7 of the Most Popular Social Networks for Business

Rebecca Corliss | HubSpot | July 17, 2012


People expect different type of content on each social media network. Not only does that mean the content you post to each network needs to be unique; it might also mean that you shouldn't be hopping on every single social network out there to meet your company's business goals.

But how do you even make that decision if you're new to the social media game? The best way is to get to know the different "personalities" of each network so you can understand how to leverage it best for your business. Using this article as your guide, you'll get to know some of the most popular social networks, learn what their super powers are, and determine whether they're a good fit for your brand. So let's analyze the key players in the social space, and talk about each of their strengths and weaknesses to help you decide who you should be hanging out with!

Getting to Know Twitter, The Buzz Generator

Twitter hit its 5 millionth user this past February, and the network is active and abuzz with links, chatter, one line self reflections, and just plain content. To inbound marketers, all of this content probably seems pretty great -- but it also means it takes a lot of work to get your  content to stand out in the crowd. Just look at how often HubSpot posts on Twitter to get our content some visibility in the news feed!

 

Twitter's Superpower

Twitter brings a viral, buzz-generating component to your marketing. For example, when a business has a massive group of people either sharing content or using a hashtag all at once, that has a big, very visible impact. Twitter is right for you if you are looking for a network where you can build a large audience that you can incite to action -- potentially all at once to create a viral effect. Mind you, that type of audience growth takes time ... but the value of creating such a large network sure pays off!

Getting to Know Facebook, The Humanizer

Facebook is most-used social networking site around the world. In fact, a recent study found it to be the top-visited social media site in 126 of the 137 countries studied. Still think your audience isn't using social media? Think again.

People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, view their grandkid's baby pictures, discover content their friends are sharing, and more. It's a truly powerful connector. But how do companies fit into this social network that focuses so heavily on the human connection? Users expect companies on Facebook to act more like friends, and less like, well, companies. This means your updates should be friendlier, and show personality through photos and videos that make your brand seem more relatable. That's why we use Facebook to share things like important milestones in our company's life, just like you would with your friends and family!

 

 Facebook's Superpower

Facebook as a social tool will help a business become more likeable. By engaging like you naturally would with friends, your fans will respond and interact with you and your content in the way they feel most comfortable on that network -- colloquially. Use this to build a loyal fanbase who will view, click, and share your content so your reach continues to grow. If your company is not comfortable being a bit more flexible and friendly in its tone, however, Facebook might not be the best bet.

Getting to Know Quora, The Authority Builder

Quora boasts a slightly smaller user base than Twitter and Facebook with 1.1 million monthly users. But even though the network is smaller doesn't mean you should balk at its marketing potential. If you've ever participated in Quora's Q&A, you'll know that the quality of questions asked and answers provided is extremely high. While Quora might not be the right network for your business as a major traffic driver considering the lower usage volume, it could be a great place to build your company's authority and thought leadership, generating much higher quality leads (albeit at a lower volume) in the long run.

 

Quora's Superpower

Use Quora to build the authority of specific employees. For example, you could encourage your sales and marketing employees to search for questions your leads commonly ask, and provide insightful answers to which you can point future leads. What a great way to build trust and rapport!

Getting to Know Google+, The Search Optimizer

Google+ launched business pages in fall of 2011, at which point Google+ usage picked up as brands started creating their own pages and building their following. But since then, its been reported that usage has significantly decreased -- eMarketer reported that users only spend an average of 3.3 minutes on Google+ in a single session, down from 5.1 minutes in November 2011. Yikes. Looks like it's not incredibly active as a social network ... so what's the value? The value comes from its SEO support.

 

Google+'s Superpower

When you post your content to Google+, you're making it more likely your company's content will rank well in Google's SERPs. That's because, much to the dismay of many other social networks, Google is considering factors such as +1's of content when deciding how high to rank a piece of content. Google also started to index and feature Google+ status updates, author names, and 'Add to Circles' buttons in search results, making your activity on Google+ even more important for a strong organic search presence.

