In A Buying Mood - Pinterest Vs Facebook

If you are selling something and planning to use social media to do so, does Facebook or Pinterest offer the best chance of delivering what you want?

New research from Bizrate Insights has found that 69% of consumers who have visited Pinterest discovered something they then purchased or wanted to purchase.  This compares to only 40% for Facebook.

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Even more compelling was the finding that 70% of consumers use Pinterest to get inspired about things to buy and 67% use this social media platform to keep track of things they like.

You may use Facebook more to maintain friendships, but Pinterest is clearly out in front when it comes to selling. Both are sites which online consumers use to connect with people who have similar styles and interests. Pinterest though is more often used as a destination for shopping inspiration, tracking, and product discovery.

It also seems that brand building is better on Pinterest than on Facebook.  Bizrate reports that:

"A greater percent (55%) of Pinterest users have engaged with retailers and brands via Pinterest, compared to the percent of Facebook users that engage retailers or brands on Facebook (48%).  But how customers engage differs for each of the two platforms.  Pinterest users are more likely to be “Creators”: adding and sharing retailer/brand related content, while Facebook users are more likely to be “Participators”: interacting with promotional activities developed by retailers and brands."

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The reach of Facebook still blitzes Pinterest but awareness of the latter is trending upwards rapidly.  36% of online consumers had heard of Pinterest in March but by August this figure had risen to 46%.

The reports data from September 2012 showed that 63% of online consumers had a Facebook account and only 15% had a Pinterest account.  Facebook is not sitting twiddling its thumbs when it comes to luring purchasers. They are testing a new feature, "collections", that lets users create wish lists of products by clicking on "want" or "collect" buttons.

PCWorld believes that the want button, if adopted permanently, could drive a lot of traffic to brands on Facebook and encourage impulse purchases.  They could be correct in this assumption and if it does it will have some serious implications for Pinterest.

But Pinterest is on the right growth projectory with a recent ComScore study putting it in the top 50 most-visited Web sites in the US for the first time, with 25 million unique visitors in the month. Ranked at 50th it still has  along way to catch Facebook which is ranked 4th in the same survey.

Related articles

• Pinterest drives more than window shopping
• Pinterest stats: does it really drive more sales than Facebook?

Social Log-Ins Improve E-Commerce

Using a social login and social sharing will increase engagement and conversion.

According to a recent study by Monetate just under a half of all US consumers prefer to use a social log-in when creating a new or guest account on an e-commerce site.

Facebook was by far the most popular with 60% of US consumers preferring to log in through this platform. LinkedIn was the least popular at 7%

Product reviews figure highly on social media habits with 68% of consumers preferring to use social media for this purpose.

Being able to comment after signing on using social media also increases the time exposure a site has. Consumers who can't sign on and comment or share spend two thirds less time on a site compared to those that can.

One of the big attraction of a social log-in is that it is rapid and this increases user adoption. Spamming is also reduced as social networks are rigorous in eliminating duplicate accounts and auhtenticating people who sign up.

If you are not sure how to integrate social log-ins into your site you might consider using a third party service such as Gigya.

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• How do social logins and sharing affect e-commerce: infographic (econsultancy.com)

Influencing South East Asian Consumers and Small Business Survival

According to a recent Nielsen report, South East Asian's respond well to advertising delivered on social media and mobile phones.

73% of these South East Asian consumers said they were “highly” or “somewhat” influenced by web site advertisements on social media.  This is 13% higher than  the global average (60%).

They also respond well to advertisements that acknowledge their previous purchase habits or third party site visits.  Living as they do, a full and active digital life, means that they think such personalised advertising techniques makes their lives easier.  74% found this to be so with the global average of similar sentiment being 58%.

Vietnam consumers were by far the most receptive to such personalised inducements.

Nearly 70% of SE Asian consumers have “liked” or followed a brand or company on social media which proves how vital it is for companies to develop a robust social media presence if they hope to succeed in this part of the world.

