This is an excerpt of the deck I presented as part of Harvard Business School’s Alumni webinar series on May 8, 2013. If you happen to be a HBS Alumnus, you can catch the replay here. I will continue to fine-tune this presentation with the intent of publishing an e-book on the topic. The Business of Serendipity is the quest to recognize patterns that may lead to moments rich with the promise of serendipity. Social media is just the platform for this quest.
From a personal perspective, I’m a fan of Pinterest. From a business perspective, I am a HUGE fan of Pinterest. Why? Well the stats are staggering on how much the site, while still in beta, has grown to the point where it drives more referring traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined! Pinterest is becoming an increasingly important tactic for all of the social media strategist of ecommerce sites and retail brands.
To understand the success of Pinterest you have to understand the psychology behind the act of “pinning”. Pinning is a declaration. A declaration that the Pinned image (ergo the object(s) in the image) is worth sharing. It could simply be beautiful photograph or work of art but most of what you’ll find are objects of desire. When Pinners create Boards (collections of Pins) they become a collage of that pinner’s visual representation of their personal brand crafted (intentionally or subliminally) for public consumption. Public, mind you. Not just for friends. Pinners are curators of whatever they deem shareable. There’s even a gaming mechanic the comes in the reward of having their Pin “repinned” by as many people as possible. Repinning is not exactly a follow of Twitter and it’s far from the Friend on Facebook. It’s more like a hat-tip to say thanks for sharing. Eventually, the hat-tips become follows of a pinner’s board or entire collection of Boards. Because the act of Pinning and Repinning is so effortless and visually driven it becomes in some ways more of an act of lust rather than a gesture of love or even a “Like”. But that’s the secret sauce of Pinterest – we as marketers can turn that lust into sales and brand equity.
There are many adjectives that can explain reasons behind a Pin such as “cool”, “interesting”, “amazing” but I’m more interested in one verb – “Want”. It’s easy for eTailers to be fooled by the visceral, lustful and even passionate act of thousands of Pins as a love of the brand. It’s not. It’s a collective of individuals declarations of “Want” of the brand’s object. Remember, they’re going by visuals alone. The difference between converting a Pin to a one-off sale versus converting the Pinner to a lifelong customer is still driven by the immutable laws of branding. Lust, love or like, the act of Pinning speaks volumes on purchase intent. And it’s because of this, that Pinterest is a game changer for eTailer and retail brands. Our challenge create catalyst that drive conversion in their moment of attraction.
So in the end Pinterest is going to be force to be reckoned with. What do you do? Pinterest does not yet have any kind of advertising model that we as marketers can leverage to reach our target audience. So how do you turn a Pin into a win? Here are just a few quick ideas to get the Pinning started.
If your in the fashion arena, I highly recommend Pose.com. It went live around the time of Pinterest and has a eerily similar user interface. The main difference is this is consumer generated content where “Posers” snap photos of themselves wearing their favorite fashions then post to Pose for peer review. Follow the influencers including Rachel Zoe and engage. Heck, might as well Pin your Poses!
Great use of QR codes to promote 5/3 Bank’s mobile application. Highly relevent being posted on the ATM receipt and makes an immediate connection to get the app in iTunes. WELL DONE!
First saw this REALLY creative QR code on 2d-Code site. Really clever use of the technology and opens the mind to new possibilities!
Allure to Give Away $725,000 Worth of Beauty Products via Microsoft Tags
Allure magazine has partnered with Microsoft Tag for its annual Free Stuff issue this August, allowing readers to use their smartphones to participate in $725,000 worth of beauty product giveaways, which are awarded on a first-come, first-win basis.
In years past, readers could log on to Allure’s website to enter the contests and sign up for text alert reminders. This year, however, the promotion is moving to smartphones.
To take part in the contests, which begin August 2, readers can type gettag.mobi into their mobile browsers to download the Microsoft Tag Reader. Using the app, they can scan the Tag in the magazine or on Allure’s Free Stuff page to register. Users can also opt to get text message alerts 15 minutes before each event occurs and then scan the Tag to enter.
