12 Oct Pinterest and Instagram Ads Plus New Social ROI From Walmart | Social You Should Know
A very busy week in social media, both on the paid front and on the organic front.
New Social Ad Opportunities for Brands
Pinterest’s first ads went live this week, at least for some users of the popular “pin board” site. Given that Pinterest is built largely around items people are considering buying, the opportunities to drive commerce from these ads should be great. In fact, pre-ad research shows that the average order value from a Pinterest referral is over $80, which is higher than Facebook, Twitter or StumbleUpon. Also this week, Instagram turned three years old and announced they too would be selling ads soon. Already, 123 of the Fortune 500 are on Instagram. As ads make it easier, look for that number to grow.
As Brands Report Positive ROI from Social, Budgets Rise
Walmart’s CMO announced today that the retail giant gets a 10x return on its social media marketing investment. Apparently other marketers are doing well, also, as social media spending is projected to grow from about 7.7% of total marketing budgets to around 19% in the next five years. CMOs are also far less likely to use dollar value metrics to track social and far more likely to count soft metrics, such as net promoter score or other text analysis. Get an in-depth look at this and the new social ad opportunities in this week’s Social Conversation:
Twitter Deal with Comcast Continues New Battle of Social Networks
Back on September 30, I mentioned here that Twitter and the NFL had a content deal. I wrote that it may “portend a larger trend in which the various social networks work to get exclusive content.” Only 2 weeks later, Twitter announced a new deal with Comcast that will allow Comcast customers to click on Tweets about a show and then click to watch that show, be reminded of that show or even record that show. The battle for social networks is now about content exclusivity. Very interesting.