Getting to Know Pinterest, The Artist

Pinterest, the "newest" social network on the block, has actually been around since 2008! Gaining some serious popularity earlier this year, the network is an excellent tool for sharing and spreading a company's visual content. After all, images can often tell a far more profound story or give insight into a feeling in a more powerful way than mere text. If you're producing more visual content, you can easily share that content through channels like Pinterest by "pinning" it to a board. 

 

Pinterest's Superpower

Pinterest is easy to maintain and grow if you're more reliant on visuals than text in your industry. We do, however, recommend writing descriptions for every image you pin to provide further explanation for those looking to learn more about your pin. And before you go saying Pinterest is just for wedding planners and hairdressers, remember that your visuals could include anything from photos, to graphs, to infographics! They key with Pinterest is, when someone clicks your image to see the source, you're directing them to your website so you can convert all that Pinterest traffic. So go on, have a little fun with your social media marketing!

Getting to Know LinkedIn, The Professional

LinkedIn has a very distinct personality. It's the most suited-up network, generally rather conservative, and reserved for business-focused conversations. For B2B companies, LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable channel. In a HubSpot study last year, in fact, we found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter. Since LinkedIn users are generally in a business-focused mindset, lead generation content that's extremely valuable and provides a solution to a common problem in your industry can work incredibly well.

 

LinkedIn's Superpower

Use LinkedIn to target other businesses -- if that's your goal, of course. Use your content to provide solutions to business-related problems, and people will naturally share your content in an attempt to boost their own clout, not to mention click your content so you can generate more leads. Don't be afraid of posting white papers and reports here, either -- this is the type of content that typically performs quite well on LinkedIn.

Getting to Know YouTube, The Story Teller

YouTube is different from the rest of the bunch for obvious reasons -- it's geared specifically towards video! And it has a lot of video. In fact, YouTube reports that 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on the social network. Video is a powerful story-telling mechanism, so it's no wonder marketers are using video to celebrate customer success, get customers excited about an event, or use music to teach someone something new. 

YouTube's Superpower

Use YouTube to tell important stories about your company, to entertain your audience, and even to educate them (ever thought of creating a how-to video?) As with most visual content, sometimes it's easier to get your message across with something a bit more interactive; and that's when YouTube comes in handy! You can also embed your videos in your blog or on other social networks so the videos can get more reach. Plus, YouTube is owned by Google ... you can bet those videos will be indexed in organic search!

After you understand the different personalities of each of these social networks, you're better equipped to determine which ones match the personality and needs of your brand. If you're just starting out in social media, it should help you approach these networks with less of a blind eye, and create content that better matches the tone of the content already on that platform.

Based on your brand, which social network do you think is the best fit for you? How does your use of each social network differ?

Original Article..

21 Internet Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind

Kipp Bodnar | HubSpot | June 29, 2012


Sick of hearing the same "the internet is changing marketing" speeches? Want hard data to reference so that you can properly forecast and adjust future marketing plans and budgets? Just want to sound smart in board meetings? Look no further; this post will show you some current data about the state of the internet marketing world that are both helpful, and frankly kind of shocking. Take a gander!

21 Internet Marketing Statistics That May Surprise You

1) The more posts per day, the less engagement -- when a brand posts twice a day, those posts only receive 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post. (Source: Track Social) Be mindful of your publishing frequency on Facebook, and start testing with your own page to see what frequency is right for your community. Tweet This Stat!

2) The click-through rate on triggered messages is 119% higher than “Business as Usual” messages. (Source: Epsilon and DMA) Using personalized and timely lead nurturing with marketing automation is an important strategy for improving the overall performance of your email marketing and customer generation. Tweet This Stat!

3) On average, companies respond to only 30% of social media fans' feedback. (Source: Factbrowser) Engagement is rare. Stand out from your competition by caring and engaging with your social media community. Tweet This Stat!

4) The average tablet user spends 13.9 hours per week with the device. (Source: OPA) The tablet is quickly becoming the new laptop. Survey your customers and leads to understand how they are using tablets, and let that data influence future marketing strategies targeted at tablet users. Tweet This Stat!

