Photo Sharing Networks

Facebook and Twitter may gain you exposure and help grow your list with email marketing but there are new networks worth checking out. One of the advantages of these networks is they have targeted audiences, and because they are new-comers to the scene they are gaining popularity.

Some of the big names are already engaging with these niche social media sites and communicating directly with their target audience. Pinterest - Lets you build boards and pin pictures to them. A very simple idea but one that is growing fast. These can then be liked, re-pinned and commented upon.

You can follow and be followed in a similar way to other social media networks. If your business has products, photographs can be pinned to your boards which in turn will be liked and re-pinned. Connect with your customers by responding and re-pinning content. All items pinned link back to the originating source, your website. Your personality can be expressed with a board of the things you like on the web:

• your style;
• what or who motivates you;
• your likes and ambitions.

I find it a very positive network, very refreshing! The site has 10.4 million registered users and 12 million unique visits monthly. 97% of the site's Facebook 'likes' are female as are most of the sites users. ( http://www.business2community.com for Stats )

Instagram - With around 10 million active users (Sept 2011), Instagram was launched in 2010 in Apple's app store. By August 2011 users had uploaded 150 million photos.By April 2012 they have reached 30 million users.

As the mobile market develops the ability to share, follow and comment on photographs with your iPhone, has seen Instagram become a fast growing share network.
Several of the large brands are using the site to communicate with their customers, sharing photos that represent their brand and inform followers of other aspects of their business. For example, Burberry's stream has shots from behind-the-scenes at a fashion shoot, showing customers and followers interesting aspects of their brand.

Since the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook the new version of the App took advantage of the benefits of Facebook's Open Graph. You can now post your Instagram Likes directly to your Facebook account, all in one place. And if you manage a Facebook Page - you can post to your Page without leaving the App.
Personalise your stream with photos that you like, that express your personality and branding. Communicating in this way makes your business more approachable, more human.
Other photo sharing sites Flickr and Fotolog can be used in the same way to communicate with your customers. The internet is rapidly becoming a visually colourful shared world.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7537932

Tumblr Expecting To Be Profitable In 2013 After Introducing Mobile Advertising

The Vice President of Tumblr, Derek Gottfried, has announced that the popular microblogging site is expecting to make its first annual profit this year, after extending its web advertising model to mobile devices.

Tumblr currently hosts almost 100 million different blogs, both professional and personal, and registers around 15 billion impressions every month, according to statistics corporation Quantcast. Although currently not as popular as its web equivalent, Tumblr’s mobile app is closing the gap, having quadrupled its membership in the last six months.

Gottfried, who has previously expressed his disdain for traditional web advertising, has implemented a different advertising system on Tumblr: companies can pay Tumblr to promote their blogs and blog posts to wider audiences, but it is up to them to make the content original and interesting. The better the content, the more likely it will be that other Tumblr users repost adverts on their own blog or heart it (similar to a Facebook “Like”): the more users interact with the advertising, the wider it will spread.

Advertisers are not able to purchase ad space or use keywords on Tumblr, but the promoted blog post system, which costs just under “just under six figures” a pop according to Tumblr’s head of sales Lee Brown, can be very successful – success which is measured in the number of reposts and hearts posts receive. Brown also emphasised the uniqueness of Tumblr’s ad model:

We’re not bringing them a template or format to complete, we’re giving them a canvas. That takes a lot of time and a lot of thought […] Marketers have become accustomed to buying scale as opposed to earning it. We’re not really selling ads, we’re promoting their content.

Companies are advised to advertise on Tumblr subtly, creating content that will spread through the site organically. Coca Cola’s “Happiness Is” Tumblr blog, for example, which features images and gifs similar to those most popular on the site, has promoted Coca Cola without the need for blatant branding.

The advertising model has been so successful and lucrative on the web that it is now being introduced to mobile devices, a move which Brown expects will lead to profits. Tumblr has already tested mobile advertising behind closed doors, tests which thus far have been successful, and is now opening the service up to companies who want to use it.

Have you seen any advertising on Tumblr? Did you like it?

Facebook Tests New Timeline And ‘Like Page’ Button, Announces News Feed Redesign

Facebook has begun testing a new profile page design in New Zealand, with a smaller toolbar beneath the cover photo and an off-centre Timeline. A new ‘Like Page’ button is also being tested.

The toolbar now consists of text boxes rather than iframes, with some of the original tabs moved elsewhere on the page: the About, Friends, Photos and More tabs remain, joined by a Timeline navigation button, but Maps has been recategorised into the Places section and Followers is now in the More tab.

There are Message, Call and options buttons, the latter denoted by the cog emblem, at the bottom corner of the cover photo, as well as an add friend box, which becomes ticked when activated.

A few other sections of the timeline page have been rearranged: the comments section has been moved from left to right, with the activity section beneath, and the About box has been enlarged, with defined sections for job, education, birthplace and location information.

There is also a new three-by-three photos box of friends on the left of the page as opposed to the original two-by-four rectangle. Notes, Likes and Apps are beneath the Friends box and the Places section.

This is the third redesign to be tested in a matter of months, with the off-centre timeline introduced in October and then adjusted a few months later. The previous timeline redesign was also originally tested in New Zealand.

The Redesign also includes an updated link post when articles are shared on Facebook. A new ‘Like Page’ button has been added to the bottom right of links to articles and other offsite content posted on Facebook, allowing friends of the sharer to like the Facebook page of the article’s source.

The new ‘Like Page’ button, if introduced to Facebook users worldwide, will certainly help to drive traffic to company Facebook pages. Its inoffensive yet omnipresent placement, appearing, as it does, in the corner of a friend’s recommendation, will make it an invaluable tool for businesses on Facebook.

In related news, Facebook has sent out invitations to a press event on March 7th, where the company will unveil a News Feed redesign.

The News Feed hasn’t been updated significantly since September 2011, so the announcement has many in the social media marketing world excited.

For a slideshow of screenshots of the Timeline redesign go to Mashable.

What do you think of the new Timeline? Are you looking forward to the News Feed redesign?