The basic premise of the website is to allow users to upload(‘pin’) images and video with a description to boards that are grouped around various themes. What makes it different to other visual bookmarking sites is the ease with which one can share(‘repin’) another’s images as well as the ability to have communal boards that many people can pin to, adding that highly desired sense of community to the social network (in contrast to Flickr). Another really useful feature is the ‘pin it’ button on your browser toolbar that allows you to easily take an image from a website and ‘pin it’ (although it is not possible to ‘pin’ straight from Facebook).

Popular categories that have caught on in the USA , the majority of which have been driven by female users, are fashion, DIY crafts, home décor and cooking as they are all highly visual in nature. Interestingly, perhaps in reaction to the growing, although untrue notion that Pinterest is only for women, that the aptly named website Gentlemint has been developed. I am still awaiting my invite confirmation from the site.

 

Early growth statistics have shown exponential rise in the uptake of Pinterest, with some suggesting it is driving more traffic than both Google+ and LinkedIn. There have already been numerous case studies of marketing successes generated through the use of Pinterest and an active part of digital marketing strategies. These range from a woman blogging and using Pinterest to display her DIY home furniture fans to her more than three million viewers each month; right up to the editor of Marie Claire magazine using Pinterest to expand on the latest trends and favourite items published in the magazine’s fashion lines of that month on various boards.

At this point you may be wondering if Pinterest could be appropriate for your business. While it certainly isn’t true that Pinterest is for all brands, it must be said that it can have an incredible impact if you have products or services that consumers engage with in a highly visual fashion. This can be from anything like home décor and real estate to high fashion and jewellery, antiques and art to recipes and event ideas. The great part of the boards is the ease of which they images be displayed and arranged to build a complete picture - great for creating mood boards or story boards. A great business feature built into the platform is the ability to attach a price banner to any ‘pin’, with the mere addition of eg. $ or (hopefully soon, R) to your pin description, which when linked correctly will go straight to the product page on your E-Commerce website, making each board into a digital catalogue.

With the rapidly growing numbers of users, using Pinterest correctly can be a great way for small and large businesses to build brand awareness and drive traffic across your social networks to your website or blog through the sharing of pins. Consumer sentiment can also be gauged quickly as users engage with your boards, deciding whether to like, repin or share your pins.

Here is a post with some great ideas for incorporating Pinterest into your business.

To get started on Pinterest, claim an account for yourself registering through either your Facebook or Twitter; this will facilitate easier sharing of your pins. Choose the categories and titles of your boards, starting with just two or three. Choose some Pinners to follow and get pinning. It really can make the time fly by as you get lost in a colourful world of your own. It is also great to see people ‘repinning’ your pins or commenting on pins of your products!

In order to help you get started, take a look through this list of 21 Top Pinners to follow.

Here is a great resource library with useful links on getting into and making the most of Pinterest today! http://www.hectorjcuevas.com/pinterest-for-business-free-resources-tips

Happy Pinning..

You can see my boards at: http://pinterest.com/paulgreeff/i-love-digital/

Below is an infographic that gives some insight into how Pinterest is being integrated into brands’ digital marketing strategies.

So the game is changing!...and it has major implications for retailers and how they continue to market and sell their products and there are now applications that are getting closer to the "social business nirvana" of being able to have stores within Facebook that keep you totally within Facebook's ecosystem and that technology is closer than you think. There will even be the ability for cross-store shopping carts turning the whole of the Facebook brand platform into one big store.

F-Commerce will become another online channel for businesses to sell products and services with all the marketing power that Facebook provides. Facebook's ecosystem evolution is naturally extending to online shopping where you can buy your favourite brand's products and services while using Facebook. This integration with Facebook provides approximately 50% of their online sales and is proving to be as effective as e-mail marketing!

This will enable Facebook to be the setting for the entire consumer buying cycle from pre-purchase research to marketing (Facebook ads & social media marketing) and consumer engagement. This now extends right through the purchase process and even post-purchase engagement. This is particularly good news for small businesses as they can now promote their brand, engage with their consumers and retail the goods all in the same place and on the same platform.

Adding e-commerce functionality to Facebook will help marketers prove how closely social media can be tied to sales, and will also help Facebook's primary revenue strategy, advertising, by enabling advertisers to monetize campaigns directly with e-commerce sales.

