Marcus Thomas Presents Social Media at the 2010 Housewares Show
Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter
1. Overview
• What is it?
• How does it work?
• Quick facts
• Brand examples
• Best practices
2.
3. What Is It? How Does It Work?
• An invite-only, digital pinboard site
• Activities
> Pin It
> Like
> Repin
> Comment
> Follow
4. Quick Facts
• 11.7 million users
• Average visit is 16 minutes
• Demographics
> Women 25-44
> Half have children
> Upper income
• 57% of users interact with food
content
• 25% of users have purchased a
product/service after
discovering it on Pinterest
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-users_b22556
eMarketer– May 2012
10. Best Practices
• Cross-promote your Pinterest page
• Pin content from various sources
• Include other industry content, not just Brand content
• Create multiple boards covering a variety of topics
• Repin from within the site to engage others and build your
network of followers
• Credit your sources
11.
12. What Is It? How Does It Work?
• Instagram is a photo-sharing application
• Activities
> Hashtag
> Comment
> Like
> Share
> Location tags
> Follow
13. Quick Facts
• 80 million users
• 4 billion + photos shared
• Facebook
> Purchased for $1 billion
in April 2012
> #15 app
> Recently launched
Facebook Camera
• Instagram may be
developing a full-on
Web presence
http://mashable.com/2012/07/26/instagram-80-million/
http://mashable.com/2012/07/21/instagram-on the-
web/https://www.facebook.com/mobile/camera
15. Brand Examples: Red Bull
•
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30908/5-Awesome-Examples-of-Instagram-Marketing-From-Real-Brands.aspx#ixzz22s3kYJMV
16. Brand Examples: GE (Contest)
•
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30908/5-Awesome-Examples-of-Instagram-Marketing-From-Real-Brands.aspx#ixzz22s40dFo6
17. Best Practices
• Do a hashtag search to monitor Brand activity
• Listen and participate
• If a post is negative, take the conversation offline
• It’s always okay to Like, but ask permission to reuse a third-
party’s image
• Remember it’s a lifestyle platform, not a product platform
• Tools
> Statigram
> Webstagram
> Instagram blog
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/advanced-guide-instagram-build-brand/
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/A_complete_guide_for_brands_on_Instagram_11688.aspx
18.
19. What Is It? How Does It Work?
• A microblog that allows people to send quick updates in 140
characters
• Activities
> Tweet
> @___ or Handle
> RT or Retweet
> DM or Direct Message
> # or Hashtag
> #FF
20. Quick Facts
• 31.8 million users
• Used by men and women alike
• Most popular among adults 18-34
• 53% of companies with 100+ employees are using Twitter for
marketing
• Shift to image-based content
eMarketer, August 2012
21. Brand Applications
• Customer service
• Monitor Brand, competition, category
• Communicate happenings, events, promotions, etc.
• Put a face to the Brand
• Paid opportunities
> Promoted tweets
> Promoted accounts
> Promoted trends
24. Best Practices
• Always remain transparent; when co-tweeting, identify yourself
• Use less than 100 characters per tweet
• Add links to your tweets to increase retweet rates
• Tweet 4x per day or less
• Ensure there is a space before the URL in tweets
• Ask for retweets by spelling out the entire word
• Use images where possible
• Use no more than one or two hashtags in a tweet
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2187945/Twitter-Posting-Best-Practices-for-Better-Big-Brand-Engagement-Interaction-
Study
The purpose of today’s presentation is to provide a high-level introduction to three key platforms (pin, inst, twitter), and familiarize participants with how to best leverage the platforms for marketing purposes.
Let’s begin with Pinterest.
Pinterest is a digital pinboarding site that allows users to virtually pin items they find on the Web to their personal pinboards with the help of browser add-ons. Content which can be organized by themes on boards, and users can browse their friends’ pins – and repin them! The user-friendly nature of the platform has played a major role in it’s continous growth. While users primarily pin photos, the popularity of videos will be worth tracking.
