Meanwhile enjoy the infographic courtesy of mindflash.com.

Kodak, before its demise was on to something; a picture is worth a thousand words.  People want to take and share engaging photos and video as evidenced by visual sites such as  Tumblr, Instagram, and hot new video site Socialcam.  Pinterest, the newest, hottest, and third most popular social media site behind Facebook and Twitter is a online scrapbook of feel good images shared with other people, with the ultimate goal of driving users back to the original website for more information.  Pinterest currently refers more traffic to external sites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn, combined.  The more visually appealing the image is, the more curious the user will be about checking out the source.   Users will aslo be curious about checking out the poster of the image, and that will be you and a variety of other people if the image is popular.

Pinterest does not officially say how many users it has, but according to comScore, the site had 18.7 million unique visitors in March 2012.  Over 85% were women.  This represents a great opportunity to sell to mom’s, and women who love fashion, cooking, make-up, re-decorating…the list is endless.  Brands are still scrambling and trying to figure out the best way to sell on Pinterest.  Better Homes and Gardens has 73 pin boards, where images can be posted, with titles such as “Pretty Patios and Porches” “Fun Front Doors” and “We Love Baking.”  It has 47,854 people who follow all of the brand’s boards and about 350,000 who follow individual boards.  Their social media analysis has concluded that a younger female demographic appears to be following them via Pinterest.

Interesting stuff, but these followers most likely will not buy their magazine, nor can they directly make a purchase from any of the visually appealing images.  BH&G will not get advertisers swarming at their door unless they are able to mass sell on Pinterest with “Product Listings”.  For individuals who are running a small business on Etzy, Cafepress,  Zazzle, or their own ecommerce site product listings are a great way to sell items on Pinterest.  After all, Pinterest users enthusiastically clip and share items they might want to buy.

For experienced Pinterest users who already have cultivated a following, here is how selling on Pinterest goes:

• You should have the pinbox uploaded on your toolbar from Pinterest.
• Go to your website or your store where you want to pin your product.
• Next, click the pinbox on your toolbar menu.
• Pinterest will automatically open up and appear on your screen.
• All your product images will appear on the screen. Pick the one you want to pin.
• Pinterest will ask what board you want to pin it to. Or you can create a new one by scrolling down on the categories. I named mine Products I Love.
• Add a description of the product to help people find your pin. Just as you would a tag or keyword. Important: Add the price after the description with the $ sign. Example: $9.99. Pinterest will place the price in the upper left corner of the image. Pinterest will also place all priced products on the gifts tab on the top of their homepage.
• Pinterest will automatically link to your site or product when a person clicks on it.

As it is right now, the Pinterest community is best suited for visually-appealing content which encompasses retail, lifestyle, food, home decor, design, publishers, and travel.  As a brand, shift your social media strategy and figure out a way to to have what you do, make, create, and sell be more image led.   Develop a visual social media strategy to blend with the current text that you have.  Register your profiles on various visual social networks and continually illustrate your brand.

Reblogged from The Gifthorse:

Follow Me!

As an Independent retailer myself, I have personally witnessed how Twitter can add value to my business, both online and offline. People regularly come into the gallery and mention that they follow me on Twitter!  I love it, it’s great to get customer feedback that advertising on Twitter really does work. It’s very rewarding.

In my recent conversations with other retailers, some are still a bit unsure what Twitter is all about:

Read more… 1,192 more words

A very good article on using Twitter for beginners. Most important - "Don’t randomly follow as many people as you can hoping for a followback. If someone checks your account and sees that you have 10 followers, you are following 423 and you have tweeted 5 times, you will look like a spammer. Nobody wants to follow a spammer..." We usually block such users. Another good article about using Twitter can be found here: http://www.learningconversations.co.uk/main/index.php/2012/04/30/twitter-do-s-and-don?blog=5

Social media strategy involves more than brainstorming with a team.  Cool ideas are great, and you should definitely check out the options on Facebook, but there are other components to a strategy meeting that can help to set you up for success. Here are a few basics to consider before you talk social media strategy:

1. Your own industry. This is the easy part. You usually know all about your own industry—competitors, traffic, conversion rates, etc. You should have a basic knowledge of your website traffic over the last year and who is sending you traffic (found in Google Analytics). Pull out the top ten and have a brief description of their sites or the article that’s sending traffic at the meeting. A good outside opinion on what your visitors are experiencing when they come to your site (what’s confusing, is it inviting, are they getting enough information from your company). Ask someone who doesn’t work with you to spend a few minutes looking at your website, Twitter, Facebook, and so on.
2. Your competitors. You probably know who your top competitors in the area are and it’s important that you have a good look at their sites as well as their social channels (Twitter, Facebook, blog, mobile apps). You should also think big. Look at the brands at the very top of the country or the world and have a good and useful web layout. You might be surprised at what your development or web team can do to get some of those pieces on your site. Certainly integrating all of your social media networks in an easy to find manner is a must on your web site.
3. A little bit about everything. This is somewhat harder because the direct tie to your own industry is not as obvious, and after working day in and day out in your own workplace, it might even feel surprising that there are industries outside your own. Yet your audience certainly is aware of other businesses and activities outside your industry. When developing online strategy, it’s important to know what social media brands are only a click away. This can be the fun part of the meeting because it’s also the time to talk about things you read about that were really cool. For example, how can we incorporate Flattr, Groupon, Square,  Google+, or your own mobile apps. 

