Monthly Archives: May 2012
Online jewelry retailer Boticca.com recently tracked the impact of both Pinterest and Facebook on creating engagement, driving traffic, and generating sales for e-commerce businesses. Marketing professionals are hesitant to invest significant resources into social media because it’s seen as more of a branding strategy, but this case study provides insight on the social channel’s ability to produce tangible results.
Community Engagement
Developing your social media audience can prove to be futile if your fans are not communicating with your brand. Boticca noticed that Facebook users were far more engaged than those coming from Pinterest. Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site and visited 44% less pages compared to their Facebook counterparts, a testament to Facebook’s ability to drive highly targeted traffic. Facebook’s robust platform encourages users to check out the site through creative posts in news feeds, whereas Pinterest is limited in this regard.
Online Advertising continues to be an important piece of any budget due to its cost effectiveness compared to traditional marketing strategies and the widespread reach of the Internet. According to the most recent Global Digital Advertising update, digital advertising continues to make progress across all online channels, such as Search Engine Marketing, Mobile Advertising, and Social Media.
Search Engine Marketing Trends
The first quarter of 2012 reported a 16% increase on overall Search Engine Marketing expenditures compared to the first quarter of 2011 in the United States. Google continues to be the dominant search engine with regards to total spend and click market share. This trend extends to most International markets as Google has cemented itself as the leading platform for Pay-Per-Click Advertising. However, Bing is an emerging thorn in Google’s side, increasing their share of revenue from Online Paid Advertising over the past year.
Choosing the right platforms for Social Media Marketing directly affects the success of any campaign. For example, developing a Pinterest strategy for a funeral parlor will prove to be futile and a waste of resources. A platform that marketing professionals are beginning to incorporate into their strategic plans is LinkedIn. However, businesses are still figuring out how to properly exploit this resource for their brand. In fact, the Social Media giant recently announced that they had over 150 million registered users. With LikedIn’s global reach, active user base, and unrivaled professional structure, the question then becomes: how can my brand use LinkedIn?
Explore New Opportunities with LinkedIn
This virtual networking platform allows your brand to reach out to specific businesses for lead generation purposes. Joining industry groups, participating in discussions, and reaching out to new contacts will help increase your brand’s followers on LinkedIn. This is uniquely ideal for organizations that need to increase their exposure and want to incorporate Social Media Optimization in their sales activities.
By Jonathan Berthold on