos and basic specs are not enough – how about a clever and descriptive blurb about each product? Think about cleaning up old product display images or scheduling a new photo shoot if it’s been awhile. Clean, pretty and interesting images are the main hook for earning people’s pins. You should definitely make sure that all the images and links on your website match the products and go directly to the correct sales pages.

2. Add “Pin It.” Obviously, the most important part of marketing your products and services on Pinterest is having the “Pin It” app on your pages. This means that when visitors are on your site, they can just click once to pin any item they’re looking at to their page. This will encourage people to talk about and share your items; and once your item is on their page, it links right back to your website. So any of that person’s friends who like it will come to check it out – and possibly make a purchase. While being pinned a lot can lead to sales, it’s also good to think about it in terms of spreading brand awareness; people will see and recognize your wares even if the links don’t immediately or directly convert to profit on your end.

3. Don’t oversell. The most important thing to keep in mind is that Pinterest is drawing so many members that convert their interests into sales because buyers feel like they are getting recommendations from trusted sources – i.e., because they don’t feel like they are being advertised to. That’s the very nature and appeal that’s lead to this website’s success, so any venture into Pinterest should keep in mind the site’s fun, casual, social nature. In step 1, you give visitors a reason to pin you. In step 2, you make it easy for them. These are the painfully easy but also extremely powerful tools for Pinterest social media marketing, so you won’t have to go overboard trying to push pins on people.

Contact us for additional thoughts on how you can prime your pages for Pinterest.

Digital agency Modea recently released a report about the massive audience now using Pinterest. You might find some of these statistics surprising (e.g., most Pinterest users shop at Kroger grocery stores), while others are more predictable (e.g., most Pinterest users are women). Either way, if you’re currently selling items online, this is one asset you’re going to want to keep up with and add to your social media marketing arsenal. And that starts with understanding who is using Pinterest.

Here’s a look at some of the more interesting figures from Modea’s collection:

• Top magazines: Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle.
• Top TV networks: Fox, CBS, NBC.
• Top vacation destinations: Disney World, Florida (not Orlando), Las Vegas.
• Top credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover.
• Political affiliations: Mostly independent, republicans beat democrats by 1%.
• Top job titles: Administrative assistant, sales, education.
• Extracurricular hobbies: Cooking, crafts, dining out.

In March 2011, the iPhone app was first launched and immediately pulled in more users than the developers expected, which helped the business continue its skyrocket toward becoming one of the web’s most popular social media sites. Interestingly, Apple isn’t even one of the leading mobile carriers for Pinterest users today. At the top of the list of carriers is Verizon, the preferred choice of more than 35% of Pinterest visitors. Other top contenders include AT&T and Sprint. In terms of phone models, Pinterest users are sporting Motorola, Samsung and LG. Furthermore, Pinterest users are more likely to go mobile than Internet users as a whole, and

Does it sound like Pinterest users might be a good fit for your products and services? This fad is growing fast with no end in sight, so now might be the perfect time for you to find out. Next week, we talk about ways you can optimize your website for Pinterest.

Pinterest started out as a website where individuals could share pictures they’d found online, like cute cats, pretty dresses and original artwork. People can pin their favorite items to their own boards to share with their friends – or any fellow cat, dress or art aficionados on the Internet. It’s a way for people with similar interests to find each other and easily discover more items that they’re apt to enjoy.

One of the website’s appeals is that people can quickly browse through images that are all laid out on a well-organized page. It’s easy to pin things to your board from almost any outside website, or to grab an item from the board of someone else who inspires you – so it’s an effortless and easy-to-use model. The combination of appealing visuals, convenience and simplicity speaks to social media’s strong suits – so in a way, it’s no surprise the website is doing so well.

In January 2012, the site boasted 11.7 million unique visitors – and even in the short time since then, traffic has increased 145% to make Pinterest the third-largest social media outlet behind only Facebook and Twitter.

But it’s not just about traffic, it’s also about sales. Although Pinterest was designed to allow people to share their visual inspirations, those images actually link back to their retailers’ sites. For example, if you have a shop on the indie e-commerce website Etsy and your item is getting shared all over Pinterest, people will click through to visit your page and check out the rest of your wares.

According to a report by Spotify in 2012, not only were just as many visitors coming to e-tailers through Pinterest as through Twitter, people who came to shop through Pinterest actually consistently spent more money than those coming through Twitter or Facebook.

Check back next week for some interesting demographic info about the people who are using Pinterest – and how you can appeal to them with your brand.