Facebook Approaches 500 Million Mobile Users – Infographic

I do enjoy my cycling and it is a great way to keep fit, socialize and  enjoy coffee all in one capsule of time.

It also is one way of refreshing the body, mind and soul from the the pressures of work and life.
Cycling though can be dangerous, with trucks and cars and other immovable objects threatening life and limb.

But there is a new and alarming epidemic and trend that is making the roads more dangerous and it is the addicted Facebook user checking their timeline on their mobile.

Luckily the police have realized this and in fact in Fort Lee, New Jersey in the USA they have started booking “dangerous” walkers who are not obeying the rules of the road“.

It certainly is about time because it would be embarrassing to report to my friends that I was injured cycling not from a hitting a bus but by being taken out by an over zealous and jaywalking Facebook user on their mobile!

Facebook Understands the Importance of Mobile

Facebook must have been talking to the police about this mobile addiction trend because they have just bought  Instagram which isn’t even a social media website but just a mobile app (a mobile app that just happens to have nearly 40 million users).

Additionally Facebook has increased its focus on mobile in preparing for a mobile and social web that goes  beyond the Instagram acquisition with the purchase of the Android  photosharing app developer “Lightbox” as reported by Techcrunch.

Lightbox creates photo blogs from a users uploads and has been described as the “Lazy man’s Tumblr”



Now before you rush off and try and sign up to Lightbox, the acquisition is not the business or the app but only the team, as it will be closed down by June 15 and you will see its technology emerge as a Facebook mobile feature sometime in the future.

The other common element to take note of with both these acquisitions are that they are photo centric “apps”, because Facebook knows that photos are the highest engaging content on its platform (50% higher share rate than any other type of update on Facebook timelines)

The challenge that still remains for Facebook,  is how they will monetize the burgeoning mobile space.

The Compelling Facts and Figures

One other compelling reason Facebook is aggressively chasing mobile users is that in the developed countries its growth is approaching saturation point.

In developing countries the use of mobile is predominant with telecommunications infrastructure being built around mobile technology instead of fixed.

This is evident with countries like New Guinea (78%) and  Nigeria (81%) having some of the highest Facebook mobile penetration in the world.

• 54% Penetration of Facebook mobile (488 million out of 901 million users)
• Android and Apple share the largest mobile platform usage at 19% each
• iPad is 5% of Facebook mobile usage
• The top 5 countries using Facebook mobile are USA, Indonesia and India followed by the UK and then Mexico

What About You?

How are you going to take advantage of mobile for your business. Do you have a mobile app for your online store. Is your website optimized for mobile?

Can people read about your brand and business on a mobile?

Look forward to hearing your stories.

























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5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest in Driving Sales – Infographic

 

Pinterest has been grabbing the headlines recently as its network approaches  20 million users per month.

In March, Compete.com reported that Pinterest had received 18 million unique visitors with AppData reporting that the visual social network had received a record 4.4 million daily active users on March 18.

There are reports that Pinterest’s growth is slowing but just like Twitter and Facebook, reports of its demise maybe slightly premature.

The Power of “Low Friction” Photo Sharing

Pinterest’s value to marketers is that it provides an easy to use platform for “pinning” images, photos and videos to your Pinterest account while also posting and sharing to your networks to Facebook and Twitter in the same process.

Pinterest reduces the effort and friction to share images on the social web which crowd sources your marketing and the spreading of your brand images.

This “low friction sharing” includes links back to the original sharing location. Online stores such as fashion, boutiques, homewares and gift stores can take advantage of this to drive commerce as their products are highly visual and more likely to be shared.

To understand the power of visual sharing, on Facebook research shows that photos are shared 50% more than any other types of updates. This is why Pinterest is so powerful.

The question though is, does it drive sales?

Does Social Commerce Work?

There are social networks and there is commerce and the popular thinking used to be that  they don’t mix. In fact there have been stories circulating on blogs that Facebook is great for engagement but not good for sales.

In digging deeper that appears to be a misconception and social commerce is alive and kicking.

Boticca.com is an online boutique for unique jewelry and fashion accessories by top emerging designers from around the world and has been using Pinterest for quite a while, where it has pinned visually enticing images of its products arranged in categories (boards) with links to the product purchase page.

Boticca Pinterest Page

Their activity on Pinterest is sizable with 67 categories (boards) that average over 700 followers for each board with 2,869 pins (products). As the quality of the photos they have used for their online store is high definition then these HD images ensure that they are also compelling on Pinterest.

Pinterest is really a product catalogue linked to their online store behind every image.



Once you click on that link it takes you to the product on Bottica’s online store where you can continue to review the product further and then make a purchase.

Bottica Facebook “Page”

Bottica’s Facebook page reveals over 26,000 “likes” that also features a prominent Pinterest “Tab” which is powered by the Facebook Pinterest App.

This Pinterest Tab which is effectively the Pinterest site embedded in Facebook allows you to access the online store directly from Facebook. Omni-commerce is evident here. You can buy from Facebook, Pinterest and the ecommerce store.



It recently researched from its own store data which social network drove more social commerce. The results are fascinating and this is from a real store with real numbers.

The 5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest

Boticca traced the sales , average sales, conversions and engagement of 50,000 visitors from Pinterest and 50,000 from Facebook.

