5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest in Driving Sales – Infographic

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Pinterest has been grabbing the headlines recently as its network approaches  20 million users per month.



In March, Compete.com reported that Pinterest had received 18 million unique visitors with AppData reporting that the visual social network had received a record 4.4 million daily active users on March 18.

There are reports that Pinterest’s growth is slowing but just like Twitter and Facebook, reports of its demise maybe slightly premature.

The Power of “Low Friction” Photo Sharing

Pinterest’s value to marketers is that it provides an easy to use platform for “pinning” images, photos and videos to your Pinterest account while also posting and sharing to your networks to Facebook and Twitter in the same process.

Pinterest reduces the effort and friction to share images on the social web which crowd sources your marketing and the spreading of your brand images.

This “low friction sharing” includes links back to the original sharing location. Online stores such as fashion, boutiques, homewares and gift stores can take advantage of this to drive commerce as their products are highly visual and more likely to be shared.

To understand the power of visual sharing, on Facebook research shows that photos are shared 50% more than any other types of updates. This is why Pinterest is so powerful.

The question though is, does it drive sales?

Does Social Commerce Work?

There are social networks and there is commerce and the popular thinking used to be that  they don’t mix. In fact there have been stories circulating on blogs that Facebook is great for engagement but not good for sales.

In digging deeper that appears to be a misconception and social commerce is alive and kicking.

Boticca.com is an online boutique for unique jewelry and fashion accessories by top emerging designers from around the world and has been using Pinterest for quite a while, where it has pinned visually enticing images of its products arranged in categories (boards) with links to the product purchase page.

Boticca Pinterest Page

Their activity on Pinterest is sizable with 67 categories (boards) that average over 700 followers for each board with 2,869 pins (products). As the quality of the photos they have used for their online store is high definition then these HD images ensure that they are also compelling on Pinterest.

Pinterest is really a product catalogue linked to their online store behind every image.



Once you click on that link it takes you to the product on Bottica’s online store where you can continue to review the product further and then make a purchase.

Bottica Facebook “Page”

Bottica’s Facebook page reveals over 26,000 “likes” that also features a prominent Pinterest “Tab” which is powered by the Facebook Pinterest App.

This Pinterest Tab which is effectively the Pinterest site embedded in Facebook allows you to access the online store directly from Facebook. Omni-commerce is evident here. You can buy from Facebook, Pinterest and the ecommerce store.



It recently researched from its own store data which social network drove more social commerce. The results are fascinating and this is from a real store with real numbers.

The 5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest

Boticca traced the sales , average sales, conversions and engagement of 50,000 visitors from Pinterest and 50,000 from Facebook.

Here are  5 things Boticca learned about marketing on Facebook compared to Pinterest

• Pinterest users spend more when shopping at $180 vs $85 by Facebook users
• Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site than Facebook
• Pinterest influenced more sales (10%) than Facebook (7%)
• Pinterest has a 51% lower conversion rate compared to Facebook
• Pinterest acquired 86% new users vs Facebook at 57%

The Infographic

Source: Bottica.com blog

Are you using Pinterest for your online store? Do you have images that you could be pinning to your Pinterest acount?




























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Facebook Approaches 500 Million Mobile Users – Infographic

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I do enjoy my cycling and it is a great way to keep fit, socialize and  enjoy coffee all in one capsule of time.





It also is one way of refreshing the body, mind and soul from the the pressures of work and life.


Cycling though can be dangerous, with trucks and cars and other immovable objects threatening life and limb.


But there is a new and alarming epidemic and trend that is making the roads more dangerous and it is the addicted Facebook user checking their timeline on their mobile.


Luckily the police have realized this and in fact in Fort Lee, New Jersey in the USA they have started booking “dangerous” walkers who are not obeying the rules of the road“.


It certainly is about time because it would be embarrassing to report to my friends that I was injured cycling not from a hitting a bus but by being taken out by an over zealous and jaywalking Facebook user on their mobile!

Facebook Understands the Importance of Mobile

Facebook must have been talking to the police about this mobile addiction trend because they have just bought  Instagram which isn’t even a social media website but just a mobile app (a mobile app that just happens to have nearly 40 million users).


Additionally Facebook has increased its focus on mobile in preparing for a mobile and social web that goes  beyond the Instagram acquisition with the purchase of the Android  photosharing app developer “Lightbox” as reported by Techcrunch.