5) Text messaging users send or receive an average of 35 messages per day. (Source: Forrester Research) Peer-to-peer communication through text messaging has become of core part of society's communication infrastructure. Is there is any possible communication that your customers and prospects would like to receive via text message? Tweet This Stat!

6) Email opens on smartphones and tablets have increased 80% over the last six months. (Source: Litmus) Mobile devices have become a major source of email usage. Make sure that your email marketing message displays properly on mobile devices to maximize the results of your sends. Tweet This Stat!

7) 27% of TV sets shipped worldwide in Q1 of 2012 had internet connectivity. (Source: Display Search) Internet connectivity is becoming standard for all devices. With the internet becoming a bigger part of the living room, plan for how this change might disrupt your current broadcast marketing tactics. Tweet This Stat!

8) By 2016, more than half of the dollars spent in US retail will be influenced by the web. (Source: Forrester Research) Commerce is shifting more and more online. Make sure that you have a method to easily sell your product or service online. Tweet This Stat!

9) In any given week, less than 0.5% of Facebook fans engage with the brand they are fans of. (Source: Marketing Science) Brands aren't providing the right kind of content and experience to engage their fans. Ask your Facebook fans what type of content they want to see, and then give it to them! Tweet This Stat!

10) 45% of the world's 2 billion internet users live in Asia. (Source: Ecommerce Europe) If you actively sell and market to Asian markets, the internet is a channel that can't be ignored. Understand how internet usage and habits differ in Asia compared to the United States. Tweet This Stat!

11) 61% of emails received at professional email accounts are non-essential. (Source: Mimecast) Inboxes are overflowing with marketing email. Use personalization, proper timing, and offers valuable to the recipient to break through the clutter and be seen. Tweet This Stat!

12) 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw there. (Source: Ipsos) People are influenced by, well, other people. Use paid and organic marketing on Facebook to influence the conversion actions that drive your business. Tweet This Stat!

13) 17% of the top 1000 search terms on Twitter "churn over" on an hourly basis. (Source: Twitter) Twitter is all about novelty and news. Publish more frequently and focus on timely content to appeal to Twitter's hungry users. Tweet This Stat!

14) U.S. consumers send 2.304 trillion text messages per year, up from 2.052 trillion in 2010. (Source: CTIA) Wow! That is a ton of text messages. If you are marketing to heavy texting demographics, consider incorporating a text message opt-in as part of your campaign. Tweet This Stat!

15) 40% of the accounts and 8% of the messages on social media sites are spam. (Source: Businessweek) Email isn't the online platform with a spam problem. Take the time to customize your social media account and content so you stand out from the spam bots. Tweet This Stat!

16) 88% of adults in the US have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-reader, and 19% have a tablet. (Source: Pew Internet) The cell phone is the dominant communication tool in the United States, but information consumption is fragmented. Optimize your digital marketing for all of the screens and devices used by your target audience. Tweet This Stat!

17) 64% of smartphone owners are using their mobile devices to shop online. (Source: eDigitalResearch) The smartphone is ripe with impulse shopping revenue. If you sell goods online, target specific campaigns to smartphone users. Tweet This Stat!

18) YouTube users watch more than 3B hours of video per month. (Source: YouTube) Video is a major part of the online experience, but it's different from traditional broadcast productions. When integrating online video into your inbound marketing strategy be sure to consider not only production value, but length. Most successful online videos are less than two minutes long. Tweet This Stat!

19) About 1 in 3 bloggers are moms. (Source: Nielsen) When looking for blogging expertise, look no further than the mommy bloggers. Everyone has influence and expertise you can learn from and leverage. Tweet This Stat!

20) 73% of smartphone owners access social networks through apps at least once per day. (Source: Lightspeed Research) Social is mobile. Make sure that content you're sharing on social networks -- like your blog articles and landing pages -- are optimized for mobile devices. Tweet This Stat!

21) 91% of online adults use social media regularly. (Source: Experian) Social media is fully integrated into communication culture. Make sure it is an integrated part of your marketing strategy, too. Tweet This Stat!

Which of these internet marketing statistics was the most surprising to you?

Photo Credit: stevendepolo

Original Article...

