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Social media marketing boosts retail site traffic

| February 6, 2014

To a growing extent, these platforms are driving visitors to online shopping sites.

The findings from the Q4 2013 Social Media Intelligence Report from Adobe have now been released and have revealed important social media marketing trends, revealing that this channel drives traffic to retail websites.Social Media Marketing Boost

This report looked into trends involving paid, earned and owned social media.

Among the primary findings of this social media marketing report was that Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr were sending a tremendous and record breaking amount of valuable traffic onto retail websites in the last quarter of last year. It also determined that the revenue per visit (RPV) was rising across each of those networks.

This report used an extensive data analysis to provide meaningful social media marketing insight.

The analysis was performed using a considerable amount of aggregated and anonymous data that was collected from retail, travel, entertainment, and media sites from the last quarter of 2012 to the same quarter last year. This included over 1.5 billion posts on Facebook, approximately 240 impressions on that social network, in addition to 500 million unique social networking site visitors and 6.3 billion Facebook social engagements (which includes likes, shares, and comments). The Adobe Marketing Cloud was used for the paid social data.

The report that Adobe produced based on its analysis concluded that social media marketing is proving to play an exceptionally important role in the formation of the digital marketplace as well as in the way that consumers are being engaged by their favorite brands. That company feels that a more thorough understanding of these trends – regardless of whether they involve Facebook ads, Twitter links, or Pinterest retail placements – will help marketers to be able to improve the success of their campaigns.

Some of the more interesting data from the study also showed that there was a 340 percent year over year increase in the RPV from Tumblr, a 244 percent increase in the RPV from Pinterest, 131 percent from Twitter, and 72 percent from Facebook. This has revealed that when it comes to social media marketing, the ever-dominant Facebook is now starting to see some heavy competition moving in.

Mobile app from Facebook pales next to Paper

| February 5, 2014

The social network has launched a new application that is providing a far better experience.

The most recent mobile app that has been launched by Facebook, called Paper, is being applauded when compared to the previous application from the social network, which many people find to be far less engaging and far more frustrating.

The purely functional experience from the Facebook Home app has been replaced by visual appeal and ease of use.

With the release of Paper, Facebook has effectively exposed how unappealing its old application actually was and that it is capable of doing a great deal more with its mobile app. Paper is a kind of combination of the existing news feed on a user’s account with news stories and status updates from friends. It has eliminated menus and buttons in favor of more basic screen swipes. Instead of the standard form of the news feed, large images are available (which can be better seen with device tilts), status updates, and videos that auto-play.

This new mobile app also encourages more off-Facebook content consumption.

The reason that it can do this is that users can leave Facebook’s content to view other forms online without having to leave Paper. This can be accomplished by simply selecting the online media category that is preferred on top of the usual items on the news feed. Each of those elements can be seen in the same way as one would flip through a magazine. They include sports. Food, photography, and science, among others.

These new features in addition to a range of stylistic enhancements have made it obvious that Facebook is understanding how vital it is to break away from its older structure. It is trying to avoid the impression that it is aging – as Tuesday represents its tenth birthday. In internet time, the social network is virtually seen as ancient, so it is becoming critical that it remains cutting edge and keeps up its relevance to its users, no matter what device they prefer.

The Paper mobile app is also providing an additional opportunity for Facebook to display ads. It is believed that it won’t be long before users start to see lots of advertising working its way into the rest of the content that is being consumed.