Tag Archives: Pinterest

Twitter…slowing down while trying to grow

No, I am not leaving Twitter. Yet.  I will at least wait this one out.  And that wait, in my opinion, is getting shorter and shorter.

Before I get into any kind of facts or numbers I’ll just throw out some observations, which are completely not based on any solid fact or number.  Imagine that?  Over the last several months it looks as though the Twitterverse is slowing down.  This is based on what feels like a huge decrease in activity from my own personal followers and friends and way less mentions.  I know that you are probably thinking, “Well, then don’t put out terrible content.”  Ha.  This could be true, but what I am saying about it slowing down could also be true.

I have 350 followers.  Not huge, but a solid number made up of personal friends, business colleagues, industry experts and of course some randoms.  This group in the past had consistently been interactive and engaging.  Not so much anymore. I also follow many of these people, many of which barely even tweet now.  Just here and there, random updates.  Nothing like 2009-2011.  The entertainment factor of Twitter has taken a huge hit, at least for me, that’s for sure.

Now on to some numbers and facts.

A recent article by TechCrunch had some big news- Pinterest has now passed Twitter on the referral traffic generating scale.  In other words, Pinterest is now simply moving people around the web more than Twitter.  Businesses should take note.

The use has definitely declined by the tweeps on Twitter.  Mashable’s visual history of Twitter infograph lays out exactly that point.  150 million of the 200 million registered users do not log in to Twitter by day, and half of its registered users only log in once a month.  Of every 100 accounts, 20 are completely inactive, dead accounts.  And spammers?  Yeah, the accounts where people are following no one and also have no followers, and they mention you in a tweet with a random link?  Yeah.  Those. Are. Sweet.

Twitter isn’t exactly the log in once a month kind of social platform.  If you’re doing that, you’re kind of missing the point.

As I was thinking about this subject for a blog, I saw a Lowe’s TV commercial.  I found this very interesting and right on par with what I’m saying…at the end they flashed their social platform icons: Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.  No Twitter.  They do still have it on their website, but what does that say that they’d scrap Twitter from their social priorities to their television audience?  I think it says a lot.

There is also a flip-side to this argument, and Twitter is doing everything they can to keep it strong.  They recently launched brand pages for some hand-picked lucky companies to test out.  To be honest, at this point it isn’t much to get excited about.  Check out Coca-cola’s brand Twitter page; not really many bells and whistles.  There is space for a larger image or expanded video links with a thumbnail, and then a banner at the top where you can feature a hashtag or tagline.  Exciting.  Sarcasm.

Some folks do believe Twitter is doing more and more to enhance the brand pages.  I guess it’s yet to be seen, but simply upping the monetization of Twitter advertising doesn’t really cut it, in my opinion.

We’ll see.

I have always been a huge fan of Twitter and have it used it consistently for the last several years.  I completely believe in the power and virality of Twitter and absolutely love it from a business perspective for putting out news and updates, but that’s so one-sided.  However, with the ever-increasing “dead” accounts and spammers, and the decrease in use by the actually active accounts, it just seems to be moving in the wrong direction.  I will leave you with this last thought: Twitter will slowing fade away for personal, active users and will grow for businesses and celebrities.  People will simply follow along and it will continue to move in the direction of one-sided broadcasts as opposed to interaction and engagement.  This is an area where Facebook will leave Twitter in the dust in the year to come.

Pinterest is the new Napster? Oh boy

The copyright and legality problems with Pinterest have really picked up some serious steam lately, and the media has been all over it.  I think I see a new article about this issue each day.  Yesterday I posted a new blog about whether or not your business should be on Pinterest, and the questions you can ask yourself to help you make that decision.  My fourth bullet point touched on the legal risks and I recommended sticking to only posting your own images and property from your website.   I definitely think that is the way to go, now more than ever.

I read another article today that really struck me.  A lawyer named Kristen is comparing Pinterest to Napster, and drew parallels between the two and the ultimate legal collapse of the music sharing pioneer.  It really got me thinking – maybe this is true?  The pinning and re-pinning of other people’s work and property is not really legal, and that is the entire premise of the site.  And Pinterest basically makes it very clear in their legal jargon that it is not their responsibility if you get caught.

So, while the site is huge and continuing to grow, could it be head on with its own demise?  I’m interested to see where this story goes and if some actual real lawsuits will hit the scene.  When that started happening is when Napster started dying.  I guess we’ll see, but it’s definitely something worth watching.

Right now it’s a great social marketing tool if done right.  But it looks like most people and businesses are not doing it….”right.”

you have a business…should you be on Pinterest?

The title asks the question.  I will help you answer it.

So, you either own a business or manage social media for a business, or you are in some capacity responsible for social marketing decisions for your company.  You want to be innovative and stay “ahead of the curve” but you are skeptical about Pinterest.  You have been reading tons of articles and blogs about it but still just don’t know what to do.

You know the site has been creating astronomical numbers for both web traffic to itself but also in driving visitors to other websites.  You want to be apart of this.  But, should you be?

I’m not here to list off the numbers and stats.  The social media news sources can do that.  I will say, however, that Pinterest is huge.  A beast of its own kind and continuing to grow.  While it has been overwhelmingly used by individual people, businesses are starting to get involved.

It’s not an easy and quick decision when thinking about diving into a completely new social media platform.  There has to be a solid reason other than that you just want to do it.  As with any business social presence, there is no point to be on there if you aren’t going to use it constantly, interact and engage with people.  So, you need to ask yourself a few things before diving into Pinterest - this might help you decide if the picture-pinning behemoth is right for you.

  • What is your goal?  Is it to drive web traffic to your site through the images you pin?  Then, is it ultimately to sell and drive revenue?
  • Who are you hoping to connect with? Is it a different fan base than your other social platforms?  Right now Pinterest is heavily used by women.  Are you looking to tap into a new audience by way of images?
  • What do you have to offer to the Pinterest community? Other than just your brand, are you there to share your product by way of pinned images, experiences from using your product, interesting looks into your company, or something else?  Remember, users out there on Pinterest can already be pinning images from your site (unless you have blocked the application) which is like free advertising.  Do you need to be on there doing it too?  Check to see what’s out there from your brand already, first.
  • Do you have enough imagery worth pinning? Companies are starting to hear rumblings of copyright problems with images they pin from other companies and organizations.  BE CAREFUL.  To be safe it’s smart to only pin images from your own site or your own social networks that allow it (Facebook does not).  This way you can just avoid this problem, but, do you have enough photo content that merits having a Pinterest page and keeps it interesting?
  • Are you able to be constantly re-pinning, liking and sharing? Pinterest lives and breathes on engagement and interaction.  When you are re-pinning others’ images your connections rise.  Time management.  Can you take on another large social platform right now?

Pinterest will give back what you put in.  If you set up a page and don’t touch it for a month, you won’t get much out of it outside of the initial first day on the scene.  If you are all over it at least a few times a week, you should see some growth in numbers to your website as well as followers and interactions on your actual Pinterest page.

The last big piece of this (and the most important), simply put, is that it depends what your business does.  Other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, I believe, have a place for every kind of business in some way, shape, or form.  This is not true for Pinterest, where 100% of the content is visual.  If you are an accounting company, a law firm, or do taxes for people, you probably don’t need to be on Pinterest.  Answering this question is up to you and needs to be given a lot of thought.  Do you need to be on Pinterest?  I can’t tell you yay or nay, but the questions I ask above as well as the biggie down here should help you find the answer.

The best thing to do is to play around on there, get comfortable with it and see what you think.  Who knows, you might find it very “pinteresting.”  OK, that is a terrible, overused joke.  Had to get it in there somewhere…