Tuesday Is the Best Day to Deploy a Facebook Campaign

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 27th, 2012

A report from Yesmail titled “Using Digital Market Intelligence to Drive Multi-Channel Success” examines campaigns deployed via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email. Among the findings is that Tuesday, surprisingly, is the best day of the week to deploy a Facebook campaign, while the five most engaging brands deployed 45-70 Twitter campaigns per month.

According to the report, Facebook campaigns deployed on Tuesday get the highest level of engagement, despite the fact that Tuesday ranks fourth in terms of number of deployed campaigns.

Meanwhile, Facebook campaigns deployed between 10 p.m. and midnight Eastern time get the most engagement. However, this is the least utilized time slot for deployments. The least engaging time of day to deploy a Facebook campaign is 1-4 a.m. Eastern time. The most popular time of day for deploying Facebook campaigns is 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern time, though this slot is in the bottom 30 percent in terms of engagement, according to Yesmail.

While Yesmail didn’t see a clear-cut answer when it comes to determining the best frequency for Facebook campaigns deployed per month, a look at the five most engaging retail brands on Facebook revealed that they deploy 20-32 campaigns per month. Meanwhile, the five least engaging brands deploy an average of 54 campaigns per month.

Yesmail also found that on Facebook, photo content is the most engaging campaign type, probably because it’s easy to share, quick to browse and doesn’t require lots of time.

The study revealed that Facebook engagement increases by about 50 percent when one email campaign is deployed, and by 100 percent when two email campaigns are deployed in the same time frame. “Given the wide adoption of social share buttons, this relationship makes a compelling case for multi-channel marketing programs that are spearheaded by email,” according to Yesmail.

When it comes to Twitter, the highest levels of engagement happen on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. While 20 percent of all Twitter campaigns are deployed on Fridays, that day displays the lowest level of customer engagement.

Yesmail also looked at the commonalities between the most engaging Twitter campaigns. It found that they often adhere to one or more of the following practices:

• communicate purpose by identifying the desired customer behavior
• provide an incentive for performing a specific action
• empower the customer by putting them in charge
• feature a celebrity mention
• include a famous saying or a celebrity quote
• incorporate fun, feel-good tweets with fun, feel-good hashtags

Twitter engagement also benefits from email marketing, as engagement rises by more than 25 percent with one email campaign and by more than 40 percent with two campaigns.

For YouTube, Monday and Tuesday exhibit the highest levels of engagement. While Monday displays the highest engagement, it’s one of the three least utilized deployment days.

Yesmail also notes that a third of top performing YouTube campaigns are shorter than 30 seconds, while 28 percent are 60-90 seconds, 17 percent are 120-180 seconds and 11 percent are longer than 180 seconds.

Original Article...

Content Marketing Drives Social Media and Sales - Are You Spending Enough?

Heidi Cohen | ClickZ | June 25, 2012

Content marketing is critical to feeding social media and driving engagement on these platforms. Further, it's an effective tool to build brand, support the buying process, and provide post-purchase support. Whether it's B2C or B2B products, customers research their purchases online first. They seek non-promotional, informational content to help assess their product needs. Effective creation and distribution of content marketing supports this process.

Top on marketers' list of content marketing challenges is coming up with topics for original content and finding the time to create original content. Look deeper at these challenges and you'll see that marketers' true problem is that they're not allocating sufficient resources, both human and financial, to meet their content marketing needs.



3 Ways to Feed the Content Marketing Engine Cost Effectively
To support your content creation engine have an ongoing process within your organization to ensure you've got a constant flow of potential articles. To that end, follow these three idea-generating tactics that long-time blogger Chris Brogan made at BlogWorld Expo New York.

1. Maintain a list of content marketing topics and suggestions. To guarantee your organization always has sufficient subjects to cover, invite all of your employees, regardless of title or position, to submit their ideas. Additionally, get your sales and customer service representatives to let you know the common requests prospects and customers have. Go one step further and put a link on your website. Also use social media to gather insights for new posts through customer comments.
2. Develop a structure for various types of content. Combine this with an editorial calendar or other form of scheduling system for your content to give content creators a jump on composing your content. As part of this initiative use a special hook for a set of regular features. Make sure that you have sufficient content to share on the social media platforms where your organization is active.
3. Let your passion shine through. Human feelings and an authentic voice are critical to social media and content marketing. To this end, it's important to avoid corporate speak. Write where the emotional value is and skip what your third grade teacher said about writing!

