Community Management

Pinterest proves to be a fruitful network for Topman

Despite its reputation for having a predominately female audience, Pinterest is proving to be a successful hunting ground for menswear brands.

New research shows that Topman has more than double the follower count of any other UK retailer and is also adding to its community faster than its competitors.

The eDigitalResearch Social Media Benchmark found that Topman has 87,959 followers, compared to 26,594 for Net-A-Porter and 24,847 for ASOS.

Pinterest has developed from a niche social network into an important marketing tool in little more than 12 months, with its focus on striking visuals and imagery making it the perfect platform for retailers and lifestyle brands.

To help brands take advantage of this opportunity, Econsultancy has published a new Pinterest for Business Guide aimed at companies and individuals who are thinking of joining Pinterest and want to find out more about the social platform, as well as people who are currently using Pinterest and want a deeper understanding of best practice.

Stats: Who uses Pinterest and why is it important for marketers?

Pinterest has gone from being the social network of choice for hipsters and mums to an essential marketing tool in little more than 12 months.

Its focus on striking visuals and imagery makes it the perfect platform for retailers and lifestyle brands that want to share their most eye-catching content with an engaged and active community.

To help brands take advantage of this opportunity, Econsultancy has published a new Pinterest for Business Guide aimed at companies and individuals who are thinking of joining Pinterest and want to find out more about the social platform, as well as people who are currently using Pinterest and want a deeper understanding of best practice.

The 63-page document covers best practice tactics, including statistics and case studies, as well as practical tips for getting started with Pinterest and how to engage with your followers.

And to give an idea of the potential Pinterest has for marketers and ecommerce businesses, check out these stats on the social network’s usage and referrals…

How Red Bull uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Red Bull is a great example of a brand built almost entirely on social media, with some mind-blowing PR stunts thrown in for good measure.

Therefore it’s a great case study for our series looking at how different brands use the big four social networks.

We’ve previously examined how Walmart, ASOS and John Lewis use social, with Google+ generally proving to be the weak relation compared to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

But does the same prove to be true for Red Bull?

Yoga-wear challenger Ellie’s new disruptive digital play

Being a new brand in a rather saturated market such as activewear, you’d assume it would be hard to get traction, but with all the press this month around yoga-wear startup “Ellie,” I simply had to find out more.

Especially as they’re poising themselves to dislodge current activewear darling, Lululemon.

If you haven’t seen any of the coverage from BrandChannel or others, some highlights of their interesting, and perhaps disruptive strategy include the offer of a subscription model with a completely online offering and in-house manufacturing.

Companies struggle to use social for marketing and customer service: report

With countless consumers around the world using social media, it’s no surprise that companies have flocked to services like Facebook and Twitter.

In many cases, companies are using these services to market to consumers, but in the past couple of years, a growing number of them have started using social as a customer service channel too.

Eight examples of brands that have run Instagram photo competitions

Despite the hullaballoo over the change in its terms and conditions, Instagram hasn’t yet folded under the weight of people stampeding for the exit.

In fact in terms of user numbers the photo-sharing app appears to be in rude health, though there is still that pesky question about how it will ever make any money.

And as with any social network that boasts million of users, brands have quickly moved in to try and use the platform as a way of extending their reach among consumers.

According to stats from Simply Measured more than half of the Interbrand 100 now uses Instagram, and we’ve previously looked at nine brands making great use of Instagram, plus one that isn’t.

One of the most common tactics for starting conversations with users and driving up follower numbers is to hold a photo competition. 

TD Bank bets on Google+ as a search play

For all of the time and money companies are investing in social media, marketers continue to grapple with basic questions about ROI. Is the investment worth it? Can the potential pay-off ever be measured accurately?

Progress in answering these questions varies from business to business, but at least one company has decided that its latest investment in social is really an investment in search.

Is Twitter changing how content surfaces?

Twitter has been on an announcement binge as of late, and assuming it’s factual, and not just a bunch of PR…it’s all very relevant to marketers. 

As our Social Media Manager Matt Owen has already pointed out we get a lot of traffic (and hence new members) from Twitter, so these changes to search history and mobile search experience are important to us. I did some A/B testing with the old iOS app, and then the new one and came away unimpressed however. Twitter PR, feel free to send someone our way to correct any inaccuracies!

Rubio Water: not every marketing opportunity is worth pursuing

Marketers have more channels than ever in which to hawk their wares, and combined with our 24/7, media-obsessed culture, marketers arguably have more opportunities than ever to reach consumers.

For better or worse, marketers are under enormous pressure to capitalize on these opportunities. But increasingly, it’s worth asking: just how many of them are really worth pursuing?

This is a question the marketers behind Poland Spring had to answer when United States Senator Marco Rubio needed a sip of water during his televised response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Yes – he happened to reach for a bottle of Poland Spring. Rubio’s thirst-quenching move was likely seen by millions and, perhaps undeservedly, became one of the biggest highlights on one of the biggest nights in U.S. politics.

Twitter: brands need to use humour to connect with consumers

Everyone who uses Twitter, which is presumably 90% of the people reading this, no doubt follows at least one or two comedians or spoof accounts that are there purely for entertainment value. 

And it’s this comic element that Twitter’s UK director Bruce Daisley believes brands need to tap into to develop more meaningful conversations with their customers.

At Bite’s Empty13 event, Daisley light-heartedly suggested that the UK is unique in that its citizens love to find humour in the darker side of life – so while we all enjoyed the highs of 2012 such as the Jubilee and the Olympics, we also love to revel in the troughs that lie in between. 

He gave the example of two of the most retweeted posts of recent memory. The one that captured the American public’s imagination most was Barack Obama’s touching image celebrating his re-election.

American Express syncs with Twitter. Gimmick or new social commerce platform?

Strides in social commerce have been made with Facebook and Pinterest but, until today, brands and ecommerce specialists haven’t been able to crack the code when it came to Twitter.

American Express and Twitter have announced they are joining forces by allowing members to sync their Amex cards with their Twitter accounts and then tweet special hashtags to make purchases.

This is not the first foray into connecting American Express member cards with social networks. They have focused on the interconnection with commerce and social since it launched its Link Like Love program with Facebook in 2011 and they have been promoting Twitter deals since last year.

But is this Twitter partnership just another gimmick or something more?

How John Lewis uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+

In recent weeks I’ve begun looking at the different ways in which some of the world’s biggest brands use social media.

Having already run the rule over ASOS, Walmart and Tesco, the next retailer under the spotlight is John Lewis.

John Lewis has had an excellent start to the year, announcing a 44% increase in online sales over Christmas. You can read more about it in our Q&A with the company’s head of online delivery and customer experience Sean O’Connor.

Unlike Walmart and Tesco, John Lewis doesn’t publish its own social media guidelines online, however in a previous interview its social community manager said that content is key, “with a tailored approach for each social media channel.”

So here’s a quick look at how it uses four of the main social networks…

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