Digital Spin by Harland Clarke Digital

Pinterest is interestingly all over the place

Posted by Rob Ropars on September 13th, 2012

It’s hard to read any marketing blog post, email newsletter or news piece without coming across the latest darling of Social Media called Pinterest.  For those unfamiliar, this new kid on the block has a name combining its two elements “pin” and “interest” and was envisioned as a digital pincushion board.

People “pin” images to their virtual board, other people “re-pin” (much like Tweeting and Re-Tweeting) to theirs.  In this way, images of favorite items can virally spread quickly from user to user like a virus.  Sort of a mixture of other social networks such as Tumblr and Instagram, it’s a visually-oriented networking platform.

How has it worked so far?  A look at some of the headlines of the last few months shows a somewhat apathetic response to Pinterest amongst businesses and marketers:

• Survey: 17% of Marketers Currently Using or Planning to Join Pinterest¹
• A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her Pinterest Boards Out Of Fear²
• Pinterest Marketing Not Gaining Traction Among Businesses³
• Pinterest gnawing away at time spent on other social media sites⁴
• Pinterest Driving Purchases, Drawing Social Net Mind Share⁵
• Advertisers, Marketers Un-Touched By The Magic Of Pinterest⁶

There appears to be some evidence of purchasing being impacted by use of Pinterest, but adoption is low amongst the business/marketing crowd.  According to the last article above, a recent study by The Creative Group found that 44% of advertising and marketing teams have literally no interest in using Pinterest.⁶

Twitter and Facebook remain the most popular Social Media platforms of choices for businesses.  But some opportunities may be missed by not having a broader digital marketing channel spectrum.  Evidence is mounting that Pinterest users are more likely to follow companies and purchase on that platform than on Facebook.

Pinterest has proven particularly popular with women becoming in some cases the top social media referral source for women’s magazines.  However, though Pinterest has a large early female adoption rate, males appear to be more likely to say they bought something after first seeing it “Pinned.”⁵

With 39% of consumers changing their social networking behavior because of it, 15% of users saying they had never used a social network before it and 25% of consumers saying they favor it for their social media time it’s easy to see why Pinterest is frequently a topic of discussion these days.⁴

One factor any user should be aware of is the Terms and Conditions related to image usage.  One photographer found that a very realistic interpretation of their terms points to a serious user liability.  If you Pin someone’s photo and the owner sues you for violating their ownership rights, you have to pay for their AND Pinterest’s lawyers and pay any/all charges you AND Pinterest end up with.  This issue and how their T&C are interpreted will be ongoing, but as with anything check with your own counsel.²

So what do I think?  As with anything related to marketing-test, test, test some more and re-test.  Keep active, proactive and reactive when necessary.  A comprehensive, multi-channel marketing program and individual campaigns can produce ROI above and beyond the individual parts alone.  It’s free to set up an account and try it out, so other than producing images of products and uploading them, you could be exploring this new channel quickly. In addition, make sure to use web analytics tracking on links to measure click activity from Pinterest as a source of site actions/purchases.  Calculating the traffic and ROI associated with it will help you strategically review and modify your efforts over time.

References:

¹ http://www.redorbit.com/news/entertainment/1112679792/pinterest-interest-survey-17-percent-of-marketers-currently-using-or/
² http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-28/tech/31106641_1_repinning-copyright-entire-image
³ http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3041-business-using-pinterest.html
⁴ http://www.bizreport.com/2012/08/pinterest-gnawing-away-at-time-spent-on-other-social-media-s.html
⁵ http://www.minonline.com/news/20836.html
⁶ http://www.marketingvox.com/advertisers-marketers-un-touched-by-the-magic-of-pinterest-051433

• Category: Social Media | 1 comment
• Tags: pinterest, Social Media, social mind share

The Tweet Smell of History

Posted by Rob Ropars on April 20th, 2010

Publishing your thoughts via various Social Media platforms, whether LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or blogging has always been a double edged sword.  SubscriberMail has its own blog and we also use Twitter to Tweet about industry news and/or the new blog posts.