Pinterest has 11.7 million users, ranking it among the top five social networks in size. What is particularly interesting about the platform is how much time users spend with it. The average visit is 16 minutes – more than Facebook and Twitter – with food or recipe content being highly popular. The current user base is heavily concentrated with women, especially moms – moms with spending power. Not only is Pinterest driving website traffic elsewhere – it’s also facilitating transactions.
Chobani currently has an impressive following of over 14.5 thousand, so how did the brand get there?First and foremost, the brand’s boards don’t necessarily relate to selling yogurt, rather, they sell an aspirational lifestyle. Chobani’s boards represent the core values of their brand: simplicity, fitness, health, flavor and travel.The board for their slogan “Nothing But Good”, for example, has nearly 9500 followers and is focused on inspirational quotes. What else is the brand doing well? It’s…• Providing clever ideas that help users to make healthy choices in their everyday diets by using Chobani yogurt.• Interactingwith its followers and repins their pins.• Providing parents with kid-friendly ideas on their “Chobani Champions” board.
Fiber One Chewy Bars are sponsoring a board on Pinterest.For those who aren’t aware, General Mills has a partnership with Lisa Lillien – aka “Hungry Girl” (leading recipe/food content creator), and they’ve sponsored a board on herpinterest page. this is a particularly interesting campaign because it’s a direct sponsorship of a board in someone else’s account as opposed to a brand account. The board is named, “Fiber One Chewy Snack Champs” and it is being used to recognize great snack that moms can make for their kids (think “ants on a log”)The pin is repinned onto the Fiber One Chewy Snack Champs board and the user who originally pinned the snack gets a badge that says they are a ‘snack champ’ and a great deal of traffic on their pin (and likely on their blog).Overall this is a great example of tapping into an existing fan base.
Couponing opportunities have been incorporated into the Fiber One board as well. Here, you can see an example of the steps consumers take to obtain their coupon.
The final example I wanted to share for Pinterest is a contest being executed by delallo. The brand has a board called the keep it fresh with pomodoro fresco giveaway. To celebrate a new product launch, consumers are simply asked to repin their favorite recipes for a chance to win.
Interested parties can view the contest rules within a pin, and are also excourage dot visit the brand’s website for more information.
If you are looking for a measurement tool for Pinterests, take a look at Curalate.
Moving on to Instagram…
Instagram is a photo-sharing application that is iPhone, iPad, and Android compatible. It allows users to upload a photo from their phone, or take one while using the program….and then apply a filter to make it look weathered, faded, vintage or enhanced. If you are a brand that has heritage – the look and feel of Instagram photos makes it a perfect fit.
Instagram has over 80 million users and over 4 billion photos have been shared. The app was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion is April, and it quickly became the #15 app.Despite having just acquired Instagram, Facebook has launched an additional photo-sharing mobile application, Facebook Camera, to meet the snapshot-circulating needs of consumers. Facebook Camera differs by emphasizing utility over artiness. App users enter an image-oriented version of Facebook that skips over text updates and presents a stream of friend photos instead. Additionally, floating buttons allow for easy “liking” and commentary.Something to watch? Instagram may be launching a full-on Web presence in the near future.
Starbucks was an early adopter of Instagram and has over 200,000 followers to date. The company highlights in-store experiences at locations from around the world, shows how new coffee flavors are chosen and tested at Starbucks headquarters, and provides information about its 'Create Jobs for the USA' program. Starbucks shares the photos with its Facebook fans, too, so customers can comment on upcoming or new flavors. Overall Starbucks does a great job of keeping content fresh, interactive, and aligned with the brand’s key attributes. If budgets are tight, consider making Instagram the photo arm of your Twitter program
Instagram is an excellent platform for a lifestyle brand like Red Bull. It allows followers to live vicariously through the experiences of extreme athletes through awe inspiring pictures. A couple tips based on Red Bull’s experience…Make sure you post pictures of meaning that induce shares – if it’s not interesting to you – it won’t be to your followings.Also, take the time to think about different or unique perspectives through which you photos can be taken. They’ll peak follower’s interest.
