BarnRaisers

If you think there are enough social networks already, Pinterest is proving there’s room for one more. It’s an “online pinboard” that lets us “organize and share the things we love” with others.  It was started in December 2009 and run in various beta formats until its launch in August 2011. Pinterest is managed by a team of noted entrepreneurs and investors from Palo Alto. It has been cited as one of the “50 Best Websites of 2011″ by Time magazine.

The idea is that users click on a bookmarklet in their browser when they find images they like on a web page, or they snap a photo with the Pinterest iPhone app, and then they are asked to categorize and describe the images. A collection of categorized images can be built by one person or can be opened up to contributions from other users.

Here are 12 reasons Pinterest is the social network to watch in 2012.

1. ADOPTION IS AT SAME RATE AS FACEBOOK. Since its launch in August, Pinterest is showing the classic “hockey stick” growth rate and is on the same trajectory as Facebook was at launch. It now attracts over 11,000,000 visitors per month.

2. COMPANY VALUATION HAS INCREASED 5X IN LESS THAN A YEAR. In October 2011, the company secured $27 million in funding from VC firm, Andreessen Horowitz. They valued the company at 200 million, up from $40 million earlier in the year.

3. SOCIAL RITUAL WE REALLY DO “LOVE” TO DO: The creation of a Pinboard around the topics we are passionate about is a a very simple idea. It is also something that reflects a fundamental aspect of our behavior with a very long tradition.

4. SHARING THROUGH A SHARED CONSCIOUSNESS:  When you participate in a pinboard discussion, you not share an interest in the same subject but the particular topic the rest of your group is talking about. The use of the word, “love,” is a company’s selling idea is a strong statement but it is something Pinterest delivers.

5. SENSE OF MUTUAL RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY TO OTHERS: Pinterest has Pin Etiquette. Although they merely reinforce responsible social behavior (e.g. Be Nice, Credit Your Source, Avoid Self Promotion, Report Objection Content and Tell Us How to Make Pinterest Better), they stand out as an admirable step other social networks haven’t taken. They also lead to some interesting topics and presentations you might not find on other social network.

6. VISUAL SOCIAL NETWORK: To describe Pinterest from the vantage point of other social networks, it’s like Flickr meets Facebook and bumps into Twitter. Pinboards have a “wall.” “Likes,” “comments,” “followers,” “pins” and “repins” but Pinterest is a visual medium at its foundation where pictures are the content for conversation.

7. WOMEN, WHO ARE MORE SOCIAL THAN MEN, HAVE EMBRACED PINTEREST: It’s clear from even a cursory glance, the majority of Pinterest users are women. This follows the trend of most social networks and, if you were trying to build a killer one, would be the profile you’d want to start.

7. ARTISANS ARE EARLY ADOPTERS: People from cooks, curators to designers have found Pinterest a place for personal and professional expressions just like so many mass appeal audiences that are built from a grass-roots appreciation of the arts.

8. CELEBRITIES ARE CREATING PINBOARDS: Although Kim Kardashian isn’t there yet, Paula Deen is. Maybe this says something about the values of tradition and moral responsibility mentioned earlier.

9. BUSINESSES EXPRESS THEIR PERSONALITY WHEN THEY PROMOTE: Unlike other social networks that offer a business page, Pinterest gives businesses a chance for a different and more personal type of expression. Look at Nordstrom.

10. PINTEREST HAS BEEN SMARTLY BROUGHT TO MARKET: The way Pinterest has been developed reflects smart and sophisticated thinking. Consumer adoption has happened quickly but at a pace where the user experience has been consistently maintained and investment have been secured with business milestones.

11. PINTEREST IS A TRUE BRAND COMMUNITY: A brand community is described as “a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand that exhibit three traditional markers of community: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.” Pinterest meets them all.

12. THERE IS A WAITING LIST TO JOIN: Like any desirable club that strives to maintain its appeal, to avoid simply becoming popular, it has to become exclusive. And that’s what Pinterest has done. To join, you can sign up and be placed on a waiting list or have someone who is already a member send you an invite. Like in life it’s not what you know but who you know, the latter will save time.

Have you heard of Pinterest? What do you think of it? Do you think it will be the social network to watch in 2012?

Peter Drucker said: “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.”  This succinctly stated truth is the essential requirement for every brand.

Although Peter left us in 2005, I think he would agree the spark that keeps the customer relationship going is relevant content. It’s a fundamental way to create trust by proving you understand what your audience values.

