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10 charities and how they use Pinterest

Much of the work we do on the Econsultancy blog focuses on major consumer brands and how they use various marketing channels, but we occasionally get asked why we rarely mention charities.

It’s a topic we looked at a few years ago in a post that flagged up which charities use Twitter, so I thought it would be interesting to take a similar look at charities that use Pinterest.

To be clear, these aren’t necessarily the ones that I think are doing the best job of using Pinterest, it’s really just a look at how recognisable charities with different aims and causes are making use of the social network…

Is Google right to group desktop and tablet together in Enhanced Campaigns?

A few months ago Google announced a huge change to the way that marketers managed paid search with the launch of Enhanced Campaigns.

One of the biggest changes this involved was the move to group tablet and desktop bids together, so marketers are forced to make one bid for both devices. 

In the past we’ve highlighted numerous studies which show that businesses shouldn’t lump tablets and smartphones under one ‘mobile’ umbrella, but now Google has decided to do the opposite by claiming that tablets are essentially the same as desktops.

We recently canvassed opinion among PPC experts about Enhanced Campaigns with the general view being that despite Google’s claim that it’s trying to simplify the way AdWords works, it’s actually a ploy to force marketers to increase their mobile spend.

B&Q’s Club app is the perfect mobile loyalty scheme

B&Q recently launched its new Club loyalty app as it seeks to take advantage of that fact that up to two-thirds of its customers use their phones in-store.

The home and garden retailer already has more than 640,000 customers signed up to its loyalty scheme, so the idea is to give them an easier way to redeem offers and also attract new users.

Rather than rewarding purchases with loyalty points, the B&Q Club app gives customers a reason to go in-store by offering exclusive discounts on various products.

The app, which was designed by Grapple, is available on iOS and Android, so I gave it a test run on my Galaxy S2…

How Microsoft uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

For the latest in our series of posts looking at how the world’s biggest brands use social I’ve turned the spotlight on Microsoft.

Bill Gates’ empire still looms large over the global software market, though its fortunes are often overshadowed by Apple’s astonishing level of success.

And much like Google, Microsoft also runs a few of its own social platforms – enterprise network Yammer and Pinterest clone Socl.

So it’s interesting to see how Microsoft makes use of other social networks to promote its products and maintain its fortunes.

This follows on from similar posts looking at brands such as ASOS, Red Bull, Nike and McDonalds…

The Future High Streets Forum launches. Why no mention of digital?

I was both delighted and dismayed to read last week about the creation of the government led, Future High Streets Forum.

If you haven’t heard about it, the forum brings together leaders across retail, property and business to ‘advise government on the challenges facing high streets and to help develop practical policies to enable town centres to adapt and change’.

Sounds fantastic I thought. Clearly, the high street is suffering. We’ve seen a number of big name casualties over the last couple of years (and many thousands of smaller independents go under that receive little or no publicity). A walk through my home city of Brighton provides evidence enough that all is not well with the high street with boarded up properties aplenty.

Therefore, a group that includes high-level representatives from the likes of Alliance Boots, Costa Coffee, John Lewis Partnership and The British Retail Consortium, with a remit to ‘focus on future high street renewal’, must be a good thing.

But then I read the fine print…and sighed…heavily.

Rolling Stones’ teaser campaign for Hyde Park gig reaches 28m Twitter users

Seventy-year-old men aren’t typically the kind of people you would expect to be enthusiastic Tumblr users, but then most 70-year-olds don’t have the same marketing nous as The Rolling Stones.

The world’s biggest rock band announced new tour dates in the US and London’s Hyde Park yesterday following a week-long teaser campaign across Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

The campaign centred around the hashtag #StartMeUpWednesday and the band’s official social channels posted numerous images of billboards across the US that included lyrics from their best-known songs.

GRRegory, the band’s new gorilla mascot, also made vague comments on Twitter about the fact that “something’s coming”.

But was the campaign a success? To find out I asked social communications agency 1000heads to monitor conversations on Twitter that used the official hashtag in the run up to the big announcement.

29 useful Twitter tips for beginners

I blogged a while back offering five simple suggestions to optimise Tweets. As it went down well I thought it worthwhile expanding on this and giving my insight on growing a follower base and increasing engagement.

Twitter is a fantastic platform that allows you to interact with like-minded people. I’ve learnt a lot from fellow digital marketers on Twitter by joining conversations and reading their content.

Along the way I’ve picked up a fairly substantial set of tips, tricks and hints on how to make the most of Twitter and build your presence there. 

Anyway, enough waffle, you came here wanting tips so let’s get to it.

Automotive: Mobile and social media playing bigger path-to-purchase roles in Australia

Australian car consumers utilise online resources at all stages of the buyer journey, but offline sources still play an influential role, according to a new automotive study. 

The Nielsen Australian Automotive Report 2012 found that when it comes to awareness and discovery, traditional media is still particularly popular with 65% of car buyers using print resources at this stage.

But when car buyers begin the research stage of shopping, they invariably turn online – something Econsultancy has long highlighted. In fact, 73% of new and used car buyers use online media as part of their car buying research process.

Marketing vs. inertia: how to make sure marketing wins

In September 2012 the UK Payments Council released a report stating that in the year prior to May 2012, only 2.5% of consumers surveyed had switched bank.

Not just that, but 88% hadn’t even considered switching. 

Not necessarily a surprising statistic, banking is a system with a lot of inertia on behalf of the customer and a lot of friction on behalf of the banks. 

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