5 Content Marketing Areas Every Organization Needs to Cover
To ensure your organization's content marketing is on track, it's important to offer your prospects, customers, social media fans, and the public a wide variety of information and monitor what they respond to. Here are five areas where you can expand your content creation ideas.

1. Offer an insider's perspective into your organization and your employees. This means explain your products in your own words (vs. using suppliers' information). Get a cross section of your employees to give their insights into your offering and current trends. Don't overlook your corporate stories!
2. Teach prospects and customers how to use your products and services more effectively. This isn't education in the traditional sense. Rather provide your audience with suggestions for expanding their use of your products as well as giving them new options through recipes and patterns.
3. Report the news in your business category. Provide insights that your audience can't get elsewhere. Think about topics related to your core business that are of interest to your readers.
4. Ask area experts for their insights. Use round-up posts, interviews, and webinars to integrate expert advice into your content offering.
5. Use media formats other than text. Especially with the growing interest in photographs and videos, it's important not to limit your content usage solely to text. Use a variety of different types of content. Of course, don't forget to associate text with images, video, and audio.

While you can streamline your content creation, it's critical to allocate sufficient budget to ensure that you have enough to distribute across your owned and social media sites.

What else would you add to this list of content marketing topics to drive social media and sales?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Original Article...

Mobile Facebook Ads Generate 13X More Clicks Than Desktop Ads

Pamela Vaughan | HubSpot | June 19, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on Facebook's launch of mobile-only ads, allowing marketers to test the effectiveness of desktop ads vs. their mobile counterparts, and optimize their ad spend for a particularly mobile -- or immobile? -- audience. But you're a time-strapped marketer, right? Wouldn't it be great if someone could just tell you whether mobile ads are or are not effective? Do you see where we're going with this?

According to new data from 3 of Facebook’s biggest ads API partners (who help companies purchase ads) mobile Sponsored Stories are generating more than 13 times the click-through rates of all Facebook desktop ads. This is data from the last two weeks, ever since Facebook allowed advertisers to purchase mobile ads separately from desktop ads.

Mobile Tops Desktop in Ad Performance

Keep in mind, however, that Sponsored Stories are the only Facebook ad type shown on mobile devices, whereas on desktops, other types of ads (think sidebar ads) are in the picture as well. But if you narrow the comparison down to more accurately compare apples to apples (mobile Sponsored Stories vs. desktop Sponsored Stories), the results are still pretty compelling.

Just take a look at the chart below. In the study by TBG Digital, which was based on 278,389,453 Sponsored Story ad impressions across 17 clients, mobile Sponsored Stories generated an impressive click-through rate of 1.14% at $0.86 CPC. Now take a look at the data for desktop Sponsored Stories, which generate a 0.588% CTR at $0.63 CPC. This translates to 1.93x the CTR for mobile Sponsored Stories than desktop Sponsored Stories -- and not at a huge cost.



As a side note, TechCrunch also reports on the news that these mobile ads are not only great news for marketers, but they're also a potential game-changer for Facebook, since they earn 11.2x more money for Facebook than all of Facebook's desktop ad offerings combined.

Additional Studies Supporting the Success of Mobile Ads

Don't take TBG Digital's word for it. Here are a couple of other studies from Facebook ads API partners that make the case for mobile Facebook ads:

1. AdParlor ran a campaign costing tens of thousands of dollars, the goal of which was to gain new fans for a Facebook page. The results revealed that mobile ads generate a 0.821% CTR, whereas traditional Facebook ad campaigns that mainly show up in Facebook's sidebar but have some presence in desktop and mobile news feeds had a CTR of just 0.032% -- a 25x better CTR on mobile-only. Although the campaign's click-to-fan conversion rate on mobile-only ads was slightly poorer (55%) than across all ads (72%), the mobile CTR made up for it by leaps and bounds.
2. Spruce Media indicated to MediaPost that its testing with mobile-only Sponsored Stories have generated CTRs ranging from .8% to 1.7%, similar to what TBG Digital and AdParlor have also experienced.