Finally, I wanted to share a contest executed by GE.The purpose of the contest was to show off GE's work in different industries like energy, transportation, and aviation. Things like larger than life engines and turbines that drive innovation.GE used its account to run a contest to find its next “Instagrapher.”, and the winner was given the opportunittyto photograph an aviation facility in Wales. Almost 4,000 Instagram photos were submitted with the designated hashtag #GEInspiredMe and then posted to Facebook, where fans voted for the finalists. Not only was GE able to get fans involved with multiple social platforms, the company was also somehow able to get people excited about turbine engines.Overall the contest was a great to get people excited about something they might normally consider dry….and it educated consumers about different aspects of the GE business.
Consider Statigr.am, which is easily the most popular Web-based third party Instagram management site.You could also use a third-party app like Webstagram to find out what are the most popular tags since the iPhone app won’t tell you.
Finally, a few things on Twitter…
A quick reminder for most, Twitter is a microblog that allows people to post brief updates using no more than 140 characters. Updates can come in the form of copy, links, photos or videos.
As of Aug 2012 Twitter had 31.8 million users making it the #2 social network. The platform has a relatively gender neutral user base and is most popular among Millennials. It’s being used by about half of companies for marketing purposes.As far as trends go….the greatest change in the platform as of late has been a shift to image based cointent. In fact, 36% of links poste dare to images.
Twitter has a number of brand applications, but customer service is one of the most popular. It’s also a great way to put a face to your brand and communicate events, promotions, etc.From a paid standpoint, current options include promoted tweets accounts and trends.Regardless of whether you have a presence on Twitter, use it to monitor what’s being said about your brand, your category…and your competitors!
Known for responsiveness….good customer service, non-stop trivia, prizes and fun – DD is an excellent brand to watch on Twitter.The brand recented hosted a “Cool Spots” Sweepstakes. For a seven day period over the summer summer, Dunkin' Donuts tweetedthree photos of popular landmarks in a particular U.S. city. Followers of @DunkinDonuts could tweet their guess as to the day's "Cool Spot," using the special hashtag #DDCoolSpot. Fans who guess the "Cool Spot" correctly within their allotted three guesses per day were entered for a chance to win a $100 Dunkin' Donuts Card….or the grand prize which included two vouchers from JetBlue to visit their favorite Cool Spot.
Pepsi is a great brand to watch for the entertainment value it provides. The brand’s new “Live for Now” campaign extends to Twitter and includes three key components that speak to the ways consumers find and enjoy music: First, there are opportunities to download free MP3sSencond, fans can WATCH a new weekly video seriesbased on the top music and artists trending on Twitter. And third, fans can EXPERIENCE a series of pop-up concerts in the U.S. in person or via streamed content on Twitter.
We have a number of best practices here for you so I’m just going to call out a few.Use less than 100 characters per tweetTweets with under 100 characters had 17 percent higher engagement. Add links to your tweets to increase retweet ratesBuddy Media reported that link clicks account for 92 percent of all interactions with big brand accounts. Further, links drive more than clicks; tweets with links had an 86 percent higher retweet rate than those without.Use images where possibleBig brands tweets with images had two times higher engagement. Use no more than one or two hashtags in a tweetOne or two hashtags in a tweet increased engagement 21 percent, but more than two resulted in a 17 percent decrease.
Why are Instagram and Pinterest so popular? What’s with all the images on Twitter? Curration and imagery are key to the current state of social media…and the services that help consumers express themselves can do the same for BrandsWith that said….think about ways that you can 1) tell your brands story through imagery and 2) provide value to your consumers through the platforms that enable curration
