The Pepperspective

As retailers, we’re always looking for opportunities to engage our customers in a more meaningful way. Pinterest is a social networking site that promotes engagement and also holds the potential to drive sales. In fact, this newest social platform is projected to account for 40% of all social-driven revenue in the near future.   

Don’t take my word for it though.  Trust the stats:
·      1 in 5 users have pinned an item that they later purchased
·      21% of Pinterest users purchase items they pin either in-store or online

Naturally we’re all scrambling to get a piece of the Pinterest pie.  But if you want in on these amazing results, you need to know a thing or two about what works and doesn’t.  For starters, content is the single most important key to having a successful presence on this platform.  Beware though - pinners don’t want sales, discounts, and promotional materials thrown in their faces.  

So what is great content for Pinterest?

A friend asked me today if there was any information out there that illustrates how to best use social media. I thought about it for a minute and realized…no…there isn’t.

There is, however, a veritable plethora of examples of how people have used social media effectively. And they’re as close as your nearest search engine.

Have you ever wanted the whole world to be Christmasy? So have we. 

 That’s why we made The Christmaser – a virtual machine that takes anything you type in and makes it a Christmasy GIF. (Because GIFs are the best.)

We’re proud to see Ryan has a new article on All Facebook. He writes about the new freedom developers have to customize Facebook’s Like button so they can create buttons that actually make sense to click in context – because who really wants to Like an article about a disaster? Wouldn’t you rather just Read it? And wouldn’t it be nice to express the difference in likes between products you Own and ones you Want? 

Knowing Ryan, he’ll be making buttons that say Whoa and Busted until we physically detain him.

Check out the article here:

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-likes-2011-12

The fact that there is such a thing as social media should come as no surprise. What is surprising, is how confused some people still are about the role of social media in the development of a brand.

Clearing this matter up will, no doubt, happen once society has expunged those who believe that advertising is merely a means of pushing people to make a specific purchase decision-a notion that is widespread thanks to the overabundance of manipulative messages and persuasive pitches that came out of the “golden age” of advertising.

Can a functional QR code be built out of nothing but OREOs? We decided to find out.

Is the constant chatter about your brand on Facebook keeping you up at night? Or maybe you’re worried there’s no talk at all? Are are you even listening? As a business, and specifically a retailer, what are the best ways to engage your core customers in social media and get in on the conversation in an authentic way? Learn from partner Tim McMullen key elements to keep in mind and actionable next steps for you to build relationships with your audience and manage your online reputation through social media. Forbes.com

Consumers love Twitter because it tells them what people are talking about right now. The micro-blog platform serves as a social stimulant-informing people as to what other people care about at any given moment in time. It’s amazing to watch the list of most popular topics morph throughout the day. And, if you watch it enough, you can begin to get a sense of what Twitter is, is not and how it can and can’t be used as a marketing tool.

How do you collect your inspiration? I’m sure everyone has their own system and after a conversation with a few of my office peeps recently, I began wondering what works for me probably doesn’t work for all. 

In the old days of advertising, one good advertising agency was all it took to create advertising that weighed heavy enough on the hearts and minds of consumers to influence their purchase behavior. These days, it takes a lot more than just a good ad created by one agency to influence consumers. It takes a village, literally.

With 600 million members as potential shoppers, Facebook is on its way to becoming the largest online retail hub ever with brands like Delta and Coca-Cola already on-board. Read about the fast-approaching age of F-commerce, or Facebook-based retailing, from redpepper partner Tim McMullen on Forbes.com.

Of all the four letter words in the world, few are more potent than the notorious “F” word. It can turn people on and it can turn people off. And among all the words that begin with the letter “F,” this one is, perhaps, the most widely misused and over-used of them all.

Never mind that people spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. That’s no reason to ignore other means of interacting with consumers online (or off-line for that matter). But make no mistake, there’s a time and a place for everything, even when it comes to social media.