Okay, So You Really Should Still Do Some Testing.

While all of this initial data seems to make a strong case for the effectiveness of Facebook mobile ads, you really should test it for yourself. After all, if you don't have a particularly mobile audience, spending money on mobile ads probably isn't the best use of your marketing dollars. Although honestly, with mobile internet users expected to reach 113.9 million in 2012, (up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011), the chances of this are getting slimmer and slimmer.

That being said, if you were hesitant to use mobile ads for fear of Facebook users’ negative reactions to them, it seems like you can put these qualms to rest. This is likely due to the organic feel of Sponsored Stories, and the fact that Facebook is limiting the amount it shows users in their mobile news feeds to prevent feelings of being spammed by ads.

And it seem like there’s more mobile ad functionality to come from Facebook, as this isn't the only ads-related news we've heard from Facebook lately. In fact, just yesterday, we heard some unconfirmed rumors of a highly sensitive, location-based mobile ad targeting feature that would enable local businesses to serve up very relevant ads to Facebook users within close proximity to the business’ brick and mortar location. And just last week, we reported on the testing of a real-time ad targeting feature based on Facebook users’ external web browsing activity. Seems like there could be some very powerful ad features available to Facebook marketers very soon.

Will you start experimenting with Facebook mobile ads now that there’s data to back their effectiveness?

Image Credit: philcampbell

Original Article...

11 Deadly Social Media Sins

Sundeep Kapur | ClickZ | June 14, 2012

Most brands are trying really hard to succeed with their social media initiatives. They are trying new ways to engage - from receipts at checkout to advertisements in newspapers; brands are trying their best to connect with consumers on social networks.

In the pursuit of trying to get things done, some "top" brands have made mistakes. Here are some things to avoid, with no exceptions - things that I hope are rarely repeated.

1. Run specials all the time. In a struggle to keep the consumer engaged, brands tend to keep offering consumers special deals. This all-out effort to discount and lure tends to have a negative impact by devaluing the brand and devaluing the relationship.
2. Wait for people to come. Brands set up shop on social media sites and simply wait for the consumer to come and find them. They do little to engage via dialogue or by trying to market along other channels. They have simply set up shop and expect that it is good enough to drive consumers in.
3. Run contests and games all the time. Gamification is the new buzzword for engagement with many brands investing significantly in games to engage their consumers. Additionally, brands tend to run multiple contests, which results in severely diluting their engagement to conversion metrics.
4. Block negative feedback. Many top brands tend to either block or ignore negative feedback. If you put up a comment on their site they either take it down or have a defined strategy to push the bad comments as far down as possible. This strategy diminishes the value of the positive comments.
5. Launch press releases on social media. Do you pay attention to more than 300 characters or watch long video clips? Brands tend to forget the conversational nature of engagement on social media sites - short, interesting stories are a much better way to engage.
6. Wait 24 hours to respond. Some brands take a long time to respond because they only check "social feedback" twice a week. Other brands take a long time to respond because they have to get approval before they can respond. The problem is that if you take too long, the consumer will probably call your brand for an answer or move over to someone else.
7. Not connecting your channels. Always a classic with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Just two weeks ago, a major travel company sent two types of incentives - a gas discount card by email that shaved 10 cents off each gallon and a gas discount offer via social media that offered a five cent discount. It took a direct mail piece to fix the issue.
8. Snoop on and shock your customers. While it's OK for a brand to leverage "widgets" to track consumer behavior on social media sites, it's scary when the brand surprises these consumers with offers. A click on a social link led to a phone call by a cruise representative who unabashedly told me that he observed my behavior online.
9. Just roll along. Some brands feel that it's OK to reach a certain critical mass in social media after which their sites can just "roll along." The snowball can roll the wrong way and hurt brands.
10. Focus on "likes." A blind focus on driving up "likes" has led to the "like" button being devalued and resulted in significantly lower ROI.
11. "Wait" to get started. Believe it or not there are still brands, especially in the financial services area, that are waiting for the social media "fad" to end.

