Posts tagged as: Social Media
The Next Generation of Online Couponing
Saving money is all the craze these days. Sites like Soap.com offer manufacturer’s coupons with a click of a check box. Reality shows like Extreme Couponing on TLC idolize the new hobby. Email specials like GroupOn and LivingSocial continue to grow in popularity.
Gen X and the Millennials are officially smitten. So what’s the latest? Wrapp wants you to give low-value gift certificates for free as birthday presents. It’s no joke. The European-based coupon king is coming to America and bringing the social side of saving money.
Rather than another “Happy Birthday!! xoxo,” the Swedish company wants you to post a $5 gift card to H&M, Gap, Sephora or 7 other brick-and-mortar retailers… so long as your social media birthday buddy meets certain demographic criteria.
The idea? Brands offer $2-$5 gift certificates online to gain exposure. You endorse the brand by posting it on a friend’s wall. Your friend gets a barcode sent directly to a smart phone, ventures out of the virtual world into the store, and spends far more than the original value based on your advice. And the brands only pay Wrapp when the gift certificate is redeemed. It’s a win-win.
Wrapp forgoes Facebook ad costs by convincing users to post for free. A few thousand posts later, and brands show up in newsfeeds across the country without so much as a cent going to Zuckerburg.
I admit it. I love Pinterest. I can spend hours skimming, pinning, and commenting. I use it for the typical things: crafts, recipes, and clothes to lust after. But, I also use it to keep track of books I have read and books I want to read, up-and-coming technology, amazing design, and a Christmas list. The user-friendly, visually stunning social media site is perfect for keeping track of things I like from articles fromSmashing Magazine to Jimmy Choos. And everything in between.
I’m not the only one, either. Pinterest is gaining dedicated users quickly much like yours truly so here is what you need to know to be ahead of the social media curve.
The facts:
- According to comScore, Pinterest holds the record for the fastest standalone site to cross the 10 million unique monthly visitors mark.
- Techcrunch says daily user count is over 2 million.
- While users are currently overwhelmingly female and American, male audience is growing and British men are leading the charge.
But what is it?
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can post the fun, beautiful, funny, inspirational, outrageous things you find on the internet. The platform is highly visual– think of a late 80s teenage girl’s bedroom wall covered in cut-outs of the cutest new leg warmers, Molly Ringwald, big bangs and a pre-#winning Charlie Sheen.
It’s a social media platform where you can share images and video that you find interesting with your friends and others with similar tastes and hobbies. Like Pandora, it helps you find new things similar to what you already like.
The concept is amazingly simple: create boards on specific topics that interest you; find something on the internet that you like, want or enjoy; pin it to your board; watch it spread via repins, the Pinterest equivalent of a retweet. According to Emerson College’s Professor of Social Media David Gerzof Richard, “it’s about finding something that’s interesting to you and sharing it. It’s stupid simple to use. You don’t have to write anything. It’s essentially eye candy.”
But what does this have to do with brands?
Pinterest drives traffic. It drives more website traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combines. In fact, Pinterest is driving 3.6% of website traffic for some 200 ShareHolic member publishers, only .02% less than Google. Some major brands are already on the wagon including Etsy, Whole Foods, STA Travel, and CBS Sports. According to Ad Age, Real Simple magazine is already getting more traffic from Pinterest than from Facebook.
But we don’t have recipes to share or pretty products to pin. How do I make it work for my business?
Make boards for internal use first. Create a board and add co-workers as collaborators. Share funny videos, cool new sites, witty SomeEcards, and 80s movies .gifs. As you grow comfortable and your team enjoys it, create new boards of things that inspire, projects you’re working on or technology in your field. Add a board of books you’ve read or infographics worth a look.
A few final tips to keep in mind:
- Avoid self promotion. Curate; don’t sell.
- Make your boards specific and relevant.
- Follow some big brands for inspiration.
- Pin original material. Don’t just repin. Add to the conversation.
- Re-pin material that you actually read, liked, admired or found inspired.
Why not check out Myjive’s Pinterest boards?
Sources:
“Tough to pin down, but too popular to ignore”
“Pinterest: How Do US and UK Users Compare”
“Where the Ladies At?”
“Brands, Businesses and Blogs on Pinterest”
“The Marketers Guide to Pinterest“
Social Trend Watching: Shifting from Facebook to Twitter
Are people really spending as much time on Facebook as we think?