For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Tag, the product is Microsoft’s version of the QR code, a 2-D barcode that can be scanned using a QR reader app to pull up images, video and a range of other interactive features. Although there are a number of QR code readers available in smartphone app stores, Microsoft Tag requires its own reader app.
Of course, I love 2D Barcodes. Microsoft proves that it can swing its weight to get major publishers to use their proprietary Microsoft Tag. Using 2D barcodes for contests is a GREAT application of the technology.
Here’s the long form presentation of the presentation I gave the the Columbus Social Media Club back in 2010. With iOS11 supporting QR codes in the iPhone camera, I thought it might be good to resurrect this as marketers will be looking for information on how to leverage this old/new school tactic of connecting in real life(IRL) to URL landing pages.
Remember when @mrskutcher only had 28,784 followers on Twitter? Neither do I. But that’s the point about Dailybooth.com! It’s like the wild west all over again in that it completely levels the playing field. Everyone starts at 0 followers.
THIS is your second chance to connect with the people on Twitter you follow who have hundreds of thousands (or millions @MrsKutcher) of followers. If you’re lucky, they’ll have only…say…72 followers on Dailybooth like @Adventuregirl who has 1,494,734 on twitter! Spark a dialogue with your favorite Twitter peeps BEFORE they reach the same number of followers. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a follow back on Twitter and some link love, right @adventuregirl ? (call me < cheesy wink>).
WTH is DailyBooth??!
I first heard of Dailybooth during the TechCrunch Disrupt in March 2010. Back then, I signed up a poked around but didn’t get hooked until recently. Here’s the gist: remember how much fun you used to have jumping in to a photo booth and snapping some goofy shots with your pals/girlfriends? You’d then show off the snaps to your friends or put them in your locker for others to see? Well now imagine doing that with the web as your locker. When Twitter first launched they were educating users to “tell us what you’re doing” when in reality we were using it to tell people what we’re THINKING! Dailybooth, in contrast, is “SHOW us what you’re doing”. But the real fun and audience engagement comes with the replies. You’re not just writing a reply, you are “miming” your reply in a photo response. Following some of these streams can be absolutely addicting and hilarious!!! Making new friends and exploring is easy. Follow the live stream and start connecting with people that seam interesting but don’t be “that creepy person”!!!
Just like in the early years of Facebook, Dailybooth is a really younger demographic. I mean REALLY young. Not sure of the policy is on minimum age, but you almost feel like a perv at first. As a dad of two young daughters some of the provocative poses (though PG-rated) may be a bit awkward and even unsettling. But I felt better after seeing some real celebs more my age and the following they’ve developed and how it really is a GREAT experience and a fantastic way to express your creativity and individuality. So, sorry kids! Here come your parents and aunts and uncles to ruein the party. And up next….<insert horror music and scream> the ADVERTISERS!!
Advertising! Marketing! That’s why I’m writing about it today. Dailybooth is a hidden gem just like the Twitter in the early days where you can still have the first mover advantage. What makes Dailybooth so interesting is that it’s incredibly quick and easy (you’d be amazed at how I agonize over carefully choosing my 140 characters)! You just sit in front of your web cam and snap away (or upload), type as little as a one-word comment and pick sharing options of Twitter and/or Facebook or what I like to call the photo-mojo. Compared to the other popular social media sites, Dailybooth is pure entertainment and the easiest to create content which means there will be a ton of content and it will be very entertaining and easy to go viral. It really is positioned nicely among the other social media sites (see below).
Get people to show you some love using using QR Codes! You can cross promote to other sites like this!
Studies have shown that people LOVE to brag about their latest shopping finds. Get them to snap a photo with your product and post on Dailybooth then reward them with coupons or discounts. Just get the ball rolling with a few simple rules and the crowds take over.
Don’t forget, “boothers” are not tethered to their desktops!
Theres an iPhone app and you can also email photos to your profile. So get them engaged in activities and interacting with your brand at your location or get them to put lampshades on their heads at your events. Set up a Dailybooth BOOTH at the event and let the frenzy begin!
These are just a couple of ideas. So what do you think? Will Dailybooth become as big as Twitter?