But on the personal side of things, most of us have our own email addresses, Social Media accounts and even our own personal blogs.  Keeping a separation of work and personal life is always an ongoing necessary challenge.

Two developments this week should be a reminder to be cognizant of what you’re pushing out into the world via Social Media, specifically Twitter.

1-Google has announced that they are creating a searchable archive of Tweets to allow for future replaying of posts by users.  So a string of Tweets posted that you might have created at home, late at night, on the weekend could be replayed like a video clip.  Future generations can enjoy your missives on movies, games, politics or whatever.

2-The Library of Congress has just revealed a plan to archive ALL Tweets and make them a part of their permanent historical/public record.  Here’s an example of some actual Tweets from @ParisHilton that future historians and students will be deconstructing and analyzing to better understand early 21st Century America:

*Aside from being @ the same club, Reggie and I didn’t even say hi to each other. I was there with my sister and friends. 6:21 PM Apr 13th via UberTwitter

*On set shooting still. Been here since 6am, so tired. Can’t wait to finish and get home to my puppies. 6:43 PM Apr 13th via web

*At my favorite italian restaurant with my grandpa and family. about 13 hours ago via UberTwitter

*At home getting ready for bed. I love my grandpa, we had such a lovely time with him and dinner tonite. He is the best grandpa in the world!  about 9 hours ago  via UberTwitter

• Category: Social Media | 2 comments
• Tags: Social Media, Social Media Privacy, Twitter

Social Media: Adapt Your Instincts

Posted by Dave McCue on May 13th, 2009

In the mind of an online marketer, the knowledge that millions of potential customers are logging onto social media sites every day elicits an almost Pavlovian response. The marketer pictures so many pairs of eyes, and one great big opportunity to stick a message in front of them. Oh, the possibilities…

Those potential customers, meanwhile, might just want to throw sheep at each other on Facebook, reconnect with business associates on LinkedIn and update their Twitter status a dozen or so times a day. Simply put, they aren’t in the market to be marketed to—so why are so many people touting the merits of social media as an effective marketing tool?

It comes down to being able to periodically ignore the robotic voice inside their heads that keeps saying “must….promote…” If a business launches a social media profile, and the only thing it’s used for is promotion, then it’s just another advertisement—people receive advertising through plenty of other mediums.

What makes social media unique—and what often gets lost in the rush to use it as if it were a traditional marketing vehicle—is the opportunity for a personal conversation to take place between an organization and its target audience. I can think of several instances where I had already become a recurring customer of an online business before ever having contact with an actual representative of the company. In those cases, the first time any sort of personal communication took place is when I had to reach out to the company due to a problem with an order or something of that nature. With social media, a relationship outside of the purchase engine could have been established well in advance, strengthening my connection to the company and likely making for a less-contentious situation when issues arose.

• Category: Social Media | 2 comments
• Tags: Brand Perception, Customer Loyalty, Social Media

Alleged Nigerian National Invades Social Media

Posted by Mike Ferguson on April 9th, 2009

Note to email spammers: You’re so 2008.

An interesting post on Security Expert Bruce Schneier’s blog.  Long story short when there’s a will, there’s a way and social media has proven no exception.

We’ve already seen exploits on twitter via tweet tornado.  Now, Schneier helps us understand some of the simple ways some of us or our social-media-entwined friends and relatives might be preyed upon after instilling perhaps a bit too much trust in some of the household names of the social network properties on the web. This goes beyond chatting up a new acquaintance in an online community that perhaps isn’t of the gender or age group they pretend to be. This is accepting network invites from people we might think are professional colleagues or old college friends.

General spamming and identity theft aren’t the only themes being called back from the early spam days of yesteryear. More specifically, it’s good to know our old Nigerian friend that just needs a little financial help hasn’t changed.

I can’t wait for Bill Gates to befriend me on twitter or facebook and offer me some money for spreading his message amongst my networks.

• Category: Social Media | No comments »
• Tags: Email data security, Social Media, Twitter