Will Pinterest Outpace StumbleUpon?
Pinterest has already surpassed Twitter in traffic. Is StumbleUpon next?
I suspect that Pinterest will soon, probably by the end of the year, be sending more traffic to websites than StumbleUpon is. And that traffic will likely be better at converting than StumbleUpon traffic. Don’t you think?
Of course, just because a site sends you gobs of traffic doesn’t mean that it will boost your business. That traffic has to convert.
Still, it’s important to understand the demographics of any social media site before you start using it. Pinterest is largely made up of a female audience. Twitter is mostly male. You need to keep that in mind as you use the two services.
Marketers who use Facebook and Twitter side by side understand that their audiences are completely different. They manage to use both services, but they don’t post the same information to both services. Rather, they tailor their links and messages to the uniqueness of each social media website. And that’s what you’ll have to do with Pinterest as well.
I like Pinterest as a graphical exposure website. Twitter allows image uploads, but seeing those images inside of the ecosystem is a lot different than the in-your-face graphical nature of Pinterest.
That’s why Pinterest is better if your messages rely on graphics for the impact.
Pinterest is going to be the talk of the town for a while. Don’t look for it to go away. If you have an interest in Pinterest, then I recommend learning how to use it before you criticise it.
Facebook Timelines For Brand Pages
Facebook has introduced its Timelines idea for brand pages. And if you aren’t familiar with Timelines yet, then you should go to Facebook and start looking around. Many people are now experiencing Timelines on their personal walls. Now, you can experience on your brand page.
So what, you say?
Well, Timelines actually are a big deal. Mark Zuckerberg has gone on the record as saying this is the future of Facebook, and it actually has some implications for online marketing for businesses.
For starters, you have better control over your image with Facebook Timelines. You can upload an eye-catching image to serve as your Timeline header and use it as a way to brand your Timeline.
You can also select the content that you want to feature at the top of your Timeline. Any apps or social media campaigns you want to draw attention to can be promoted on your Timeline so that your brand page visitors can take advantage of interacting with your page more meaningfully.
Finally, and just about any business can benefit from this, you can add milestones to your Timeline highlight important events in your company’s history. That’s a big deal no matter how big your business is.
Will you be using Timelines for brand pages on Facebook? If not, I think you should consider it. If you haven’t thought about it, I think you should give it serious consideration.
What do you think? Has Facebook hit upon a good idea with Timelines for business brand pages?
Are You Sharing Enough On Social Media?
Nothing wrong with salesmen. A good salesman can make you a lot of money and keep your customers happy. But there is a time and a place for a good sales pitch. Social media is usually not it.
A lot of new online marketers make the mistake of going to the social networks and peppering them with sales messages. That usually ends up with a lot of frustration and they abandon the effort. It doesn’t have to go that way. Instead of focusing on selling, why not focus on building relationships?
People go to the bar to hang out with their friends. Do you think the used car salesman is going to get very far by walking into the bar and approaching everyone he sees with a photo and a sales pitch for the Car of the Week? Probably not. He’ll likely get thrown out of the bar. And that’s typically what happens to marketers who take the hard sell approach on social media websites.
A better approach is to go in and have a little fun. Meet people, enjoy their company. Dance a few times and buy a few beers. Through the course of the evening, people will get to know you. And they’ll naturally ask what you do.
That’s a good time to give them the skinny. Not the full sales pitch. Just a little elevator pitch that tells them what you do. If you get them to like you and trust you, eventually you’ll earn a little business from your socializing. Make it fun and interesting. Drop the hard sell.
Is Twitter Selling Out?
Twitter is about to roll out its much coveted brand pages, but only if you can fork out $25,000. Sadly enough, some companies are doing it.
The first round of testers just completed the first phase of this rollout. Reportedly, these companies – companies like Coca Cola and Disney – paid $2 million, minimum, for the privilege of being the first 20 companies to use Twitter’s brand pages. Seriously?
