By now, most of us know that social media is a powerful medium. Not only does it allow us to stay in touch with family and friends but also it makes it easy to build an audience to connect with. Unfortunately, when I say it’s easy, it doesn’t mean that no effort is required.
Consumers won’t automatically find you just because you have a blog and social media profiles. You have to let the world know that your brand exists. But, “How do we get started?” Glad you asked!
Today, we are going back to the basics with two studies on Twitter and Pinterest that will give you a more in depth idea of how powerful and useful these platforms are when wanting to reach an audience. Also, we’ll go through a third study dedicated to how brands are doing with content quality. Let’s jump to them, I’m sure the results will surprise you!
What Big Brands Can Teach You About Twitter Audiences
Last year, Simply Measured analyzed the followers of 10 major corporations (Microsoft, Disney, Google, Nike, Intel, MTV, H&M, Louis Vuitton, Starbucks, and Burberry) to understand the consumer mindset on the social platform.
There is a lot to learn from the accounts people follow. For example, the study reveals that 32% of Microsoft followers also want to hear from Intel; 16% of H&M’s followers also have an interest in Starbucks; and affinity between Louis Vuitton and Burberry is at 26%. Audience overlap is a given, especially with fashion brands.
Taking the time to read users’ bios will also surface very valuable insights. Of all the keywords Simply Measured surveyed, ‘music’ was the most frequently used, followed by ‘fashion’, ‘technology’, ‘news’, and ‘gaming’. People also like including another handle (3.8%) and hashtags (1.9%).
Finally, brand followers are usually active. According to the study, a quarter tweet daily, while 68% do so at least once a month.
So, what is the takeaway here? That regular audience and competitive analyses have never mattered more. They provide marketing teams with the necessary insights to:
- Understand shifting personas and consumers’ interests over time;
- Optimize their content and social profiles; and
- Consider partnerships with overlapping, but non-competitive brands.
The complete study is available for free here.
The Power of Pinterest Marketing Summed Up in One Report
Did you know that Pinterest was the fastest-growing platform in 2014? And that it drives 5% of the web’s traffic?
With 70 million active users, Pinterest is a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, many brands and marketers are still unsure of how to use it.
In an effort to help them see the light, Networked Insights analyzed millions of social shares linking to Pinterest content, including posts about accessories, beverages, and consumer electronics.
In general, members pin 1.5x more frequently than they share elsewhere, especially in categories like home / garden, style / fashion, real estate, food / drink, and pets. Their favorite topics include needlework, arts and crafts, interior decorating, jewelry, fashion, and accessories.
The study also focuses on a group of highly represented Pinterest users: moms. They over-index in many categories and topics. Compared to regular users, they share six times the amount of home and garden content, 5.3 times the amount of fashion and style content, and 4.3 times the amount of food and drink content. And they love crochet (37 times) and arts/crafts (17.5 times)!
So, how can you make Pinterest work for you? Networked Insights has the answer: Verizon.
Telecommunications provider researched the categories and topics of interest to moms making up its customer base and discovered that they love pinning and engaging with posts related to accessories, baking, telephony, and children.
The inclusion of tech accessory, gadget, cooking, and parenting content in its boards led to a sharp increase in visibility. The company captured more than 80% of mothers’ conversations around technology brands and 19% of mothers’ overall brand conversations!
Takeaway: To understand the needs and interests of your Pinterest audience, get familiar with the platform. You have some great features at your disposal. One of them is Guided Search.
Also, don’t forget to register your account as a business to get access to tips, guides, free analytics, and more. And of course, follow competition to see how other businesses use Pinterest to their advantage.
To read the complete report, click here.
Brands and Content Quality Don’t Seem to Agree
You know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, it seems to apply everywhere…
… but in business. The written word is the first thing people will see when they land on your social profiles or website. So, if that content has typos or grammatical errors, consumers will wonder how seriously you take your business. For example, 6 in 10 consumers in the U.K. won’t buy from you as a result.
With this idea in mind, the Acrolinx team used linguistic analytics software to study 150,000 web pages (or 20 million sentences) from 340 companies with $250 million or more in annual revenue. Focusing on content style and grammar, the team awarded each brand an impact score between 0 and 100. The benchmark for effective content is 72.
The results are far from encouraging. While all companies surveyed scored between 55 and 85, only 31% of them reached or exceeded the benchmark.
According to the Acrolinx team, this is a global problem. Every region in the study had low averages: 69.5 for the Americas; 69.8 for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and 68.1 for Asia Pacific.
The problem is also found across industries. The only exception is the retail sector, which averages 73.2 / 100. With an impact score of 66.2, Telecom is at the bottom of the pile.
Not everything is negative, though. Some brands clearly know what they are doing with their content. Such is the case of Kohl’s, which shines with its “warm, friendly, and inviting style.” Another example is National Australia Bank, a financial institution that goes “beyond the numbers to provide practical advice for their audience.”
Even though the index will be refined and updated quarterly, the initial results are a wake-up call for social brands. They must start “paying more attention to their content quality,” the Acrolinx team states.
Why? Because bad grammar does not just influence consumer decisions. According to Bing’s Duane Forrester, it also impacts search engines:
“[J]ust as you’re judging others’ writing, so the engines judge yours. If you struggle to get past typos, why would an engine show a page of content with errors higher in the rankings when other pages of error free content exist to serve the searcher?”
The results of the Global Content Impact Index are available for free here.
That’s all for now, folks! See you next Monday for a roundup of must-read social media articles from around the web!
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to receive our latest articles directly in your Inbox!
Also, join us for the next #BizHeroes chat on Tuesday, April 7. We look forward to reading your insights!
You learn something new everyday,I never thought that Pinterest had such power on the internet.Thank You for this tips!
Very good info. Lucky me I came across your blog by chance (stumbleupon).
I have book marked it for later!
Really some thing new and informative i got here.as a Seo manager i need to update myself everytime with the marketing things…This blog was absolutely usefull blog for me…