Social Media

A less reverent look at the social media game .....


Social Media Revolution (parody)

Very Pinteresting

According to Shareholic "Pinterest created more referral traffic than Twitter" last month.


A closer look at their "All Traffic Sources Report" - based on aggregated data from 200,000 publishers and 270 million unique visitors in the month - puts Pinterest at 1.05% and Twitter at 0.82%. Although sitting in the top 10, still a long way off Google's dominant 48.81%.


So what is Pinterest and does it have a role in B-2-B marketing? It is another entrant in the social media open platform camp and at the basic level is  a photo and link sharing service. A digital collage of pictures that offers the options to "Like", "Comment" and "Repin". Their own description is that, "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests." It goes on to say, "People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favourite recipes." Hardly B-2-B. And yet there are case studies claiming considerable business success. The trick is to pin interesting pictures, not just pictures of your products. For companies who have such a picture library then Pinterest may be worth a punt.

Integrating a socia media component to the marketing communicationsplan

Including social media as a component of an integrated marketing communications programme that also includes traditional media, web site and email campaigns should start with some research.

The big question for many b-2-b companies now, is where are their customers and prospects looking for information? There is a general acceptance that display advertising campaigns in the trade press are not the best way to invest so much of the marketing budget as they once were. That there is migration to other media and the web site is the vital  hub, but how do people get there and how do they learn about your business before reaching your site? This is where some fundamental research is called for. In this fragmented media landscape it is important to understand current customer preferences for discovering information and their route to a purchase decision. At the very least discover how many rely on traditional editorial recommendation in the trade press, or like the 'hands on' opportunity afforded by exhibitions, are content to search the Internet or maybe like the more relaxed style of social media? And there is another thing - what formats and platforms do they tend to use - print, desk top computers or mobile devices? It might be worth just checking how well the company web site displays  on mobile devices. In fact this piece of research is going to need to be done regularly as migration continues and media continues to offer new communication channels.

Armed  with this research insight - what next? With an up to date understanding of what media customers and prospects prefer, then there is a rationale to determine how scarce marketing resources of funds and time are best deployed and to set objectives. The overall aim is to lead through to sales leads, but some channels may work better at the early stages of engagement and social media probably works best as a soft sell, hence it needs to work within a fully integrated marketing communications programme.