So far we’ve avoided writing a post on that seemingly ubiquitous blog topic: Pinterest. Until today.

In case you’ve landed here looking for Pinterest basics, here they are: Pinterest is a photo and video sharing social network. The site began 2011 with 10,000 users and finished the year with almost 10,000,000; good enough to make the Hitwise list of top ten social media sites, beating out LinkedIn and Google+.

The Value of Pinterest for Ecommerce Businesses

Pinterest users, or pinners, “pin” images of things they find interesting into their Pinterest account. If LinkedIn is the social site for business, and Facebook is for friends, Pinterest is viewed by many as a site for sharing your lifestyle and values, or those to which you aspire.

So what is the value for ecommerce sites of a social network where people post pictures of the things they like? Aside from the obvious, there’s a number of practical advantages to Pinterest:

• Traffic – A number of sites, including Time Inc.’s Real Simple and Hubspot, have noted a higher number of referrals from Pinterest than from other sources, including Facebook and Google+.
• Links – Every pin includes a link back to the source of the image. While the links are ‘no-follow”, they’re still valuable as users need only click on the image to get to your site.
• Social Sharing – Pinterest lets pinners login with their Twitter and Facebook accounts and all users can share posts through Facebook, Twitter or email.

What About Sales?

Traffic, links and social sharing are all wonderful and useful, but you can’t take them to the bank.

Sales, that’s what you want, and they’ve been sorely missing from most social media marketing for ecommerce sites, including storefronts on Facebook.

But some early research shows Pinterest outperforming Facebook for sales and new customers. According to a study of social media traffic by jewelry and accessory retailer Bottica.com, whose founders include former eBay execs, Pinners outspend Facebook users by a whopping $180 to $85 and Pinterest was Boticca’s biggest sales channel, driving 10% of sales versus only 7% from Facebook.

This is just a single study, not definitive, but significant.

It shows Pinterest to be a place for browsing, comparing one’s likes to others’ and tapping into the buzz, all of which are part of the ritual most shoppers go through immediately before buying something.

Posted in Business, Ecommerce, Sales & Marketing, Social media

Check our Infographic “Social Networking Statistics and Trends” to understand how social networking grew in 2011. How much time social networking users spent on social media sites? Which countries have to most active social networking users? What were the most shared social media stories of 2011 and Lot more.

Infographic by- Conversion Rate Optimization Company Invesp

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<a href="http://www.invesp.com/socialnetworking.jpg"><img src="http://www.invesp.com/socialnetworking.jpg" alt="Social Networking - Statistics and Trends" width="500"></a> <p>Infographic by – <a href="http://www.invesp.com/">Conversion Rate Optimization</a> Company Invesp

There are more than 1.2 Billion Social Networking users in the World.

82% of World’s online population is on Social networking sites

Nearly 20% of overall time spent online is spent on Social Networking Sites – i.e. Nearly 1 in every 5 minutes

Israel has the World’s most active social networking users in world.

Top 10 Countries with most active Social Networking users

Women Spend more time on Social Networking Sites than Men

Social Networking Engagement by Age Group

Countries with Highest Mobile Social Networking Penetration

Posted in Social media

Social media has exploded as an industry and changed the way businesses interact with their customers. Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are drawing millions of people into active participation—and when you find millions of engaged people, you’ll find plenty of businesses trying to convince them to part with their money. For all the altruistic talk of companies connecting with human beings (that’s the social) the endgame is always going to be revenue (that’s the marketing).

Sometimes, however, the marketing and the social aspects fail in colossal fashion. And when that happens, we can all learn from and laugh at their mistakes. Here are six of the biggest crash-and-burns in the last 10 years of social media marketing.

Continue reading 6 Household Brands That Got The Taste of Social Media Backlash

Posted in Social media

As marketers we often get excited about any way we can generate more exposure, interest and visibility to our messages. No surprise then that the social bookmarking services have been rushed by an influx of commercial messages, “gaming” and reciprocal voting.

Of course the services have reacted with their algorithms and measures to counter marketing tactics. Could your account get caught up in the crossfire?

Continue reading Are Your Social Bookmarking Efforts Backfiring?

Posted in Social media

Small businesses have the most to gain by using social media because

1. They tend to have smaller advertising budgets
2. The owner tends to be more engaged in the business
3. Larger companies are moving slowly and have more bureaucracy

With this in mind I can only think the main thing holding small business back is either fear of the unknown or lack of ideas for what to do. Fact is social media need not take up a great deal of resources if you are careful. Here are some social media tactics anyone can do in an hour or less …

Continue reading Quick Social Media Tactics for Small Business

Posted in Social media

Social Media is a growing business fascination, and determining a strategy is fast becoming a critical element of any marketing  plan. I am in favor of strategy as much as the next person. In fact, helping people with their social media strategy is one of the ways I make a living. Problem is, much of the time I feel focusing on “Social Media” is missing the point, could it be we are elevating a tactic higher than it should go?

Continue reading Is Social Media Strategy Missing the Point?

Posted in Social media

A few months ago, you probably heard rumblings about what I like to call The Great Twitter Authority Debate, in which bloggers from all spheres argued everything from the merits of an authority-based search to even what “authority” means.

I haven’t come across a more divisive marketing issue in a long time.

And I won’t lie. It’s been entertaining.

But mostly, it’s been interesting.

Continue reading Twitter and The Great Authority Debate

Posted in Social media

Thank you for all of last week’s twitter contest 2009 entries. The winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009. And for all of those who did not get a chance to enter last week, no worries, because this week you have an opportunity to win more great prizes including a 1 month FREE membership to SEOBook training program, an iPod Touch, and Landing Page Optimization: The Complete Guide. You have until January 30th to enter this phase of the contest:

How to Enter:

1. Follow either @khalidh or @ayat.

2. Tweet the best business decision YOU MADE in 2008 with hashtag #best08.

3. Tweet this contest to others, because the more entries we get, the more prizes will be added (last week mid way through the contest we added a guest post from Chris Garrett on a winners blog and 1 month free membership to the SEOBook training program).

Continue reading TWITTER CONTEST#2: YOUR Best Decision of 2008

Posted in Social media

It’s been a month since I’ve taken initiative to become an active member of the twitter community; otherwise known as twitterville or tweeplevilee, or whatever else you’ve dubbed it.

A few revelations:

Continue reading twittercapades2: Revelations

Posted in Social media

Wow, it’s crazy to think how long it’s been since I’ve written a decent post. Well a lot has been going on with work so I’ve been swamped with no time to scratch my head and reveal my gems of wisdom to y’all. It’s not a slow day today, but I’m burnt out and I need an outlet, so I figure blogging may help (especially before I have to head home and enter the grind of kids, cooking, and the likes).

First off, I’ve been twittering regularly now. I hesitated to start a few months back, but have been inspired to take it on. I wanted to share with you a few things I noticed:

Continue reading twittercapades

Posted in Social media