Pinteresting

Pinterest is the social media site that has the most view time of any other social media. Meaning that viewers will stay on their site longer than any other social media site. This is because unlike when you are on Twitter or Instagram, there is no end to a news feed. You can always find more and more information whenever you want. So for marketers, it's imperative to get in that market. Businesses need to make their own Pinterest pages for people to view. With how much Pinterest is growing as well, why wouldn't they want to be on there. I don’t personally have a Pinterest so don’t know all of the details of how it works and all of the ins and outs but can understand the concept of the fact that there are so many people on the site and it is an ample opportunity for businesses to connect with customers. In class we went through a couple of examples of businesses and people such as Ellen, who have Pinterest pages and how they use them effectively. One example that we saw throughout and saw is an essential tip to any page, is include the prices. Customers want to see the prices of products when they go to your page. If they run across something they might like but there is no price they will keep on scrolling. If you want to sell it though, including the price next to the item will increase the chances of the consumer buying it. So Pinterest is growing, and it is growing fast. I still don’t understand exactly how it all works and what not but I know that people can lose a couple of hours of their day on it without even realizes it. Businesses can greatly benefit from using this social media outlet and should definitely get to it if they are not already on it. 

RSS Feeds, Tags, & Hashtags

It’s expensive to monitor social media, really expensive. So how do businesses save time when gathering information from other sites, from clients, and from competitors? The answer is with the use of rich site summary, also known as RSS feeds. What this does is brings all the news to you. Instead of having to go search for all the information you’re looking for, all the news you want comes straight to you. By using a site like google reader, you can subscribe to other sites like blogs and posts and what not you can get all the information you want in one spot. From there, by using XML the information can be organized by things like most popular or most recent. This is how Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and Pinterest are set up. Facebook has moved to a most popular set up where are of your most popular news will be shown on your timeline first. Most of the other social media sites are set up to be most recent. With these RSS feeds it can save businesses, especially small ones a lot of time and therefore money. You are able to keep in touch with what your customers, clients, and competitors are doing with one click of a button. It makes everything so easy and right where you can get everything at once. It brings the news to you and you don’t have to do a thing past just subscribing.

The other subject we talked about in class was tags. A tag is a keyword that you use to help people find your content more easily and they make sure it is relevant to them. We talked about the ethical side of using tags if it’s ok to use tags that might stretch a little past the boundaries of your actual business or content. There are no real rules prohibiting the use of tags though, so whenever you do type in Honda in search of a Honda car, but a Ford ad pops up, it’s because they paid to have their ad come up when the word Honda is typed into a search engine. Is it ethical or not, that’s the popular question.

The last topic we really talked about was the extension of tags, and that’s hashtags. People go way overboard when using hashtags sometimes. I know I have some “friends” that hashtag about 100 different things in one post and all I can say is, “are you kidding me?” I find it ridiculous and usually just keep scrolling through and don’t even bother. As a matter of fact, I’ve got the TV on in the background as I write this and I hear a Dairy Queen commercial and the guy says this blizzard is “hashtag deliciousness.” The point being that the use of the hashtag is everywhere! But you can’t go overboard with them. As a business if you start using too many hashtags, customers will just keep going without even thinking twice about it. Keep it simple, keep it short, if that can be done, there will be more success.

Casual Videos and Youtubers

This week in our marketing through social media class we talked about different ways to reach our consumers through the use of videos and by the use of Youtubers, who are YouTube famous people. We talked about the use of just casual videos being shot at low cost maybe through a smartphone or some sort to save money and time while still reaching your targeted audience. By doing this it is beneficial to also get famous YouTube stars to be in the video to get that familiarity and have even more of a reason for people to watch your video. We discussed the importance of using casual videos and the big time production videos. What I felt as the best solution would be to have the big time production commercials or videos and then integrate the small casual videos throughout. Have little YouTube videos, play them on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram and get your audience seeing your videos constantly. These types of videos can and should just be little short ones that don’t cost much and aim to just keep your company brand on your customers mind. Some of the best in my opinion would be little funny ones. They would be short, to the point, and get the audience laughing. They are low production videos anyway so there’s no need to try and over do anything and over impress, that’s what the big commercials are for. Make the casual videos with a casual mind, keep it easy and simple. What a lot of businesses do to do this is to use Youtubers. Youtubers are people who are stars on YouTube and are recognized by viewers. So what they do sometimes is even write the script of the video and then produce it for the company. One example we looked at was Youtuber Ryan Higa doing a spot for wonderful pistachios. He put together the video for the company to air during the super bowl and wonderful pistachios didn’t have to do a thing. Now they have a video that cost them very little, took no time from the company, and got a face of someone that many people are familiar with. The use of casual videos and using smaller time stars can be so beneficial. Casual videos and Youtubers can be utilized so much more and I think that we will start to see the rise in them. They are such an easy way to reach the audience in extra ways other than just the big commercials. As a consumer, watch for more of these smaller videos, and as a marketer start making more of these small videos.