Next, before the meeting, write a list about your audience. What other sites might they be visiting and what are their Twitter feeds, blogs, and other communication like? Take note of the comments on their sites, blogs, etc.  What are they complaining about?  What questions are they asking over and over? 

Equipped with information you’re ready to have a conversation about what you should be offering online. Aim to “keep up with the Jones” by having the basics that your industry has online, and then surpass them by taking a look at what the brands with millions of dollars are doing.

Reblogged from bridge nine interactive:

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There are more than 178 million blogs on the Internet, with over 7,000 new blogs created each day. These numbers make it difficult for any blog to stand out from the crowd.

We asked Derek Halpern, author of Socialtriggers.com, to share his expert advice on how to design and organize your blog for maximum results. Here’s what he had to say.

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"Drop your categories, archives, and search box" to start with. Good idea.

Check it out, Go to Crash Courses.

1. LISTS

Being included on lists gives us two clues. 1. Being included on thousands or more signals that you are visible. 2. The categories people use to classify you tells you something about the topics you have influence in: This is known as “topical influence” and it’s really what counts in influence.  Have you built your own list, and are you on other users lists?

2. RETWEETS

These tell you something about how willing people are to amplify your messages and help them spread. A retweet essentially says “this is something I want my network to see”. It’s Twitter’s version of viral loops.  Oh, and make sure you thank people for Retweeting (RT) your information.

3. @REPLIES

These signal how much others want to talk to you or intentionally tag you, and also serves as an indicator for how willing you are to engage and tag others. Less replies signals less social interactions and more broadcast.

4. FOLLOWER RATIO

Generally, if a user on Twitter follows a disproportionate amount of users than follow them, it signals their desire to accumulate followers. Not always, but often. A 50/50 ratio translates to someone following back anyone who follows them, which includes spammers. Twitter users who follow significantly less than are followed indicate some selection process.  Most seasoned users of Twitter will not follow you back if you have a very high FOLLOWING to FOLLOWER ratio.  For example, you follow 800 users while only 200 follow you back.  If you are a brand and are seeking followers to engage with and eventually buy your products, this is not something you want to do.  Influencers on Twitter will not follow you back until you bring your ration down, no matter who you are.  Go here to check your Twitter Follow to Follower ratio, and the meaning behind it.

5. TWEET VOLUME

This simply indicates how prolific a user is. Those with high volumes who retain high levels of engagement, list counts, retweets, and a healthy ratio are likely providing some type of value. High volume Twitter accounts with suspect ratios, low engagement, etc may have a high noise to signal ratio (you are spewing out information that people may not be interested in).

6. FAVORITES

Getting favorited frequently does mean something, though because Twitter users leverage Favorites so differently, it’s nearly impossible to discern exactly what, other than you triggered a behavior (the action to Favorite) for some reason.

7. QUALITY OF CONNECTIONS

The most important indicator is the quality and RELEVANCE of who follows you on Twitter and who you follow back. Targeting the right audience and earning their attention (and Trust) is ultimately the best (and softest metric).  If someone where to go through your list to see who you follow back, are they going to see quality, a mix of spam bots, people who stopped using Twitter months ago, or people without a picture of themselves or description of what they do?  It is up to you to prune your Following list and tend to it and engage your quality Followers with meaningful dialogue and information.

Follower counts (and ratios) are great indicators, but only one of several and one of the easiest to game.

So while 100 million users is an impressive milestone, the company admits that its active users are below this number. How much below, however, is unclear. According to comScore, LinkedIn saw 71.5 million unique visitors worldwide in February.

LinkedIn’s next closest competitor, French company Viadeo, opened up a US office in San Francisco, less than 40 miles away from LinkedIn’s headquarters. Little known Viadeo has more than 35 million members and is the market leader in Italy, Spain and, France. Viadeo became profitable in 2009 and is attempting to differentiate itself from LinkedIn by targeting business development as opposed to the job market, an now seems to be going after the US sector.

http://blog.linkedin.com/100million/ Today, LinkedIn reached a major milestone: 100 million professionals worldwide. We’re now growing at roughly one million new LinkedIn members every week, the equivalent of a professional joining the site at faster than one member per second. So, what does all this growth really mean? We’re making great progress toward our ultimate goal: to connect all of the world’s professionals to make them more productive a … Read More

via artvationmedia

Google announced today plans to integrate posts from the people you are most connected to into its standard search results. Launched in 2009, Google’s “Social Search” has been slow to fully form. But this recent update brings its functionality up to speed.

Google has included Twitter posts into its results for some time, With this update, however, results will include content from Flickr, YouTube and even the increasingly-popular social Q&A start-up Quora.

Yes everything from your friends’ Tweets to blog posts to YouTube videos will now be “mixed throughout your results based on their relevance.” In addition, Google will now display “notes” next to search results for links that your friends have already shared, thereby bringing attention to your public post(s).

Obviously, this could create some privacy concerns, since not everyone wants EVERYONE they know to see everything they’ve posted publicly. Google addresses this by increasing users’ control of their Google profile settings, allowing people to connect or disconnect the accounts that will show up in your friends’ results.

It seems the only significant social content that won’t be integrated into Social Search is of the Facebook variety, because Facebook status updates and other posts on the site aren’t public.

Related articles

• Google Search Becomes More Social, Integrates Flickr, Twitter & Quora (mashable.com)
• An update to Google Social Search (googleblog.blogspot.com)