Typically, when a company has a private beta, they don’t charge users for using the service. They simply roll it out and ask for feedback. But this Twitter rollout is different. Does anyone know why?
I think it’s because Twitter is planning to charge businesses for any level of participation in its brand pages. When it completes the current phase and has received the revenue it expects to generate from the $25,000 price, Twitter will likely open up brand pages to the general public. But what will those cost? $1,000? $5,000? $500? It’s anyone’s guess.
Here’s the problem with that. Not everyone is going to be able to afford a Twitter brand page. They could set the price at $100 and some small business owners are just not going to be able to buy in.
But what if they instituted a monthly fee? What would it be? $10/month? $20? $50?
The higher the price tag the more likely more businesses will not be able to opt in. Worse, let’s say you do buy a Twitter brand page initially at the stated buy-in price, then you decide later than you don’t want to participate. Or, let’s say, you miss a payment. What happens to your brand page? Does it go away or sit their in limbo until you decide to buy back in?
One thing is for sure, Twitter will be beholden to the companies that pay the most for their brand pages. Twitter brand page policies will undoubtedly be set by those companies who paid $2 million at the outset. Do you think they’d use their power to shut out competition? It sounds like they already have.
The new brand pages will be available on February 1st – if you have $25,000.
Google+ Is Moving Ahead
Since its birth last summer, Google+ has made small (and large) steps to make it a platform worthy of consideration for serious marketers. Its latest innovation – not really an innovation, but it’s a big step forward for webmasters – is more options for the Google+ badge.
So what’s a “badge?”
A badge is a graphic icon you can display on your website to encourage your site visitors to take some action. Facebook has the Like button, or badge. Twitter has the Tweet/Retweet badge. Google has the +1 badge.
It was announced yesterday afternoon that the Google+ badge now has more options. You can configure your Google+ badge to fit the width of your website, which is a very nice feature, or change its color to white so that it is more visible on dark backgrounds. Who wouldn’t want that?
Another great feature is you can show the number of circles you’ve been included in on your badge. That’s real social proof that can work in your favor if you choose to use it.
Google+ has become the first true social search engine. With search results now coming primarily from users’ social graph, or friend base, you’ll see different results for your search queries based on whether you are logged into your Google account or not. This provides an incentive for business owners to make their customers their online social friends. And vice-versa.
By organizing its search results in this manner, Google hoped to make social connections are a part of its search algorithm. It looks like this is the future of search.
If you’re serious about search engine marketing, add a Google+ badge to your website.
Should You Use Quora Boards?
Quora is an online question and answer website. You show up, ask questions and other people answer them. Or you answer questions that other people ask. Simple, right?
Well, it just got better. Now, Quora has a service it calls Boards. You can set up a Board around any topic you like and post links and leave comments about that topic on your Board. You can also invite other Quora users to post to the Board. As administrator, you can make them authors or co-owners.
So what’s this got to do with your business? A lot. Since you run a business that caters to a particular clientele or provides a particular service, you can set up a Board that is all about that topic or covering topics that are important to your clientele.
You can’t monetize a Quora board. But you can use it to build links to your web properties. Every time you write a blog post, post it to Quora. When you find something interesting about your topic that your audience would find relevant, post it to Quora. You can essentially use it just like any other social bookmarking website except that you can also post to your Quora Board the same way you’d post to Twitter or Facebook.
What it looks like is a cross between Facebook and Pinterest. Photos are great for Quora Boards. You catch people’s attention. Once you have their attention, you can send people anywhere you want on the web.
Cool, huh?
Twittering For Your Company? Get A Contract
Social media law has no precedence. And when you add complications that come from normal social media activity, then things can get a little murky. Or a lot murky.
One former employee of a company called PhoneDog Media is finding out the hard way.