Some points for the use of F-Commerce are:

• 800 million users on Facebook
• Average of 130 friends each to share your latest shopping experiences especially how much you have saved
• 14 minutes per day on-site (the average total time on Facebook now exceeds Google)
• 40% of people use social networking sites when shopping online
• 68% of fans visit retailer pages to keep up to date with sales and promotions
• Fans are 41% more likely to recommend a product
• Heavy social networkers aged 11-14 are 65% more likely to buy clothes online, 40% more likely to buy books online and 20% more likely to purchase music downloads
• For some businesses 20% of sales are through their Facebook store
• Cart values are 7-10% higher via Facebook

Here are great resources with case studies and examples of Social Selling Success Stories:

http://barnraisersllc.com/2011/07/34-case-studies-prove-social-commerce-roi

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7540-101-f-commerce-examples

Facebook is making these new functionalities available to brands and marketers through a new Facebook Fan Page Toolkit. The soon to be announced kit will provide 3 Facebook apps that allow the set up and implementation of a Facebook store easily.

Fanpage App:

• Design and set up your Fanpage Facebook store front window to compliment your brand.

Promotion App:

• Promote your store by allowing importing of emails and integrating Twitter and Facebook messaging to take full advantage of Facebook and social media's marketing leverage.

F-Commerce App:

• Setup your store with products and images with many features and functions including inbuilt analytics, which will assist you in making changes to your marketing tactics so that you can improve your stores performance.

Here is a sample screen shot of what is coming.

                           Here is an Infographic that Explains the History of F-Commerce

Resources:

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/07/f-commerce-is-facebook-the-new-shop-of-the-future/

http://socialcommercetoday.com/adage-on-social-commerce-f-commerce-is-here/

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/10/f-commerce-10-tips-for-a-successful-facebook-store/

http://barnraisersllc.com/2011/07/34-case-studies-prove-social-commerce-roi/

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7540-101-f-commerce-examples

This online sentiment may be positive or negative and 'new' consumers are turning more and more towards social media, search and online product comparison to drive their purchase decisions. 'Consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising among 78% of the study's respondents.' (Nielsen 2011) It has become brands' responsibility to manage their online reputation and proactively monitor, engage and lead the conversation around themselves, theirs products and even their industry. There are multitude of software solutions available online, each offering various ORM capabilities and features.

Here are links to great resources with some of the top paid and free ORM & SMM solutions available.

• http://www.stayonsearch.com/9-professional-social-media-monitoring-tools

• http://www.online-reputationmanagement.org/glossaries-and-tools/free-online-reputation-management-tools

• http://www.pamorama.net/2010/10/12/100-social-media-monitoring-tools/

Online Reputation Management(ORM):

is defined as the understanding and influencing the perception of an entity online. (eMarketing, Stokes, Jan 2012) ORM involves Listening, Discovery, Engagement and Reporting and each aspect can be leveraged to benefit brands on various levels:

Listening:

refers to actively monitoring the internet for content containing brand mentions and keywords relating to products, competitors and industry related terms. It is has also proved useful for monitoring internal communications. This highlights customer service issues, product complaints or queries, as well as positive sentiments (testimonials) for the brand. By taking prompt action brands' can manage complaints and create positive sentiment out of a complaint and in helping a (hopefully repeat) customer add value to the brand experience.

Discovery:

refers to using the software to identify opportunities and problems areas that pertain to the brand and its industry. By being the first to act on these can prove most profitable and provide strategic direction for a brand. Using relevant keywords and other data-mining tools brands are able to identify key influencers online, those who would have the greatest reach and influence in relevant fields, and engage with them in conversation in order to build brand awareness and positively influence online sentiment towards the brand.

Engagement:

entails proactively involving oneself in what is being said about the brand on social platforms with a view to leading and positively influence the conversation. Consumers want to be interact with brands, '41% of social customers expect to share ideas with brands on Facebook' (Lithium, Sep 2011). By communicating with consumers where they are most comfortable, it is possible to more easily gain their trust, leverage their creativity and powerful voices (WOM). Consumers love feeling as though they are being heard by brands and that they are helping to shape the brand, this is a great way to build brand loyalty and create brand evangelists, whose amplified voices have massive reach among fellow consumers.

Reporting:

is the last step in the ORM process but its importance is as great as any of the others. Whichever package is used by the brand, there will be a reporting function (often easily exportable as a CSV or pdf file) with which to review campaign and communications activity on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The information is displayed in easily digestible graphics and graphs and can provide a lot of insight for the brand. It is possible to identify what content is having the greatest impact, what is not receiving much attention and which areas to focus further marketing activities on. Reports also highlight your largest demographics and content can be tailored to suit them. It is through this continuous sequence of reporting, controlling and optimising that the brand's online presence can be effectively managed, positive online sentiment garnered, reputation crises averted and optimal online ROI generated.