Lightbox creates photo blogs from a users uploads and has been described as the “Lazy man’s Tumblr”





Now before you rush off and try and sign up to Lightbox, the acquisition is not the business or the app but only the team, as it will be closed down by June 15 and you will see its technology emerge as a Facebook mobile feature sometime in the future.


The other common element to take note of with both these acquisitions are that they are photo centric “apps”, because Facebook knows that photos are the highest engaging content on its platform (50% higher share rate than any other type of update on Facebook timelines).


The challenge that still remains for Facebook,  is how they will monetize the burgeoning mobile space.

The Compelling Facts and Figures

One other compelling reason Facebook is aggressively chasing mobile users is that in the developed countries its growth is approaching saturation point.


In developing countries the use of mobile is predominant with telecommunications infrastructure being built around mobile technology instead of fixed.


This is evident with countries like New Guinea (78%) and  Nigeria (81%) having some of the highest Facebook mobile penetration in the world.

• 54% Penetration of Facebook mobile (488 million out of 901 million users)
• Android and Apple share the largest mobile platform usage at 19% each
• iPad is 5% of Facebook mobile usage
• The top 5 countries using Facebook mobile are USA, Indonesia and India followed by the UK and then Mexico

What About You?

How are you going to take advantage of mobile for your business. Do you have a mobile app for your online store. Is your website optimized for mobile?


Can people read about your brand and business on a mobile?


Look forward to hearing your stories.


































































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Does the Facebook Timeline Increase or Decrease Engagement?

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The rules of marketing are changing. Before the rise of the social web, marketing was about synchronous messaging.


It was about shouting your brand from the roof tops in a one way conversation.


The louder you shouted (the more dollars you spent on mass media) the more money you made.


In essence it was simple.


Today it is a two way conversation with a variety of multimedia on a multitude of global social networks, that starts with engaging the customer with content that involves interaction of some type and then selling the product or service.


In the past engagement was very hard to measure because media was a one way conversation whether that was television, radio  or print.


Today you can instantly see in real time if the content you publish or marketing message you promote is working as you view people liking, sharing or commenting online on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Engagement Starts with One Click

Facebook has made the first engagement easy to spot as the ubiquitous “like” being the first indication of your brands touch point and resonance with a fan.


After that the relationship becomes deeper as content is shared with friends and comments are left on the Timeline. The more time and effort displayed by the prospect indicates the building and budding relationship.


Facebook has recently  changed the way  brands interacted with their fans online by totally revamping the new user interface for Facebook and renamed it “Timeline”.


It provides a larger canvas for photos and images and a larger cover photo to showcase a businesses brand along with many other features and functions.

Is the  Facebook Timeline Increasing Engagement?

When the timeline was announced, the screaming of users and brands was deafening as they had to rebuild their Facebook marketing strategies and learn to navigate the new user interface.


Generally no one likes change!


A new study by Sotrender (an online tool for analysis, reporting and optimisation of Facebook), provides some interesting clues as to whether the new Facebook Timeline is working well for business and brands.

What Metrics Haven’t Changed

The study revealed after analyzing 130 biggest UK company profiles and almost 5 thousand posts that the following metrics didn’t change.


None of the following metrics changed significantly in the after-Timeline period:

• page posts per day
• content type distribution
• percent of engaged users per fanpage
• average number of likes, comments and posts per active user
• average response (likes and comments) per post
• cross-page engagement (percent of page’s engaged fans also engaged on other pages)

They discovered that two things had changed significantly.

What Has Changed

The study by Sotrender discovered these two statistically significant changes.

#1. Posts live Longer

Before the timeline’s introduction, users made half of their comments in less than one hour. Now the posts half life has extended to 2 hours and 30 minutes.


Also 80% of all comments are made in 8 hours and 30 minutes (2 hours more than before Timeline.)

Takeaway

If company writes too often, the new posts may cannibalize users engagement of the previous ones.

#2. Bigger Engagement

The other change that was noticeable was that the Facebook timeline has increased growth in post engagement by 13%.


Prior to Timeline the average post stimulated the activity of 158 fans. This has now increased to 179.

Takeaway

Don’t stop providing regular multimedia updates to your business Facebook page timeline. It has increased indeed increased engagement.

What About You?

Have you found the new Timeline increasing or decreasing engagement on your Facebook page?


Have you changed how often you update your business Facebook page?


How have you adapted to the changes?


























































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