Pinterest | Internet Marketing Blog

Your brand journey is never finished

Branding is both an art and a science and it's a living, breathing discipline that’s always changing. We can’t take a class, get a degree, and sit back on our laurels and say we’re brand “experts”. Even those of us who have been successfully making a living for a long time in building and managing brands need to stay on our toes.

That’s because we live in a world where there are unprecedented changes in technology, social media and consumer macro trends, and all of these have an impact on the way we create strong brands that engage our consumers.

The good news is there has never been a more exciting time to be a digital marketer. The bad news is that it’s never been more challenging.

That’s why if you’re going to be in the game, you’ve got to play to win and commit to continual learning.

by Julie Cottineau 03 January 2013 16:32pm 9 comments

Econsultancy's top 25 blog posts of 2012

It's been another busy year on the Econsultancy blog. Thanks to our wonderful and highly intelligent readers, our traffic has grown YOY, making 2012 our best year ever.

Here's a round-up of some of the most popular posts written by the Econsultancy team this year (see here for our top guest posts). Posts are ranked by number of page views.

by Graham Charlton 18 December 2012 10:27am 4 comments

Social commerce best practices: infographic

Expectations for Facebook commerce, or f-commerce as it's commonly referred to, may have been set too high, and social may not be as big a player this holiday shopping season as some might have hoped, but that doesn't mean that social doesn't have a big role to play in the ecommerce market.

In a new infographic produced as part of its 2012 Social Commerce IQ: Retail report, software vendor 8thBridge takes a look at where retailers are at today with their social efforts, and where they most innovative are going with their social networking initiatives. For retailers looking for a path forward, it focuses in on the best practices those innovators are applying to get the most out of social.

by Patricio Robles 12 December 2012 14:58pm 3 comments

Six simple social media tips to get you noticed

There are loads of ways to stand out on social media platforms, but frankly nothing beats due diligence and knowing what the hell you’re doing does it?

I spend a lot of time monitoring all of Econsultancy’s social feeds, and there are a number of small mistakes that I see pop up regularly.

They’re all easy to remedy and fixing them will make your social posts look cleaner, tidier and all-round more professional.

With that in mind, here’s one tip for each of the major platforms that you can use every single day...

by Matt Owen 12 December 2012 10:25am 14 comments

Three popular ways to sabotage your B2B social marketing strategy

Launching marketing messages onto social media? Stop. Telling your unique, compelling story and humanizing yourself online? Stop. Listening with social media... all in hopes of selling B2B professional services?

While most experts advise us to do these things on social media we're actually doing more harm than good. Here's why and what to do instead to create leads and sales and 3 things that can do more harm to your B2B company than good.

by Jeff Molander 30 November 2012 15:50pm 12 comments

The ultimate social media image sizing cheat sheet

With all the recent changes to our favorite (or not so favorite) social networks with Facebook covers, Twitter header images and YouTube branded channels, businesses have had to redesign their images and rethink of how they represent themselves visually online.

This gave way to a lot of new creative campaigns on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest but is has led to a lot of social media managers scrambling to get the images just right.

by Heather Taylor 29 November 2012 13:18pm 31 comments

Retailers turn to Pinterest to boost Christmas sales

E-commerce is a well-established part of the Christmas shopping rush, with shoppers spending £7.9bn online in December 2011.

Social media is an important tool for attracting online shoppers and promoting gift ideas, and this year many retailers have turned to Pinterest to try and maximise their visibility online.

Research by Searchmetrics shows that five of the top 10 UK online retailers have created Christmas themed pinboards containing ideas for gifts, decorations and food.

And it’s not difficult to see why. Research shows that Pinterest drives more sales and a higher order value than either Facebook or Twitter, though for sheer volume of referral traffic it’s still difficult to beat Facebook.

Looking at how retailers are using Pinterest, Argos leads the way with six pinboards including gifts for him and her, secret Santa and top toys.

by David Moth 29 November 2012 13:15pm 2 comments

Key takeaways from Social Media World Forum #SMWF

This November 27th and 28th, Social Media World Forum took place in New York with speakers from major brands such as McDonald's, Endemol, Shell, Twitter, Google, and Pepsi.

We captured a few of your tweets, pictures and articles including a Pinterest case study from Scholastic and Four Season's love affair with Instagram for those of you who couldn't make it there.

by Heather Taylor 28 November 2012 20:34pm 0 comments

2012 not shaping up to be the year of social commerce

Amazon is getting more social with the launch of Amazon Pages and Posts, the latest evidence that retailers have high hopes that the potential for social commerce can be realized.

But if numbers don't lie, it doesn't appear that the 2012 holiday shopping season will mark a coming out party for social commerce.

by Patricio Robles 26 November 2012 15:21pm 1 comment

What do Pinterest business pages mean for brands?

Last week Pinterest announced the latest step in its move towards monetisation with the launch of new business pages.

The new pages offer verification – similar to Twitter's verified accounts - as well as easier access to new buttons and widgets.

Pinterest has also created a dedicated site for businesses, which contains best practices, case studies and documentation.

Businesses have been using the social network for some time now, and we’ve previously highlighted six brands making good use of Pinterest as well as looking at stats that suggest it drives more sales than Facebook.

However this is the first time that Pinterest has officially welcomed brands to its platform.

So what do the new pages means for brands using the network, and how will the business pages develop over the next 12 months? To find out more, I spoke to three social media experts...

by David Moth 26 November 2012 11:11am 1 comment