Archive for February, 2012

Pinterest for Business? Yeeeep.

Friday, February 24th, 2012

By Jason Falls

 

Move over Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Another social media site is stepping up as a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

Pinterest, an online bulletin board for your favorite images, launched in 2010 and is already experiencing wild growth. The site registered more than 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September. And it’s driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to arecent report from Cambridge, Mass.-based content-sharing site Shareaholic.

Why should small businesses care? To answer that, you first have to understand how consumers are using the site. Pinterest allows you to organize images — maybe pretty sunrises or wines you’ve tasted — into boards for specific categories. When you “pin” something new, your followers will see it. They can like, comment or re-pin it to their boards. Like Facebook content, your Pinterest pins can go viral.

Brides-to-be can pin pictures of different wedding dresses to review, and people shopping for a new car can pin images of their options. When I joined Pinterest I started a board to show the Major League Baseball stadiums I’ve visited. The possibilities are unlimited.

Here’s a look at why some business owners — particularly retailers — might want to seriously consider starting a business profile on Pinterest now.

How It’s Being Used
Perhaps the most powerful business application is the ability to post images of your company’s products on your Pinterest board and link them back to your website. It works as a sort of virtual store catalog.

But remember that this is social media. If you simply display images of your products without contributing other content or sharing other users’ pins, you’ll likely find that people don’t pay much attention. After all, no one likes a self-absorbed blowhard.

Related: Emerging Social Media Sites to Attract Users

But savvy social media users know not to get too promotional. For example, Whole Foods Market pins pictures of delicious-looking food, food art and images of recycled or reused products to inspire customers to be environmentally responsible. Daniel Gordon, who runs Samuel Gordon Jewelers in Oklahoma City, pins pictures of his rings and watches, but he also has a board for images that make him laugh and other types of products he loves.

Driving Sales

Pinterest already is driving buyers to some websites. In the last six months, the retail deal siteideeli.com has seen a 446 percent increase in web traffic from Pinterest and sales resulting from those visits have increased five-fold.

“We continue the Pinterest conversation with [the] members by following their pins, and we love to give feedback outside of the shopping category — whether that means commenting on a great recipe or [giving] a heart next to our favorite pet pics,” says ideeli.com social media manager Sarah Conley. “We also see Pinterest as a growing resource to better understand our members and the larger retail landscape.”

Is Pinterest Right for Your Business?
The site does have some drawbacks for businesses. If your product or service isn’t particularly visual, your images may not tie directly back to your brand. Pinterest also doesn’t offer business-oriented features, and its search function prioritizes pin and board subjects ahead of “people,” the category that brands would fall into.

The best way to determine if Pinterest could attract buyers is simply to give it a shot. Set up an account and start pinning things that are relevant to your business but not too promotional.

Related: How to Use Social Media for Research and Development

If you run a lawn-care center, for instance, pin pictures of landscaping you find online or snap in your community. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, pin shots of the interesting sites and people around your neighborhood and photos you take at community events. You also can search through Pinterest’s categories and add some inspirational, funny or beautiful images you find.

Then, follow interesting boards and individuals who post images that inspire you. Once you’ve done some pinning of other people’s content for a week or so and attracted a few followers, create a new board of your products. Add descriptions and perhaps the price to the images. Make sure they link back to your website and start tracking pinterest.com as a referral source in your website analytics.

Next, try creating an image of a special deal or coupon just for your Pinterest followers. Upload it to a new board for Deals. Perhaps offer a prize to the person who gets the most likes or comments on a re-pin of the coupon, and then see who shares it the most. Don’t fret about creating multiple boards. People who follow you will see them all.

In a month or two, see if you’re getting referral traffic or sales. Depending on the results, you may need to tweak your boards with new images and words.

One thing is clear whether you’re on Pinterest for personal or business reasons: the best images — be they funny, beautiful or thought provoking — attract the most attention and followers.

 

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NFC? The New Kid on the Block on Recognition Technology

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Yep… they’re delivering data to smart phones using touchpoings rather than scanning… http://tag.microsoft.com/what-is-tag/nfc.aspx

We found this on the Microsoft website and just had to share…

Be The First

Want to position your brand as a cutting-edge technology adopter? Consider adding NFC to your campaigns. People with a compatible phone simply tap (or get close to) your NFC-enabled materials to open a web page, dial a phone number, see a free message, open a Vcard, or download a mobile app.

Some Android phones come enabled for NFC, so if your customer base leans heavily toward those devices, using NFC may be a great way to engage with them. Not sure if your customers are NFC-equipped? You can put more than one recognition technology on your marketing materials. Add a Tag barcode and you’re covered either way.

Create Unique Experiences

In addition to offering an array of experiences, like linking to websites and downloading apps, with Tag NFC technology you can also capture the rough location of where each tap is taking place. This lets you send people on-the-spot info. 

Go beyond just telling how you hand-pick your ‘cukes and berries – give directions to the closest shop carrying your artisanal pickles and jams. You can also capture a unique Device ID of each mobile phone engaging with your content. That way, you can go a step further and serve up a different experience with each tap: Give a buy-one-get-one-free coupon with the first tap and a recipe for wild mountain blackberry thumbprint cookies with the next tap. Yum!

Fine Tune With Metrics

You’ll find reports on your NFC-enabled material along with the rest of your reports in Tag Manager. The reports show details on each tap by date and category. 

For a richer set of data, you can also use the Scan Data API to provide more metrics on NFC engagement, including how many people are sharing your mobile experiences within our app, the exact time of each tap and more.

Getting Started

Adding NFC to your campaigns is easy to do using Tag Manager. You’ll create an NFC URL that can be downloaded and shared with a third-party vendor who can set up your NFC tags using that URL and create your touchpoints. Add those touchpoints to your printed materials, such as a poster, and you are set!

 

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Ideas for Better Networking

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Like the “givers gain” philosophy of Business Networking International (BNI), it’s not in what your get when you meet someone, it’s in what you give that you’ll receive. The following are a few tips on how to effectively network.

 

 

 

 

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