Can I just say I love Pinterest! You can find anything on the site (for those who understood my Wizard of Oz reference…probably not a brain, a heart, or courage though). I enjoy looking up new recipes to whip up in my kitchen, how to redecorate my home, the next outfit I hope to purchase, and so much more. Pinterest has introduced me to a whole new world of retailers! It has exposed me to retailers and brands I would have otherwise not heard of or found. Because of this it is essential for retailers and brands to take advantage of Pinterest!
Companies often turn to Facebook and Twitter as their main source for social media. With such a single-minded approach these brands will miss an audience on Pinterest that is open to buy from anywhere! In fact, 70% of Pinterest users visit the site for inspiration for their purchases. I am definitely part of that 70%. I’ve bought clothing and home goods off the site from retailers located all over the country. Pinterest users trust each other. When we repin an imagine we have automatically endorsed it. By not being a part of this social media platform companies will miss the chance to establish trust with their audience, but also miss the opportunity to expose themselves to new clients.
Another outlet brands need to incorporate into their strategy is YouTube. YouTube is wildly popular. YouTube has over four billion hours of videos watched each month! Research has shown that consumers trust YouTube over Facebook. I think when consumers can hear what’s being said and see the person saying it it helps create trust. YouTube also allows brands to be creative and let the consumer see a more personable side of them. For instance, a runner I like to follow on YouTube, The Ginger Runner gives advice on training, apparel and nutrition to fellow runners. He is hysterical and pretty creative! I trust him because I’ve seen him training for marathons via YouTube and know that he is a reliable source. Brands will be able to impact consumers immensely if they include YouTube in their social media strategy.
Images resonate with people, videos inform an audience, and when they are combined they have proven to be unstoppable. This was the case for the Boston Marathon tragedy when over 19,000 vines were tweeted. Twitter’s video source, vine has transformed video sharing; on average one is created every five seconds. Personally, I have never found vine to be that compelling but with so many people using the application companies should join in the trend and reach consumers.
Using social media isn’t just comprised of Facebook and Twitter. It is important for brands to reach the consumer who enjoys spending time on content sharing communities such as Pinterest and YouTube. From my experience my audience enjoys when I share pictures with them. Continuing to utilize Pinterest and other image sharing sites like Instagram will be a key component in my social media strategy. I’ve dabbled with YouTube, but I think it will take me a while to find out what kind of content my audience enjoys watching. As for vines, I’ve never done one but I guess there is a first time for everything!
What about you? It’s important to use all of these social media platforms but which one do you think will be the most beneficial to your audience? Do you think Twitter’s vine will continue to grow in popularity or is it just a trend?
Building the Brand: Alexis Willey 
It is important to use all the social media platforms but I also think brands have to utilize the ones where their consumers are. Not all companies have content that will work on Pinterest. I struggle thinking of ways to incorporate our golf content into Pinterest. I’m sure there’s a way but it takes a specific type of strategy for that content to be successful.
Ever since Instagram launched their video functionality, I’ve felt that Vine’s popularity will dwindle. I’m not sure if I’m correct or not but it seems logical that people will pick the app that allows them to do photo and video instead of just video like Vine.
Thanks for your input Stacy! Golf is a hard one to showcase on Pinterest. You’ve just got to be creative! And I’ve never used Vine before so it will be interesting to see how it does in the future!
Hey Alexis.
Vine is helping to revolutionize the publishing industry as media mogul USA Today uses the Vine app to breathe new life into their printed paper. USA Today uses visual storytelling to rebrand their product via snippets, headlines and graphics of the daily paper, thereby offering a tactical advantage to utilizing the Vine app. I firmly believe that fine is here to stay…for a while.
Jason, it is crazy to believe that Vine is being used in the newsroom! I saw a Vine from NBC the other day and was shocked it could be so resourceful! I’ve never used Vine before so seeing that kind of put things into perspective for me!
Hi Alexis,
I think YouTube is probably the best place to be, since it has become such a huge search engine. At this point I have only been a YouTube dabbler, but that needs to change. As for Vine, I’m not sure yet if it is here to stay. I think it’s definitely worth paying attention to, but I don’t know if businesses need to pull out all the stops and start cranking out Vine after Vine.
I don’t think you can say that any one channel should be used to attract your audience. It depends on the audience and what you’re trying to achieve. I think YouTube is great across the board based solely on its size and popularity. For many businesses, they may not have the need to post videos at all and might find it more appropriate to focus on Pinterest and Instagram.
I think Vine is going to skyrocket! Think about the crazy stuff you see people creating on all of the platforms. I saw a kid using an Etch A Sketch to tell the entire Lion King story on a YouTube video recently. We’re going to see more and more on Vine that will blow your mind. People will take the 6 seconds as a challenge and will show us content that will leave us in awe. I can’t wait to see where they go from here!
Thanks for your feedback Erin! I think you’re right…YouTube really gives brands the opportunity to showcase their content on a viral level! I never viewed Vine as a challenge before…that’s such a cool way to think of it!
Of these three, the only one that my company, AL.com, actively uses is Pinterest. We’ve seen great engagement and referrals from the network. I know YouTube’s audience is huge, and I would like to figure out a gameplan for getting our company involved there. Obviously, as a news organization, we produce a lot of videos. But we have our own video hosting service, our own video ads, and we benefit from people watching videos on our site. So what would be the appropriate sort of thing to put on YouTube? I’d love to also have a presence on Vine, but I have no idea what we’d post and what team of people would do it. We’ve already tasked our photographers with Instagram duties on top of their regular jobs. I’m laying this all out there because I hope y’all have suggestions!
Your YouTube situation is interesting…is there a way you can link the videos you post on YouTube back to your AL page? As for Vine…it might be cool to make a video at the end of the week showing all of your big headlines or behind the scenes at your work?
Great question about Vine now that Instagram has added the ability to upload videos! Unfortunately, I think Vine may become obsolete because of how strong of a user base Instagram already has. When Vine started, it was the only game in town with video, and the challenge of 6 seconds was probably appealing to many of the new users. Now, with so many people on Instagram, I imagine people don’t want to have to use two services to accomplish similar goals. Great question!
I thought the same thing! I know I am pretty active on Instagram and if I ever make a vine-like video it would probably be through this platform because I am familiar with it! I guess we will see how it all plays out!