Are you using images and video to promote your products? Most e-commerce merchants are aware of Pinterest but have you heard of Amazon Collections? Do you know what a Pinterest “rich” pin is? How can you use a 6-second Twitter Vine video or a 15- second Instagram video to communicate your brand? Check out this week’s #FridayFinds for a quick recap and links to four articles for more insight.
Amazon Collections: Is this the new Pinterest?
Recently, Amazon.com quietly released a new service (similar to Pinterest) called Amazon Collections. Similar to the “pin” button in Pinterest, Amazon now offers a “collect” button which Amazon users can use to tag products in 1 of these 3 categories: “My Style,” “Want List,” and “Possibilities.”. Users can access collections from their account menu at the top of the page.
So, how are Amazon Collections different from Pinterest pins? Allison Howen addresses this question in her article Pin-Off: Amazon Collections Vs. Pinterest on WebsiteMagazine.com. If you’re a merchant who already has a presence on Amazon, you’ll probably want to read this article yourself. For those of you who like bullet points, here are the highlights:
- Pinterest users can add content to their boards using a “pin” bookmark button or a Chrome extension. (Website owners can add a “Pin-It” widget to their site.)
- Amazon Collections offers a “collect” browser button. (Not all product pages have the Collections button yet.)
- Pinterest lets users connect their Twitter and Facebook accounts, making it a social network.
- While Amazon allows users to view what other consumers like, there isn’t a way (yet) to see what your friends are liking and sharing.
- Pinterest already has offerings for merchants like analytics and Pinterest “rich pins”. (So far available for movies, products and recipes.)
- Amazon is already the most popular Internet marketplace and shoppers are sure to find the “Collect” button to be a handy tool. (What impact will this have on holiday shopping?)
What are Pinterest Rich Pins?
Okay, until I started writing this post, I didn’t know what rich-pins were. That is until I did a little research and came across Kristi Hines’ excellent article How to Use Pinterest Rich Pins: What Marketers Need to Know on SocialMediaExaminer.com.
Kristi’s article is chock full of information. Bottom-line, “rich” pins include additional information such as pricing and direct links to product pages. (Brands such as Home Depot, Walmart and Target use them.)
Are you Promoting Products with Twitter Vine or Instagram?
In early June 2013, Twitter made a Vine app available to Android users. (When it was initially launched, it was only available for the iPhone and iPod touch.) For those of you aren’t familiar with Vine, check out Lauren Mobertz’s post Vine Facts: When Do People Use Vine? on DashBurst.com. Lauren includes lot of facts including:
- There are over 13 milliion Vine users now.
- The hour between 10 and 11am is when most Vines are sent.
- 3 out of 5 of the most retweeted Vines are by musicians.
FYI: Lauren’s post includes an infographic from BuzzFork.com.
Not to be left out of the video sharing arena, Instagram introduced video to their users in June 2013. So, how can brands effectively use 15-second videos (or 6-seconds on Vine)? Check out 9 Instagram Video Strategies (another WebsiteMagazine.com article by Allison Howen) for inspiration. Actually, Allison shares 9 strategies but the best part may be the 13 video examples that she uses to illustrate them.
Over to You:
The Twitter Vine app allows 6-seconds of video and Instagram allows 15-seconds. Yet, both of these applications can be very effective marketing tools. Do you share images and video to promote products? As always, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
About Sherryl PerryWelcome! If you're looking for help building an Internet presence that fits your needs and works for you, you're in the right place. I blog common sense articles about WordPress, social media and SEO. My goal is to help small business owners and entrepreneurs understand their core business. Together, we can develop and implement business strategies that make sense to you.
Amazon has grown into a mega giant so they will succeed. Personally for my business I don’t see a lot of advantage of using Pinterest, however I have seen where people have pinned our products under their category of Trade Show Items. Not show if you will be able to create your own in Amazon. I do push Pinterest and will look into Amazon more. It can’t hurt.
Arleen recently posted..How We Can Learn the Power of a Name from Ashton Kutcher
Arleen,
That’s interesting that people are pinning your products. There may be some potential there for you. If I come across any information that I think may help you, i’ll send it your way.
I agree, checking into Amazon can’t hurt.
Hi Sherryl,
I have to be honest and say that I had no idea about Amazon collections or rich pins on Pinterest.
Amazon are that big now that I think they’d win the battle as they’re geared up in pretty much every direction you can think of. They’ve certainly hit eBay hard, although that was eBay’s doing with their constant changes. I bet they regret banning downloads as that shifted people over to Amazon.
Will the same happen to Pinterest? Not sure as people are raving about Pinterest and the fact that we can link to other social accounts makes it more social than business.
Time will tell. Thanks for the additional links, I think I need to go and read the posts 😉
Thanks Sherryl,
Barry
Barry Wells recently posted..Comment Rules? All I Ask Is A Little Comment Courtesy
Hi Barry,
I totally agree with you about eBay’s decision to ban downloads hurting them. I also agree that Amazon is rapidly overtaking their competition.
As far as Pinterest goes, I believe that they’re going to be impacted by Amazon but they may be able to hold their ground with females especially when it comes to areas like fashion and home decorating. That’s just my hunch but their foothold in the social aspect may prevail. On the other hand, I’m thinking that (especially as we approach the holidays) that Amazon’s collections will be very popular in categories like electronics,sports and toys. Time will tell. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon rolled out the social aspect in the next month or two.
Thanks for dropping by. It’s good to see you here!
Sherryl Perry recently posted..How Do You Know Which Bad Links Caused Your Google Penalty?
Hi Sherryl !