Here are  5 things Boticca learned about marketing on Facebook compared to Pinterest

1. Pinterest users spend more when shopping at $180 vs $85 by Facebook users
2. Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site than Facebook
3. Pinterest influenced more sales (10%) than Facebook (7%)
4. Pinterest has a 51% lower conversion rate compared to Facebook
5. Pinterest acquired 86% new users vs Facebook at 57%

The Infographic 

What about You?

Are you using Pinterest for your online store? Do you have images that you could be pinning to your Pinterest acount? Do you think it would help your online stores sales and spread your brand. Look forward to hearing your stories.
























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64 Pinterest Marketing Tips and Tactics – Infographic

I walked into an electronics store the other day and happened to pass the television department.

The 70 inch televisions with high definition flat screens were displaying videos so compelling that for a minute or two I just stood there watching images so sharp and mesmerizing that I just stopped and watched.

The vibrant colors and  high contrast were almost hypnotic.

It was only ten years ago and a flat screen TV half that size was $20,000.

Now everyone has at least a  42 inch plasma or LCD screen and that is in the smallest room in the house!

The Visual Sharing Addiction

Reality television, lifestyle and cooking shows have taken food to new levels of visual and visceral appeal and taking photos of food and sharing them on Facebook or Instagram seems to becoming a standard activity these days.

Generation X and Y would rather watch a video or an infographic in small snack size bites of information than read a paragraph of text.

Several  key factors seem to be driving this visual sharing revolution.

• Broadband access whether it is fixed or wireless (images and videos no longer take hours to upload)
• Social network platforms – that make it easy to upload images and videos in seconds
• Smart phones with cameras (high definition is now the norm)
• Apps that make it easy to shoot and share (Instagram)

This increasingly visual generation is creating opportunities for creative people to engage with friends, colleagues and customers using images and videos.

Pinterest has over the last 6 months, become the social network with buzz, which provides a visual platform that offers the ecosystem to experiment, play and trial images as a means of engagement and even selling.
It is even being used to drive people to landing pages to capture information and buy.

How do you use Pinterest to Market your Business?

Here are 64 marketing tips and tactics that you can apply to your Pinterest account to get you started and refine your strategies.




So How About You?
How are you using Pinterest? Have you even heard of it before? Are you finding it driving traffic?
Is it working for you? What has surprised you about Pinterest?
I look forward to hearing your stories..
























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The Explosive Growth of Instagram – Infographic

I was recently travelling through Italy and having an iPhone allowed me to share what I was experiencing in real time to my Facebook timeline and to Twitter.



The photo that you see on the right of the sea side town of Camogli is the evidence.
This didn’t require waiting to get back to the hotel room and using my laptop connected to a socket in the wall.

It was as simple as taking a photo using the app, hit the filter feature you want and select which social network to share it on and your photo is visible to the world and the web.

All it needed was a mobile visual app called Instagram.

The explosion of intuitive and easy to use apps is taking usability to new levels and is also a revealing glimpse of what the web may look more like in 5 years.

The Visual, Mobile and Social Web

Five years ago the web  was highly text based and tied to desks and offices. Since the launch of the iPhone the emergence of apps and even more mobile devices such as tablets, the mobile revolution is having a major impact on how we use and interact with technology.

The last 2 years have seen some of the most explosive growth of software, ideas and billion dollar businesses in history with socialized apps and mobile devices leading the way.

The evidence:

• Today on Facebook 300 million photos will be uploaded
• Monthly mobile users on Facebook totals 488 million
• Instagram is heading towards the 100 million users milestone in just 2 years

The social and increasingly mobile web is transforming  how we share our our experiences.

Here is an infographic that shows how we are using Instagram and it also reveals how it has grown since its birth just 2 years ago



Courtesy of: Online Colleges

How About You

How is the mobile revolution changing how and where you use the web? Is it creating changes in your behavior?

Are you taking more photos? Are you sharing more on Facebook and Twitter?

What has been your best Instagram moment?

Look forward to hearing your stories and experiences.
















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How to Make an Infographic of your Twitter Profile in 30 Seconds

Computer technology at its birth was complicated and extremely difficult to use.

It was the sand box of geeks and engineers. You had to have a degree in computer science to play with the big mainframes of IBM and Hewlett Packard.

It was the age of “big iron”, water cooled monsters that took up rooms to crunch data that is now seen as simple tasks and can now be performed on your iPhone.

Computing for the Masses

The advent of the personal computer brought computing to the masses. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were two of the pioneers that over the last 25 years have put desktops and laptops that were affordable and portable on to people laps and desks.

Software emerged such as Word, that enabled people to easily write their own documents and by-pass the secretary with the type writer.

The emergence of the smartphone has now put a computer and publishing machine in your pocket.

The Holy Grail

The holy grail of computer visionaries has been to make computers as easy to use as electricity. As computers and software have become more intuitive, is unleashing creativity that delights and engages.

Steve Jobs said this about technology

“The best way to create value in the 21st century is to connect creativity with technology”
Engineers by designing and developing computers and software that are increasingly useable for the person in the street, is enabling the artist and creators within us to be realised.

Companies like Visual.ly are making the creation of Infographics easy, a fun example is this free tool on their website that takes your twitter  profile and turns it into an infographic in 30 seconds.

Give it a try and see what it produces! …here is what mine turned out like.

Jeff Bullas Twitter Infographic




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