Consumer comment and sentiment posted online proved to be one of the most trusted forms of engagement and communication amongst those surveyed by Nielsen. 54% of respondents claim to completely or somewhat trust consumer opinions posted online.

All of which goes to prove that if you don't build your own online reputation others will do it for you.  The need to monitor the 'Buzz' and respond to it is vital for any business and this in turn requires understanding from management and resourcing to manage the process. This includes having the right person in charge of social media strategy and development.

And it is not just large scale enterprises that waking up to this realisation. Small Businesses are also growing through the use of social media although a significant percentage still do not see it as important, with just 12% of US respondents in a July survey seeing it as 'a must'.

It also need to be said that in the same eMarketer report, 50% of small business respondents saw word of mouth as essential to business. Either they have not realised that 'word of mouth' in the 21st century is largely a social media exercise or they do not have the time and resources to use social media to its fullest extent.

Patrick J. Chambers, organizer of the Small Business Survival Summit however sees social media as critical to business survival.

"For most small businesses, word of mouth is the predominant way of getting leads and finding new business.Social media is an extension of the word of mouth platform. Social media education with practical application is the missing piece today - small businesses need to be comfortable with social media in the same way that they may have evolved from being a wallflower at a Chamber event to someone who is actively seeking to introduce themselves and engage with prospects."

Consumer Confidence Slips

Not good news for retailers. Nielsen Wire reports the re emergence of recessionary attitudes.  Their key findings are:

• 58% of global online consumers said they are still in a recession – the most in the past year. More than half believe they will still be in a recession in a year’s time.
• 31% of U.S. consumers said they have no spare cash for discretionary spending, along with 25% of Middle East/Africa consumers and 22% of Europeans.
• U.S. fell five index points to 78, two points lower than the 80 points recorded at the height of the recession in the first half of 2009.
• Indian consumers, despite a five point quarterly decline, remained the most positive.
• Largest confidence declines in Q2 were recorded in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which had enjoyed the biggest increases in Q1 2011.
• Increasing utility bills and inflation again eclipsed the economy and job security as main concerns in Europe.
• Latin America consumer confidence edges up one index point to 91.

Related articles

• U.S. Consumer Confidence Now Lower Than At Height Of Global Recession (huffingtonpost.com)
• Inflation hits consumer confidence (mirror.co.uk)

Women Do More of Both

According to a recent Neilsen report, women text and talk more than men.

 

Consumers over 55 are less inclined to text than others but all consumers under this age use their devices for texting messages, far more than they do for phone calls.

Woman text 30 percent more overall than men. The male of the species however indulges in more data rich activities such as surfing the Internet (31% for men vs. 29% for women), reading and sending e-mail (33% vs. 30%) and downloading apps (24% vs. 21%).

The same study also found that men are doing more shopping (as there are more of them laid off from regular employment) and women are watching more TV.

Women remain the biggest spenders per trip by about $10 per trip and this finding is probably that  they spend more on their planned weekly shopping for, and with, the family.

It would however be a step to far to say that men are what might politely be termed 'unstructured shoppers'.

Online shopping is a favourite of both sexes with women having the edge.  Men are more involved in online auctions.

Related articles

• Marketing to Women: Women Send 717 Texts per Month (via The Lipstick Economy) (chimac.net)
• Why Women Rule the Social Web (parisoma.com)

TV Retains Greater Brand Trust Than Bloggers?

This recent Nielsen survey is revealing and confirms just how influential the new online social environment has become for brand recognition and development. Consumers influencing consumers is the new order of things.

Image via Wikipedia

Family and Friends are still the primary influence but social media is a close third in the queue.  It would appear though that "Influential Bloggers" are not as influential as they would have hoped with television still engendering greater brand trust.

Key findings from the Nielsen survey:

• More than 40% of consumers go online to check reviews and consumer feedback before purchasing consumer electronics.
• 60% of those going online have visited a social network, with half going back everyday according to Facebook.
• 23% of social network users expect companies to listen and respond to what is said online

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