For some time now, I’ve noticed a subtle but steady shift in the behavior of my social circle, as they spend increasingly less time on Facebook and more time on other social networks – most significantly, Twitter. Such a claim may seem trivial when you compare the two: In 2011 Facebook attained 800 million users with earnings of $4.27 billion while Twitter had 200 million users with earnings of $139.5 million. Even so, I’m not the only one who’s wondering if things are actually what they seem: Facebook vs. Twitter
While Facebook’s numbers still reflect positive growth, a closer look reveals that most of that growth, 60 percent yearly, comes from untapped global markets. Asia-Pacific and Latin America are two such markets with huge populations experiencing Facebook for the very first time. However growth is waning in western markets – with Europe at 35 percent and North America at only 25 percent. This pattern of growth is most certainly why Facebook keeps expanding in emerging markets as they continue to saturate seasoned ones.
So why do audiences grow so rapidly in emerging markets? Possibly because of a kind of “Facebook phenomenon,” in which a person’s highest point of interest is when they first join and are still making fresh connections. Then as time passes, some experience Facebook fatigue. As a user’s network expands and becomes more cluttered with irrelevant content, their social experience becomes more predictable. One way Facebook is trying to combat this issue is Timeline. While it’s still too soon to tell, it will be interesting to see if Timeline is able to re-ignite and prolong Facebook’s initial excitement of discovery for veteran Facebook users.
So who is the primary beneficiary of this subtle shift that is underway? Many would say Twitter. Even though the two social networks are seen quite differently (Facebook more as identity management and Twitter as news with possibility), people are making a choice between the two. This tweet captures it nicely: “Facebook is for friends who are now strangers; Twitter is for strangers who should be your friends.”
Perhaps Twitter’s biggest advantage is not its ability to constantly evolve, but rather that its evolution comes from users not just updates. With its organic user behavior, unpredictable nature and pure outpouring of ideas and opinions, Twitter is able to do what Facebook has not: consistently facilitate fresh experiences.
Our Digital History is History
In an article written by Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, she makes a shocking assertion that in the future, the 21st century may just be a big black hole in our history.
With everyone storing their information online, we tend to casually delete any outdated information and upgrade with the new. So what happens to the old information? Does it disappear forever?
Lynne begins her article with a statement about the United States’ President website. Apparently, all old information on the site is erased forever when a new president comes into office:
“At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House website, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the website had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration – they may never know them now. When the website changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.”
Whether or not this statement is entirely true, it makes me think about my personal history on the Web. I delete, rewrite, redesign, and reorganize my life on a monthly- sometimes weekly- basis without ever thinking about losing those memories. The social Web of today is an amazing diary of so many people’s lives- How do we store this history of the human personality in 21st century America? Will it continue to be destroyed, and ultimately forgotten in the future?
Slides for Ron’s presentation: Social Media Marketing- Rethinking Traditional Marketing Plans.
Twitter: Micro-Blogging is in our DNA
A good article (unlike this blog post) should have a solid hypothesis–we twit because we crave attention–which generates research (see references), which leads to a well-informed conclusion–micro-blogging is in our DNA. I would love to lay it all out in such an academic fashion, but I have a million hypothesis on the Twitter topic and none of them are conclusive.
We twit because we can.
We crave attention in every facet of our lives.
We know little about one thing, but a lot about everything.
We like knowing that someone might be listening.
We need to share our happiness. Our sadness. Our anger.Our lives are streaming… and it makes us feel sexy.
There are dozens of discussions about Twitter as a Social media revolution and its use as a marketing tool. Absurd experiments, different strategic opinions and third party tools are popping up everywhere. All of this is backed by the theory that more Brand activity, even if its short nonsense conversation, is better than no activity. Ostensibly unedited, spontaneous conversation is easy and seemingly instinctive for us. It comes naturally and Twitter is the ultimate conduit.
Dennis White presents a strong indifference towards this constant stream of useless nonsense produced through Twitter, claiming that “society individually and collectively suffers for it.” Tina at BSS critiques how the Booklyn Museum might have missed the target by encrypting their feeds and trying to monetize on it (an experimental gimmick). She concludes that Twitter and social media in general is about the conversation, not the message. Some business-centric journals are claiming “expertise” on how this channel [Twitter] is crucial to businesses. Its has personal charm, provides intimacy, revenue opps, etc. If your interested in Dell Outlet’s approach, or toys to add to your Twit-hero utility belt, see references below. I’m not sure how crucial it is or will be. Nonetheless, a little Brand conversation maybe better than none.
Update:
Today’s issue of Shelly Palmer’s self-plugging Media Bytes focuses on how to Tap into Twitter’s Value. Not a fan of the series, but it shows that there is growing Twit buzz at iMedia Connection network. Digital journalist giant Leo Laporte recently ranted about the fact that his Twitter following has not moved in 7 days (a man who has over 80k+ followers), claiming there is something technically wrong with Twitter’s capacity.
References:
Social Media: Top Five Twitter Tools for Business Intelligence
Getting Intimate (with Cusomters) on Twitter
