Pinterest to soon become the fourth largest referrer of traffic?

In February 2012 I shared data suggesting the potential of marketing using Pinterest to increase awareness and sales for companies. Shareaholic have now updated their referral report and this coincides with some interesting developments in Pinterest and our new Smarter Guide to Pinterest Marketing.

New Pinterest developments

These are the recent changes to the Pinterest platform to be aware of which are aimed at encouraging further adoption of Pinterest. August 8th 2012: Pinterest opened registration for all; it was previously by invite only. August 14th 2012: Pinterest introduced new apps for Android, iPhone and iPad.

June 2012 referral report

The latest data from Shareaholic shows that Pinterest referral traffic will soon overtake Yahoo! organic traffic and Pinterest will become the fourth largest traffic source in the world after Google, Direct traffic and Facebook, although significantly lower than these.

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HootSuite leading the way in the social media tools market even amongst large companies

Source: Royal Pingdom survey Value: [rating=4]

Our Commentary

Recent data compiled and released by website monitoring business Pingdom looked at the top 100 brands in the world and which Social Media Management Tools (SMMT) they are using. While the survey reviewed Twitter, many of these tools support multiple social networks including Hootsuite, are service of choice at Smart Insights and First 10 (it support Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, but not yet Google+. While a typical Twitter user would use the Twitter website or one of the Twitter owned applications to publish to their profiles, naturally businesses require a little more management. For example, they need multiple people to have access, the requirement to schedule & monitor results.

Most popular social media management tools & the companies that use them

HootSuite – 20 accounts (20.8%). Used by @hm, @tiffanyandco, @gap, @hp, @ebay, @porsche,…

A platform for true relationship building?

I wrote recently about what I had learned about Google+ for content marketing; Google+ remains a channel that's largely new to me, and as I delve deeper into planning my own personal (and +Smart Insights) foray into Google+ there are some very specific themes that are emerging and worth mentioning.

Google+ wins on user sentiment

First, the wider, changing picture of user satisfaction with social networks. Google+ has just entered into the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) on 78 out of a 0-100 scale, just as Facebook's score falls from 8 points to 61. It rates higher than LinkedIn or Twitter too. Not a big deal or in any sense the start of the end for Facebook with its 800 million user base, yet certainly a flavour of the ever-changing social environment and suggests that Google is getting the experience right. You can only imagine it's…

3 Examples suggesting future trends in multichannel social commerce

We’re always on the lookout for examples of new technology in action in the hope they’ll spark ideas or just because they may be a pointer to new trends. Here are a couple I’ve enjoyed recently, which combine digital technology in the offline world with the online world and include a social element. I’ve resisted the temptation to call these “multisocial” as some have…

Tesco Homeplus Virtual Supermarkets

You may have seen the  example in 2011 from South Korea of the virtual store in a subway? Well now (August 2012) we have the first example in the UK, this time it's Tesco in Gatwick. The idea is for those who like to plan ahead when they're waiting before they fly. Tesco says the idea "came from customers". I don't think so, more likely it's to raise awareness of home shopping amongst the…

Measures to benchmark engagement of Facebook brand pages

Some interesting insight was published by Social Bakers this week where they look at engagement rates of Facebook pages in the UK. Of course, Facebook admins can see the level of engagement of their own company page through Facebook Insights which gives measures like Reach and PTAT (People talking about this). However, this doesn’t allow you to benchmark against other companies. Social Bakers uses two simple measures of engagement that can be used to benchmark sites. The first measure, Average Post Engagement, is based on the Post average, the second, Daily Page Engagement rate is based on the total daily interactions:

The useful thing about this compilation for UK brands is that you can calculate engagement for your own Facebook page using these measures and then compare to other similar pages, or simply…

An introduction to the 6 new Social Reports in Google Analytics

In my previous post I wrote about the increasing importance of social media with SEO. In this follow-up I'll show how Google Analytics can be used to assess how effective you are in generating social signals through an engaged audience.

Using Google Analytics social reports to measure impact

Google Analytics introduced a new Social report suite in March 2012. This makes it much easier to evaluate the contribution of traffic from social media domains and sharing of content from your site on social networks. When it was first announced it was known as "Social Analytics" (see Dave Chaffey's introduction to 10 features) and had its own menu option. Now the Social report is integrated in the Traffic Sources report, available by selecting "Social". There are 6 reports available which I will explain. If you haven't used them, I recommend it, it certainly…

Models, tools and tips to help with content curation

Online spaces like your website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter accounts need recent and relevant content to retain readers. To stay ahead, your social footprint needs a regular supply of content. You can create original material or you can ‘curate’ content.

What is content curation?

The definition of the art of content curation is where the publisher (in our case a business looking to use content curation as part of content marketing)  researches and gathers the best content on a niche topic that is aimed at a certain audience, all of which is relevant to their business, and then adds to this content personal opinions and expertise thus enhancing it. Note that curation is not just repeating earlier information, but it’s about re-interpreting, re-telling or re-shaping earlier stories or images. The personalisation makes…

Currently for big brands only

Importance: [rating=3] Recommended link: Google employee announcement Google Plus has announced via the G+ page of employee Saurabh Sharma that brands can now use specific URLs to promote their Google+ brand or company page via offline media. About time too! Although to be fair, it took Facebook and LinkedIn a while after launch to offer this for company or brand pages. It was certainly clunky before. The vanity URL uses a "+" (what else?). For example, Toyota can now use this URL… http://plus.google.com/+toyota (which redirects to http://plus.google.com/+toyota/posts) rather than… https://plus.google.com/110937137992985950150   You can find out more details about this update via the post on Saurabh Sharma’s profile:

Marketing implications of this change for company Google+ pages?

Most companies will have to wait until Google announces further details to make…

4 methods plus examples of integrating email and social media marketing

Integrating your email and social media initiatives can boost email revenue by as much as 400 percent according to industry studies, and the latest research continues to show that email and social can work together for the benefit of both. So how do you effectively link email and social together? Here are a few statistics that show the benefits from integrating email and social media marketing. Evangelists spend 13% more than the average customer and refer business equal to 45% of the money they spend On average a Facebook fan spends $71.84 more than a non-fan Of Facebook users who “like” at least one brand, 17% say they are more likely to buy after “liking.” The percentage of active social media users across ALL age groups is growing year on year So if social evangelists spend more than your average customer and then help refer business…

Practical actions to reach your audience and generate leads from social media

Have you heard of “social media fatigue”? It refers to a growing backlash against social media. As Facebook and Twitter users get inundated with incessant sales messages, increasing numbers are either un-following and un-fanning business pages, or worse, they are quitting social media altogether. But don’t let this scare you off from running your social media activities. What works in your favour is the fact that many businesses don’t understand how social media works. Follow the following simple rules, and you’ll stand out from all the spam and sales messages: Remember what social media was originally intended for. Its purpose was to create online communities where people with common interests could share ideas, information and chat to each other. It was never meant to be an advertising billboard. People…