For some more revealing percentages, here are 42 reasons every brand needs a content marketing strategy in 2012.

1. 93% of CMO’s plan to use some form of user generated content in their marketing effort this year
2. 92% of shoppers have more confidence in information sought online versus a salesperson or some other source
3. 90% of all purchase decisions begin on the internet
4. 90% of CMO’s participate in an average of 3 or more social media activities
5. 84% of brand managers says they use online videos on their brand websites for marketing product and services
6. 81% of CMO’s say they plan to track social media activities to revenues in order to determine ROI. However, only 40% actually do.
7. 80% of traffic to a web site begins with search query
8. 78% of marketers believe content is key to the success of their organization but only 49 have a content strategy in place
9. 78% of B2B marketers say generating high quality leads is their top priority
10. 77% of search users choose organic over paid search listings
11. 74% of consumers rely on social networks to help them make a purchase decision
12. 73% of companies now use social media for marketing
13. 66% of companies report using online video for brand awareness; 21% for lead generation and 12% for ecommerce/sales
14. 66% of marketers says their greatest concern is lead generation; only 17% say it’s brand awareness
15. 65% of consumers report a digital brand experience changed their opinion about a product or service
16. 62% click a link on the first page of search engine results
17. 61% of marketers say they implement a social media strategy for lead generation
18. 60% of retailers use customer reviews as a form of content marketing
19. 60% of brand managers says they are going to increase spending for online videos in the next 12 months
20. 55% of the time people spend on the internet is directly related to content consumption
21. 55% of companies use case studies as part of their content marketing strategy
22. 51% use a blog for content marketing
23. 51% of marketers say they are going to increase content marketing spending within the next 12 months
24. 49% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a social network
25. 44% of all content shared on internet comes from Facebook
26. 43% of companies says they are writing “white papers” and sharing them online as part of their content marketing
27. 43%of companies report higher click-through on RSS feeds with reviews than without
28. 42% of consumers say, when shopping online, they prefer to look for an answer online
29. 40% or Republican and 38% of Democrats use social network sites to become more polictically involved
30. Only 38% of consumers say they watch an online video in its entirety
31. 32% of consumers now browse or research products at least once a month on mobile devices
32. 26% higher conversion results for products when they have product reviews
33. 26% of total marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing by B2B marketers
34. 25% of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
35. Only 21% of branded mobile apps now contain videos. However, 70 of brand manager says they are going to add videos to their mobile apps within the next 12 months
36. 14% of B2B marketers say they send e-mails on an opt-out basis; down from 23% a year ago
37. Only 2.6% of all brands views occur through off-site embeds of branded videos
38. 300 other companies compete with Facebook for content sharing
39. 30 minutes is the average that people watch online videos every day
40. E-mail providers, such as Yahoo, AOL and Gmail, all use the number of time a consumers hits the “report spam” button as their #1 criteria for sending future e-mails to that consumer
41. Companies with over 1000 employees use an average of 9 content marketing tactics
42. Companies with under 10 employees use an average of 6 content marketing tactics

Laurence Peter, the educator who developed the Peter Principle said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up someplace else.” The numbers clearly state content marketing is on the rise but, before you jump in, have a content marketing strategy.

NOTE: The facts and statistics in this post all feature studies conducted within the last year. The sources include: Nielsen, eMarketer, comScore, Edelman Digital, BazaarVoice, MediaPost, Webbiquity among others with appreciation.

The number, 42, was deliberately chosen to acknowledge the great work Junta42 and Joe Pulizzi do in content marketing.

In the compilation of the stats, the best infographic I came across on content marketing comes from Marketo and was passed along by Wendy Emerson at business2community.com because a picture is worth 1000 words. It is below.

Will your brand have a content marketing strategy to create and keep customers in 2012?

In 1899, the first edition of Who’s Who in America was published.  Its’ purpose: To profile leaders influencing the nation’s development. For a long time, we’ve accepted third-party authorities to tell us who influences and who matters.

When Klout was launched in 2009, it quickly became the authority for Who’s Who in social media. It used data from Twitter and Facebook, then LinkedIn, Foursquare and YouTube, to measure a person’s influence across their social network. Authority is better if it’s earned rather than assumed. Does Klout deserve to be the authority?

Here are 6 foundational faults with Klout.

1. A ROLE NOT CLEARLY DEFINED: Klout assumed, not earned, the position of “Standard of Influence” (in social media). They said they “measure influence based on your ability to drive action.” What action? Unlike Who’s Who that says it looked for actions that prove influence on our nation’s development, the action Klout drives is not clear, nor does it result in real positive change.