This lawsuit is complicated by several facts that are hard to define by the law:
- It is a personal account, not a business account
- The account name does have the company name in it
- The account was managed by the employee, not the company
- It has amassed a huge following
- During the time period in question, the Twitter account holder tweeted personal items and business items for his employer
- Upon leaving employment, the company allegedly told the employer that he could keep the account in exchange for tweeting on behalf of the company “occasionally”
It’s hard to say what any court will weigh as most important in this case. One other point that needs clarification, as pointed out by intellectual property attorney Henry J. Cittone, is why the account was started.
So what’s the lesson in all of this? If you are a company looking to establish a social media presence and you want an employee to manage the account for you, then put your terms in writing. The same goes for an employee. Agree before you start just what the account is for and who is responsible for what. Don’t leave anything to chance – or a handshake.
Do You Have Social Influence?
An article on Marketing Pilgrim highlights a new study that suggests that social media influence is largely a myth.
You can’t really argue with this paragraph from the article:
If the Harvard Study is right and “peer influence is virtually nonexistent,” that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the social media towel. All it means is that you may need to adjust your thinking. Instead of pushing to bring new lambs into the fold, sell to the ones you already have corralled.
The idea that you should sell to your current customers before attempting to sell to prospective customers isn’t new. Every businessperson knows it’s easier to keep the client you have than acquire a new one. But what about social media?
The study cited indicates that people become friends on social media because they have similar interests rather than people influencing their social media friends to take up new interests. Again, isn’t that a lot like real life?
While influencing others on social media does happen, it is a rare occurrence. But that doesn’t mean social media marketing is ineffective or a waste of money. Rather, it means you might alter your approach to focus more on your existing customers rather than trying to win new ones.
Do You Have Your Facebook Timeline?
Facebook announced in September that it would roll out a new concept in social media. They call it the Timeline. As of yesterday, Timeline is now available to the public.
You can get your Timeline right now just by going to Introducing Timeline and clicking the green button at the bottom of the page labeled “Get Timeline.” Alternatively, you can wait for the Timeline announcement to appear on your Facebook profile. Some Facebook users already have Timeline.
You can see a sample Timeline right here.
If you notice, this is the Timeline of an author/publisher. You can see how he uses it for his business. Photos, videos, messages, everything on the page serves to promote his business as well as his personal interests. It looks as if the Facebook Timeline will be the perfect tool for independent businesses, entrepreneurs, sole proprietors, freelancers, and other independent businessperson’s looking to promote themselves online.
It won’t be long before everyone will have a Timeline. I’m pretty certain the current profiles will disappear.
If you opt to start your Timeline right away you’ll have 7 days to review it and remove anything you don’t want to be public. After that, you’re stuck with your life. Edit liberally.
Otherwise, get ready for the new social media.
Is Google+ Pushing For More User Control?
An article at Search Engine Watch seems to imply that Google+ power users will soon be able to control more of the content they see in their streams.
The article doesn’t go into detail about how this will work exactly, but there are some subtle clues about how it might work.
“Noise control” will soon be added to the social site, and “we have a team figuring out how to do it right now,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said at the Le Web conference in Paris.
Noise control seems to imply to me that Google+ is planning to implement filters that will get rid of extemporaneous content or unwanted content in users’ streams, and they seem to want to tackle that issue with algorithms.
However, Schmidt argued that Google is in a good position to filter content for social network users, as essentially it is a “ranking company.” He said in his view the filtering should be based on algorithms, which would promote certain content above others.
The question is, what will this filtering algorithm be based on? The names of their circles? The content of the people in their circles? The +1s on their profile? The kind of content they share and re-share themselves? The article doesn’t say.
“For the average person this filtering would be seamless,” Schmidt said. “But more technically sophisticated people would be able to manage their own filters.”
So … is Schmidt saying that Google+ users will be able to tell the service what kind of content to stream, thereby narrowing the circle content even further?
This would be an interesting concept. You have a circle devoted to SEO content in which you have over 100 “friends” who share content related to the topic. But you tell Google+ – through its “filter management system” – not to include content about link building or mobile marketing. Then, if people in your circles share content related to those two topics Google+ will filter it out.
Am I reading that right?