Social media can make a positive impact. Do not wait, do not focus on "likes," and please do not tell your fans that you know what link they clicked on at 11:33 a.m. Good luck with your social endeavors.

Until next time…

Original Article...

Pinterest Users Follow an Average of 9.3 Retail Companies on the Site

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 6, 2012

According to the “2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study,” a joint project from Shop.org, comScore and The Partnering Group, U.S. consumers using Pinterest follow more retail companies than they do on Facebook or Twitter.

The study found that Pinterest users follow an average of 9.3 retail companies on the visually driven social media site, compared with the 8.5 retailers Twitter users follow and the 6.9 retailers Facebook users follow. Thirty-eight percent of online consumers follow retailers via one or more social networking sites, according to the study.

A separate survey from Bizrate Insights found that 32 percent of online buyers in North America have purchased an item after seeing an image on a social image-sharing site such as Pinterest.

Meanwhile, a separate study from BlogHer found that 61 percent of respondents pointed to blogs as sources of recommendations that have influenced female social networking users to make a purchase, followed by 47 percent who pointed to Pinterest, 33 percent who pointed to Facebook and 31 percent who pointed to Twitter.

The Shopt.org study found that 70 percent of those who follow a retailer’s blog click through to the website, while 68 percent use YouTube to browse and research a retail company.

More than half, or 51 percent, of consumers say they follow a retailer to get information on deals and coupons, down from 58 percent last year. Meanwhile, 43 percent say they follow retailers for product information, while 36 percent want to post and read comments about merchandise or services. Thirty-four percent follow retailers via social media to get information about events, 31 percent do so to see current trends and ideas, 30 percent to see photos and videos, and 27 percent to see how-to’s and styling ideas, as well as expert opinions.

The study found that 33 percent of smartphone owners say they’ve shared their location with retailers, which is an important opportunity for retailers who can lure smartphone owners who may be within feet of their store. In-store shopping maps and customized shopping lists are among the ways retailers can better serve customers via location and smartphones, according to Jenniver Vlahavas, senior director at comScore.

Men (40 percent) are more likely than women (25 percent) to share their location with a retailer, according to the study. Meanwhile, 46 percent of those ages 18-34 say they have shared their location with a retailer, compared to 22 percent of those ages 35-54.

According to the study, 37 percent of smartphone owners who shop online say they user their smartphones to take photos of products, while 34 percent say they send photos of products they see to friends. A third of smartphone owners say they text/call their friends and family about specific products while shopping.

Original Article...

20 Revealing Stats, Charts, and Graphs Every Marketer Should Know

20 interesting charts and graphs relating to Internet and Social Network marketing.  The full report from HubSpot contains over 120 charts and graphs.

Article Written By: Magdalena Georgieva on May 24, 2012 at HubSpot

" As you know, we at HubSpot are crazy about data-driven marketing. So our new edition of 120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts & Graphs was in a way a demonstration of our passion, and an opportunity to share some insightful stats with fellow marketers.

In addition to information on inbound marketing, SEO, blogging, and social media, the 2012 edition of this presentation also includes data on email, Pinterest, Google+ and mobile marketing. I know, a lot has changed in a short time, eh? But instead of throwing all 120 amazing data points at you, in this blog post we wanted to highlight what we felt were some of the most interesting data points from the presentation. Take a look, and let us know what you find most fascinating!"

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3 Deadly Sins of Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Groupon, and Pinterest

Social media is about attracting actions and conversations, not shouting at people.

Article Written By: Augustine Fou on May 24, 2012 at ClickZ

"Social media marketing is what most CMOs have at the top of their list for spending increases this year and next. Indeed, social media holds the promise of wild viral effects, socially infused search results, and virtually infinite possibilities for targeting. But as many marketers dive into using social media, some are learning lessons the hard way; some lessons are costly and others may cause irreversible and permanent damage"

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