Thursday, March 15th, 2012
Facebook’s position as the biggest, most popular social network is unassailable, right? Even with the force of the world’s biggest search engine, its “nearest competitor”, Google+, has failed to take any significant slice of the social pie.
Up steps Pinterest, then, which in the past year has seen a seismic Big Bang of activity which some commentators have said shows just how fragile Facebook’s popularity may be.
After all, Facebook rode in on the waves of social popularity created by MySpace: and, well, MySpace kind of crumbled and died as a result. Will Pinterest be the next big thing?
More than 11 million monthly US visitors suggests that, perhaps, Pinterest could eventually rival Facebook in the popularity stakes.
For those who can remember back about five years, it was mainly females who made the switch from MySpace to Facebook, signaling a seachange for respective boyfriends, husbands and prospective love interests who reluctantly followed along.
Funnily enough, the mainstays of Pinterest’s early success have also, on the whole, been female. That alone, of course, doesn’t really tell us anything (accusations of fickleness are best kept quiet), but the rise of interest groups on Pinterest is making it an evermore tempting distraction from Facebook’s news feeds.
But is it worth putting any effort into Pinterest? At least, before Facebook’s popularity truly starts to wane?
Perhaps not. But it’s well worth ascertaining how Pinterest is affecting your other online activity: whether that’s PPC marketing campaigns, search engine optimisation or social media marketing.
One clear way to get a handle on this is to track how traffic is accessing your sites from Pinterest: and for those au fait with using Google Analytics, the program can provide valuable feedback on visits, conversions and engagement from Pinterest users.
Mashable’s Social Media pages carry an interesting breakdown of ways to track Pinterest traffic in Analytics this month.
Amongst them, users are encouraged to set up traffic sources referral reports, using pinterest.com or m.pinterest.com to discover how visits from Pinterest weigh up against your averages. Set some goals and you can really track how effective a referrer Pinterest is.
Custom reports will help you track articles or pieces which are “pinned” on Pinterest, how many visitors saw the pins and followed the links, whether these are repeat visitors, how long they stayed to see your products, and whether they converted, bounced or helped score a goal.
The Analytics dashboard also allows you to monitor daily visits from Pinterest, which come from mobiles, and the usual info such as popular items, visit length and whether Pinterest is assisting goal completion.
Finally, Multi-Channel Funnels has an assisted conversions feature, which, when filtered for Pinterest, should show you how many times the site helped you convert a visit. You could find Pinterest is a great signposter, but not a great path to conversion – this at least gives you something to build on.
Of course, for now, if you’re already embarking on large scale social media marketing campaigns, it’s not worth pulling the plug on Facebook and jumping ship to Pinterest just yet. It is, however, definitely worth some time investigating whether Pinterest provides another great marketing opportunity: or just a flash-in-the-can fad.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Tags: conversions, facebook, Google Analytics, pinned, pins, Pinterest, referrals, site visits, social, traffic
Posted in Social Media Marketing
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
2009 is definitely going to be the year where small businesses have a really great chance to win in the customer service department, whilst their larger competitors go to the wall.
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer. When you buy a product, do you always get it home and find you instinctively know how to use it? Or do you end up scouring the internet to see how to set it up, build it, configure it, or which buttons to press to make it work? It doesn’t matter what product you sell, you can help out your customers by providing an easy get started guide, followed up by, for instance, daily emails, which help them make the most of that product. Have you tried this? Did you know it can do this? etc
The whole thing can be done online, digitally, automated and cost you mere pennies, but in 2009, it is small touches like this which will make all the difference.Treat your customers as you would like to be treated yourself as a customer.
All of us have bought something recently that undoubtedly has had us pulling our hair out to get the most out of it. Whether it is software, a new washing machine, a car, or even a toy at Christmas, simple instructions plus follow up advice would really make a difference. Some gadgets nowadays are so complex, that quite often it isn’t even obvious where to put the batteries! And software invariably is not used to its maximum potential.
Don’t let your customers go out onto the Internet looking for advice, help and support. Get it in front of them immediately they make a purchase. Even if all it is a small piece of paper with a URL on it telling them where they will find “How to” guides, the helpline phone number, or your forum of users who will guide them through the ins and outs of your products.
Next time anyone asks them what they think of the product, what they will remember is the fact that your after sales help and support was second to none. And then you will get those all important word of mouth, or word of mouse, referrals that are worth their weight in gold.
Tags: after sales, referrals, support
Posted in Content, Online PR, Small Business Resources