2. SELLING OUT: A benefit to Klout is you can get Klout Perks. They get “distributed to select influencers based on their topics of authority, location and score.”  Isn’t that discriminatory and doesn’t it encourage people to sell out?

3. NO CASE STUDIES: On this blog, we promote the business value of social media to brands. You can find close to 100 case studies that prove social media ROI (see related posts at the bottom) based on hard sales measurements across every business sector (e.g. B2C, B2B, profit, non-profit) and social network (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs). After two years, we can’t find one substantial case study from Klout. Hmm.

4. GAMING AND MANIPULATING, NOT INFLUENCING: But, with very little searching, we can find plenty of anecdotal stories from people who have gamed the system like this one from a researcher who set out one week to drive up her Klout score and, with very little effort, did.

5. UNEXPLAINED GLITCHES: In late October, Klout launched a new algorithm. To many of us, it not clear why except it caused a dramatic and unexpected decrease in the Klout scores to most users. At about the same time, Google announced it reworked its algorithm to give greater importance to recency of content because so many people now look to social networks for the most recent news. We all got it and it made perfect sense. Can anyone explain the new or old, for that matter, Klout algorithm?

6. SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULDN’T BE ABOUT KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES: Do we need a status symbol for participating in social media? Shouldn’t we just do it because we enjoy it.

This week, the Pew Study came out with findings about how we use social media:

• 67 percent said the major reason they use social networks is to stay in touch with current friends
• 64 percent to stay in touch with family members and 50 percent to connect with old friends they had lost touch with.

Pew didn’t mention the percentage that was checking their Klout scores. What does this say to you?

Related Posts

34 case studies that prove Social Media ROI

67 case studies that prove Social Media ROI

16 case studies that prove Social CRM

12 case studies that prove Social Commerce ROI

Social commerce is the merger of social media and ecommerce.

It aligns human behaviors with buying behaviors because:

• 90% of all purchase decisions begin online
• 75% of consumers shop online before they buy offline
• 85% are looking for an independent review
• 78% of people trust the recommendations of other people
• They have an average of 130 friends on social networks
• 14% of people trust advertising
  Only 18% of TV advertising campaign ever achieve a positive return on investment

1. INTEREST IN SOCIAL MEDIA CONTINUES TO DOUBLE EACH YEAR: The number of people who search “social media,” either those exact words or those words in a phrase, continues to climb.

2.ALMOST 1/2 OF EACH HOUR WE NOW SPEND ON THE INTERNET IS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS. Doesn’t it make sense we’d rather buy there than log-off and then log back on?

3. WHEN WE BUY AT RETAIL, 30%+OF US BUY FROM RETAILERS’ SOCIAL NETWORKS; 50%+ POST COMMENTS AND THE SIGNIFICANT MAJORITY OF US CLICK THROUGH TO THEIR WEBSITES.  Wouldn’t you want your business to benefit from these incremental sales?

4. #1 REASON PEOPLE “LIKE” A BRAND ON FACEBOOK IS TO RECEIVE DISCOUNT AND PROMOTIONS. #2 is to show their support for the brand. Just like any relationship, this say if you show me some love, I’ll “like” you back.

5. OVER 40% OF THE TIME WE’RE ON TWITTER, WE”RE LEARNING ABOUT PRODUCTS AND SHARING OPINIONS ABOUT THEM; 20% OF THE TIME, WE’RE ACTUALLY BUYING THEM. We’re doing as much researching and purchasing as we are Tweeting.

6. 41% OF PEOPLE WHO USE LINKEDIN SAY THEY’VE GENERATED BUSINESS FROM IT. That’s in addition to those who use it to look for jobs and for recruitment.

7. SOCIAL COMMERCE IS PREDICTED TO GROW ABOUT 50% A YEAR FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT THREE YEAR. Sales will total $30 billion ($14 billion in the U.S.) – Source: Booz & Company

8. BY ABOUT THAT TIME, MORE PEOPLE WILL ACCESS THE INTERNET FROM MOBILE DEVICES THAN DESKTOPS. There are many reasons to expect mobile will increase the time we spent on social networks and make shopping easier and more fun.

9. SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE FASTEST GROWING CATEGORY ON MOBILE. At this rate in a few years, it’s also likely to be the biggest.

