Facebook is used mainly for social interaction. The app is an extension of the social media platform available on the web, making it easier to communicate with family, friends, and even strangers in a more convenient way. With roughly 2.45 billion users monthly, Facebook is a very diverse community. (1) Facebook appeals to users of a wide audience range. With the ability to create, like, and follow pages and groups, users can customize their experience to tailor to their individual interests. Liking pages or joining groups that are centered around your favorite pastimes or hobbies can be super beneficial in learning more about your likes! I personally am in several craft groups and have found so many great ideas that I have been able to use for gift making around the holidays. Facebook also has a wide variety of sub uses as well outside of the normal online social interaction. There is an Event section for planning/attending local activities, Marketplace for listing items for sale to a local audience, Jobs section for available positions in your area, and even a Dating section. Facebook Dating links you to others who are interested in the same events and share an interest in the same groups or pages. The Dating portion of the app matches you with people that are not currently on your friend list first so you can meet new people to connect with, allows for private conversation within the area, and even integrates Instagram photos to your dating profile. (2)
Another newer feature that Facebook has introduced is Facebook Shops. So not only are you available to reach potential customers via Marketplace for local sales, you will now be able to create an entire online storefront within the app. The Facebook Shop is available to anyone with a Facebook Business page. You can upload individual items to your shop or you can import items by using an XML file from your already established e-commerce website. Facebook is currently working with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube, and Feedonomics to expand the shopping experience integration within the social media platform. Once your items are uploaded to your Facebook shop you are able to create collections to showcase items better and allow for easy customer shopping. To top it off the Facebook Shop feature also allows you to cross-post your shop to your Instagram page with just a few extra clicks! Talk about handy multi-platform integration! (3)
Pinterest is essentially a digital corkboard. A place you can “pin” ideas, photos, videos, stories, links, and even products to collections for further use. Pinterest has about 367 million active users. 72% of which are female. Pinterest is the ONLY social media brand to make it to the top 10 list on Prophet’s Brand Relevance Index in 2019. Only to be beaten by giant names like Apple, Spotify, Android, Bose, Disney, KitchenAid, Amazon, Netflix, and Pixar (in order of popularity). (5) The popularity of Pinterest has been growing consistently since its debut in 2010. Although the social platform began on the web, today nearly 85% of users access the site via the app on their mobile device.
Pinterest is great for creating vision boards for projects of business ideas. But did you know a lot of small businesses drum up tons of sales by featuring their products on this social platform? 48% of Pinterest users use the site for making decisions about purchases or to browse new products! So if you’re in the business of business you can reach millions by showcasing your items on Pinterest. Photo descriptions are the key to having your pins found by many. Instead of using hashtags like other major sites, Pinterest just searches keywords in post descriptions and titles. Some tips for creating pins that are attention-grabbing for your products are: using call-to-action terms in titles, mention product prices, and using your brand name in your description field to increase awareness. (4)
Sources Cited:
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- Search Engine Journal – Kristi Kellogg – February 2020 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media/biggest-social-media-sites/
- Facebook – https://about.fb.com/news/2019/09/facebook-dating/
- Facebook – https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/
- Search Engine Journal – Julia McCoy – July 2020 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/pinterest-facts/370926/
- Prophet – https://www.prophet.com/relevantbrands-2019/