To be honest , i didn’t know of the rich buttons on Pinterest nor i have any idea on the Amazon Collections until i read this post.Pinterest seems to have some very good features like the one you’ve mentioned and its good to see a giant like Amazon working on some very unique and interesting features.I can only know more about it by exploring and using them often .Thanks for sharing the information . 🙂
Regards,
Pramod
You’re very welcome Pramod. Thank you for taking the time to let me know that you found my article helpful.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Facebook Graph Search Privacy Concerns – Be Careful What You Like
Hello Sherryl,
Wow!!! all the goodies wrap-up in one place, nice 🙂
I just joined the instagram world some few days back and i must confess that i am still finding my way in that app and i do hope i get it right as i play with it more 🙂 . The post you shared with intagram will definitely help me, i am sure of it.
Also, i still haven’t gotten the hang of pinterest since i started using it and to be honest with you, i am getting tired of that source because it seems harder than other traffic source. I would definitely use a post like the one you mentioned to know about the rich pin 🙂
Thanks for taking your time out and sharing us a valuable infos. do have a blessed week ahead 🙂
Babanature recently posted..How to Create a Custom WordPress Login page
Hi Babanature,
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us. I”m glad that you enjoyed my #FridayFinds. I’m still not sure whether I should cover so many topics in one article or not.
I don’t use Pinterest much myself because I don’t think it’s really a good fit for this type of blog. I mainly maintain a presence there for future projects. Good luck with Instagram. Now that I finally invested in a smartphone, I need to get started there too.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Responsive Design or Mobile Site? Which is Best For You?
Great article, Sherryl. I was out of town for two weeks and this really helps me catch up on what I missed. I had heard about Rich Pins but hadn’t had a chance to read up on what they were. Thanks!
Carolyn recently posted..Chrome Passwords Revealed – Helpful Tool or Hackers’ Delight?
Thanks for letting me know that it was a good catch-up post for you. I don’t pay as much attention to Pinterest as I do sites that I regularly use but it’s good to be aware of the potential.
Hi all,
I use pinterest for business and find it a very useful tool for gaining business contacts on a day to day basis and I would recommend it for everyone.
I’ve not heard of the new amazon one. Will have a look into it!
Steve
Good luck using Amazon Collections Steve. I’m confident that they’ll be rolling out more features soon.
Thank you Sherryl, I’ve just done a quick search for it and looking around it!
Didn’t know Amazon has created an alternative to Pinterest. Personally think that will be a winner. How can it fail?
Having said that, if I was selling a product you could take a picture of, I would join both and promote it to as much as I can.
Catarina recently posted..Success – Only an Inch away from Failure
I agree with you Catarina. I don’t see how Amazon Collections could fail. It absolutely makes sense to use both Pinterest and Amazon. I wonder how long it will take before Amazon lets us see what our friends are collecting. It wouldn’t surprise me if that feature is rolled out in advance of the holiday shopping season.
Hi Sherryl,
Great article, I found the information very interesting especially the statistics regarding the number of vine users to date, the hour most vines are sent (between 10-11am) and the fact that 3 out of 5 of the most retweeted vines are sent by musicians. Vine videos are also becoming popular with large corporate brands and businesses who are able to showcase their products and services in the most creative way in a very short period of time. This is great for business marketing purposes, as it engages consumers and piques their interest while at the same time providing a short and concise (yet very powerful) branding strategy for businesses. Although video vines for business marketing is still in the infancy stages, I am eager to see where it will go.
Keep up the good writing!
Cheers,
Catherine Kovacic
Catherine,
Thank you so much for taking the time to weigh in on this. I’m glad that you found the statistics on Vine interesting. You raise a good point about the usefulness of vines in marketing a business.
BTW – I need to apologize to you for not replying earlier. Somehow, your comment got caught in my trash folder and I just saw it today. (I’m not sure how it ended up there unless I was having a case of slippery fingers that day. 🙂 )
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Facebook Graph Search Privacy Concerns – Be Careful What You Like
Thanks, Sherryl for these good tips, as usual. I installed Vine as soon as it was released and took a video of a vase of flowers (to practice) which I now see has disappeared from my Twitter account. I’ve thought about adding more mini-videos but tough to find something of interest. I’m not sure visitors want to see NY street scenes or more flowers. I’m glad to know about Instagram’s and Amazon’s new offerings.
Jeannette Paladino recently posted..The Morphing of Journalism and PR Professionals into Content Marketers
Hi Jeannette,
Thanks for dropping by! I have to admit that I don’t share video. It’s something that I should do more of but I don’t see where it’s a good fit for this blog. It’s good to keep up on these things though because they do lend themselves well to promoting products. At least, you tried Vine! 🙂
Sherryl Perry recently posted..Friday Finds: Pinterest, Amazon Collections, Twitter Vine and Instagram
The information on Amazon is very intriguing and can be such a wonderful outlet for many. I love Pinterest and being able to use it as a social media tool could be very beneficial. 🙂
Susan Cooper recently posted..Summer Vegetable Casserole: Recipe
Susan,
Thanks for letting me know that you found my tip on Amazon Collections interesting. I know you’re one of my blogging friends who enjoys Pinterest. I think Collections could prove to be helpful to you too.
I know if you aren’t sure if your tweet has crossed into the “pitch” category, run it through the following filter. If the answer to any of these questions is yes, rewrite it. Usually your message can easily become twitter-approved by taking off your “sales copywriter” hat and putting your message into a more conversation style!
Martin recently posted..Is FLASH Appropriate for your Business Website?
Having a conversational style is a great tip. I find it works well for blog posts too. Thanks for taking the time to add this tip.