10. 60% OF US USE MOBILE TO SEARCH AND FIND DEALS AND RECEIVE THE BEST PRICE. Many also thought mobile made shopping easier and fun.

11. MOBILE MAKES SHOPPING MORE FUN BUT MOBILE ADS DON’T. Does that mean there will be less for advertising and more for social commerce?

12. THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW SAYS SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE BUY. For decades, we would methodically “consider” and “evaluate” a purchase and then “buy.” Now, after we buy, we want to tell, “advocate” and “bond” with others who bought the same thing.  We “enjoy” doing it. And it’s because social media and social commerce give us the channel to connect this human behavior with our buying behavior.

Do you think your boss will take an interest Social Commerce from these charts?

Groupon and LivingSocial, known as “social buying sites,” are forerunners in what Forrester says is the new social economy. They are innovations. For the first time, a business requires just the internet, not a store or a street corner or advertising, to promote a brand to consumers.

If you’re considering them for your brand, you want customers to buy, only not too much. There’s also more know-how involved than you might imagine to manage. If helps to learn from someone whose had experience, here’s a case in point.

At a Social Media Mini-MBA that Rutgers University offers, I’m fortunate to teach the Social Media ROI curriculum. Last week, Mari Luangrath, founder of Foiled Cupcakes, was our guest.  Mari, in my opinion, is one of the best social economy practitioner in the country.

As the name communicates, Foiled Cupcakes sells cupcakes, only they have no storefront. They do it from a website. The company has shown extraordinary growth, strong ROI and built a social community where 95% of their customers come from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

When someone in the class Q&A asked Mari about Foiled Cupcakes’ experiences from their Groupon event uptop, she had some great advice.

Here are 10 tips on Groupon or LivingSocial and the pros and cons for your brand.

1. SOCIAL BUYING SITES DON”T OFFER A SUSTAINABLE SALES MODEL: The basic economics of social buying sites is sell a product for 50% off and Groupon or LivingSocial take half of the 50% that’s left.  Can you sell your brand for 75% off for long?
2. OFFER A “TEST DRIVE” TO A SELECT FEW: Social buying sites work because they offer a reduced price for a limited amount of time with an urgency to act. This benefit worked for Foiled Cupcakes because they limited the offer to 800 dozen.
3. MINIMIZE OUT-OF-POCKETS COSTS: Foiled Cupcakes didn’t have to bake the cupcakes until they knew how many were ordered and paid.
4. MEASURE DEMAND IN HOURS AND MINUTES: In a store, you can see how quickly your product is consumed. On the internet, the equivalent metric is time. In the case of Foiled Cupcakes, the promotion went live at midnight. By 8 am, the 800 dozen were sold.
5. DON’T OVERLOADING THE OPERATIONS: Foiled cupcakes knew how much they could produce before it was a problem.
6. RECOGNIZE CUSTOMERS ARE VERY SAVVY: People who shop on social buying sites are some of the savviest shoppers on the internet.  They frequently shop these sites on price, ask a lot of questions and know and, if treated badly,  they have the recourse to write a bad review.
7. EXPECT TO SHOW SIGNIFICANT CUSTOMER SERVICE: Mari and the Foiled Cupcakes crew found themselves up all night answering questions when they saw the traffic they were getting.
8. FOLLOW UP WITH A SURVEY TO SEPARATE THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF: Customers range from those who: 1) Buy only on sale, 2)  buy on sale but are willing to pay full price, 3) are high maintenance, 4) are low maintenance, 5) show appreciation and 6) show no appreciation.
9. LEARN WHO YOUR BRAND ATTRACTS: The key learning is did Groupon or LivingSocial attract new people who now buy your brand at full price to make it worthwhile? For Foiled Cupcakes, they gained new corporate accounts proving the hard work was worth the effort.
10. REPEAT WHEN NECESSARY: If this works for your brand, congratulations, the ROI of social buying site pays out and now you have a new tool in your marketing toolkit. One that likely to be a part of the internet economy for some time to come.

I’m not the only one who teaches this Social Media Mini-MBA at Rutgers.  There is also Matt Bailey,  Heidi Cohen, Augustine Fou, Glenn Gilmore, Greg Jarboe, Christina “CK” Kerley, Mark Moran and Mark Schaefer. As far as I know, Rutgers is one of the first universities in the country to offer a Social Media Mini-MBA, thanks to Eric Greenberg and his team who put this all together.

I’m also grateful Mari Luangrath drops by from time to time because I never stop learning from her.