New Media Marketing | Hugues Valentin

[Zagreb] #3 : The End & Why Pinterest is awesome

Hi there,

It’s been two weeks now that I’ve started to use Pinterest, as part of my New Media Marketing class that I’ve applied to at ZSEM, in Zagreb. Now is time to briefly describe what I liked and disliked in this Social Newwork and how I think it can be part of a company communication or for personal use.

How did I use Pinterest?

My first impression (which still is what I think) is that Pinterest is really a Twitter-like for photos except that you don’t express « what’s going on right now » but « what’s the mood right now » and you don’t have to say it in 140 characters but with a beautiful photo.

I’ve been on Twitter since 2008 (follow me) and for the most part I just read what people that I follow are talking about. I usually don’t post much. With Pinterest, I can do the same thing but with visual emotion looking a great photos. I haven’t post so much on Pinterest these past few days but I’ve enjoyed sighting at beautiful photos.

Ok, that was the me-myself-and-I part of the post, thanks for the ones reading it until here and let’s talk about what’s great on Pinterest and who should use it.

Pinterest, yes, but for who?

Like on Twitter, there’re two ways of using Pinterest:

to state on your life
to promote your work (or company)

While the first usage on Twitter is boring as hell, expressing your thoughts with a picture is way more interesting and emotional. Let’s study the famous: TGIF (Thanks god it’s Friday) thing. On Twitter, it’s so boring having hundreds of « TGIF hihi LOL 😀 😀 sooo cool » while it’s can be expressed with creativity on Pinterest. Sources : @hey_AM_RICKY for Twitter and Silverbox Creative for Pinterest

For companies, the difference is even greater. There are plenty of companies where Twitter isn’t interesting while Pinterest can reveal extremely useful. I’m talking about companies (or freelance) using creativity for a living: Photographs, designers or even bloggers, but also companies that need pictures to express their assets: real estate companies for instance.

And as a matter of fact, Pinterest has already proved its power for accelerating sales. There are plenty of studies showing that Pinterest users follow more brands than Facebook Users or that Pinterest spurs twice as much sales than Facebook.

That’s all for the moment, but feel free to follow me on Pinterest to start sharing things together.

I’ve made a 1-slide presentation about Pinterest that you can download here:

Zagreb: this is the end

I also sign here my last post around my New Media Marketing class at ZSEM. I really want to thank the lecturer for her tremendous work making this class really interesting with many impressive guest lecturers. I’ve learnt a lot.

Thank you for reading me,

Posting more soon ! (I’ve an exciting project I’ll be talking soon)

[Zagreb] #2 : Starting to use Pinterest

Hi There,

As I said it earlier, I’m studying New Media Marketing at the ZSEM of Zagreb for 3 weeks. As part of this class I must write my experience when trying a new social network. As I already have a blog, a Facebook, Google+ and Twitter account (and many other « social tools » like del.icio.us, …) I had to choose something new.

And if there is one Social network that buzzes around for months now, it is Pinterest. So… Let’s Follow me on Pinterest!

But, wait… what is Pinterest and why choose this Social Network? I’ll try to answer that now.

What Is Pinterest?

Basically, Pinterest comes from the fact that today, we, internet users, receive to much information (from newspapers, Social Networks, Youtube) and it’s hard finding the ones that are really interesting for you and you must read a bit of a title or description to understand what this is all about. The main goal of Pinterest is to manage these pieces of info by displaying them with IMAGES (which are much more easier/faster to analyze that text or audio) on « boards« .

Therefore, pieces of info are presented differently and with new ways of making a content interesting (image rather than text). Pinterest, as Twitter, is Public and all what you share can be seen by everyone.

But, if you’d like more info about what is Pinterest, I recommend these links (french and english)

How to use Pinterest?

Well, a lot of documentation has been made all around the web, and I’ll give some links but basically, here are the main how-to:

Post VISUAL content, easy to understand

Well, this is quite basic for a « photo-board » website, but it’s worth repeating it. You need to select and post only beautiful pictures (linking to your content) that are understandable in a blink of an eye.

Create your own Boards with very explicit titles

Before starting to post some pictures, create boards with titles very explicit about what you’re going to upload and share.

Start following people that you’re interested in (and not influencial pinners)

Go on some of the generic Boards and scroll through content. When you find something interesting, like, and then follow the author. Influencial pinners might post too much things for a beginner.

Go on and have fun !

More info in this video, or here, and here, ou ici

How Powerful is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a very young startup (it was created in 2010) but drives more than 15 million unique visitors each month and has more than 12 million users (which is a faster growth than facebook or Twitter). Again, an image is worth a thousand words, here is the main info on Pinterest:

Source: InternetMarketingInc.com

So let’s follow me on Pinterest and where ideas 🙂 !

Thanks !

[Zagreb] #1 : Basis of New Media Marketing

Hi there,

To be short, I’m a part time worker (apprenticeship) at Microsoft and still studying at EDHEC (a French Business School). As part of this program, I have to attend « Summer Courses » in foreign Europe countries. This year, I chose Zagreb (yes, class is cooler under the sun) for 3 weeks and I attend a « New Media Marketing » class. For this class, I must write articles on this blog and promote them on Social Networks.

So, let’s go! I start this series by a quick reminder of the Marketing basis that I’ve learnt (again) yesterday in class.

What Is Marketing?

First stop on Wikipedia to learn the definition:

Marketing is « the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Well, I must say, I’ve copy-pasted this definition without reading it. Here is what I think how marketing works:

Marketing is a strategy to efficiently reach potential customers starting with market researches and market segmentation to know more about them and apply tactics to achieve this strategy:

Marketing Mix -> see under
Implementation -> Where do I sell my product
Communication -> How do I tell people my product exists and arose their desire

What is the Marketing Mix?

The Marketing Mix is a set of 4 components that defines the product (and are usually called the « 4P »):

Product
Price -> At what price do I sell my product knowing how it costs in production and how my competitors sell their similar products?
Promotion -> How do I communicate around the product to promote it to my customers?
Placement -> Where do I sell my product to have the best market?

Briefly, the Marketing Mix is the product and what image I want to give it to my customers, who can buy it and at what price.

Many other « Ps » have been added since then and we usually speak of the 7Ps, adding People, Processus and Physical Environment. A picture worth a thousand words:

New Media Marketing: What is it?

With the growing power of Social Networks, the Marketing can extend to reach more customers, differently. Now, brands can be in direct contact with their customers via their facebook page or Twitter (or others). These platforms bring together the two players and customers become then the best (or the worst) ambassadors of the brand (or product) on their networks, sharing with friends and acquaintances.

In fact, having a friend telling you that: « this toothpaste makes my teeth really white » is more reliable and trustworthy than the advertisement for the same product between the « car of your dream » and « the new washing powder washing more white than white is ». Therefore, the idea of the brands is to make people talk of their products on their networks.

More to come soon 🙂

Waiting for news, you can read this Mashable post about StoryBook, a new social App for Brands.

Hope you liked it,

Thanks.