13 Mar The Value of Social Fans, Snapchat Goes Public & Pinterest’s New Browser Extension | Social You Should Know
The world of social media never slows down and this week is no exception. Below are some highlights including the value of a social media fan, if Snapchat’s new IPO was a success or failure, and Pinterest continuing its foray into the visual search world, all in this week’s edition of Social You Should Know.
Is There Value in a Page Like Anymore?
For a long time, every brand’s goal in social media was to increase their fan & follower counts. The more fans you had, the more eyeballs you had on your content. This was back in the days before algorithms came in and changed the game. Now, most channels are pay-to-play and brands barely reach a fraction of their fans and followers. Given the loss of organic reach, does having a lot of fans or followers really help your brand? Some think that fans are more likely to be brand advocates and purchase more often. But is that true? Harvard Business Review released their findings on the value of a “Like” and the results are very interesting. Spoiler Alert: They found that being a fan doesn’t increase your purchasing or behavior to purchase, but real endorsements from friends do both. So old faithful of the marketing world, word-of-mouth, still reigns supreme. What does this mean for social media in general? Make sure you’re incorporating content that gets your brand advocates talking and sharing on your behalf in an authentic way to generate that word-of-mouth marketing.
Snapchat’s Gone Public
Snap, Inc. (formerly known as Snapchat) went public last week and exceeded expectations, closing at $24.48 per share, which was much higher than the company’s price of $17 per share. However, just five days later, they’re already closing below their IPO opening price. What does this mean for the creators of the disappearing message? It’s probably too soon to tell, but investors are warning about competition from Twitter and Facebook. We’ve already seen Snapchat usage drop with the introduction of Instagram Stories. Now, Facebook is working on their own version of Snapchat. This could mean trouble for Snap, Inc. in the future. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops but you may not want to put all your eggs in the Snapchat basket right now.
Pinterest Releases Browser Extension for Related Pin Searches
Pinterest has been focusing on visual search options, first announcing their Pinterest Lens tool, and now publicizing their new browser extension. This tool allows you to find pins related to any image that you choose on the web. This article from Social Media Today dives into all the functionality and details for you, but overall this is an interesting new way to drive people to view pins. It’s safe to assume that this will be adopted by people who already use Pinterest frequently, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on to see if it attracts any new audiences or affects eCommerce/traffic to brands’ Pinterest pages.
Last but not least, I want to give a shout-out to our SVP Lisa Braziel (who happens to also be a strategic MVP) for her insightful advice featured in the Crain’s “If I Knew Then” series.
There you have it. A rundown of the latest & greatest in the social media world this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend springing forward and reading all the subsequent memes complaining about it.
