From working on the revolutionary Blogger for Google, to launching Odeo, to co-founding Twitter, Evan Williams knows a thing or two about connecting people. Here’s 8 minutes of fascinating stuff.
We love Pinterest and can’t stop talking about it. But, then again, neither can the rest of the Internet.
And it’s no wonder. Traffic has SURGED for Pinterest lately, up 50 percent between January and February, according to a new report released by Experian (and supported by a range of other Internet and social media trend reporting agencies). Total U.S. visits in February were stellar – and it shot Pinterest past its closest competitor, LinkedIn.
It Goes Like This: Facebook – Twitter – Pinterest
Pinterest surprised everyone last year by getting in the Top 10 of social networks.
As it stands now, Pinterest is the third-largest social network behind Facebook and Twitter – leaving LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Google+ behind (and picking up users like President Obama).
- Facebook: 7 billion
- Twitter: 182 million
- Pinterest: 104 million
- LinkedIn: 86 million
- Tagged: 72 million
- Google+: 61 million
Now do you see why Facebook is trying to add more visual interest to its interface? Does it help explain their billion-dollar purchase of Instagram? In any case, traffic to Pinterst is still 10-fold over Instagram, who received 10.2 million visits last month.
What Are People Doing On Pinterest?
They’re staying. Engagement on Pinterest is enviable, with users spending an average of 89 minutes per month on site. Facebook is still king, though, with users spending an average of 405 minutes per month.
Users can add a bookmarklet in their web browser, allowing Pinterest to stay with them throughout their Internet travels. They can pin anything from any page they come across, including pics of products they love, designers they admire, and places they want to visit (just to name a few of the most popular categories). And, with each pin automatically sourced back to where it was found, Pinterest is a marketer’s dream tool.
Social media in general is reaching new highs: 91% of adults use social media regularly.
We bet you have some questions about Pinterest. If you want to ask them, come join us on Facebook or Twitter. We’ll start doing profiles on our clients’ Pinterest accounts soon, too. See you back here.
Google has announced an overhaul of the Google+ interface. The rollouts began this week, and the changes are designed to be more customizable, more social, and more visual. It also offers a new interface for Google+’s breakthrough – but underused – service, Hangouts.
Icon-Centric Navigation
Navigation is the most obvious and dramatic change. Instead of function buttons framing the top left corner, the buttons for your Google apps – your profile, photos, hangouts, etc.— populate a “navigation ribbon” along the left, where users can drag-n-drop app icons. It’s a Google-simple version of the iOs app shelf.
A mouse-over reveals an app icon’s functions. Dragging app icons off the navigation ribbon will automatically drop it into the “…MORE” section. The ability to add, remove, customize your personal favorites and most-used Google+ features is designed to coax longer interaction.
The Twitter-like trending box in the upper right feeds into the Explore page, where users can see what’s going on throughout the entire network.
Emphasis on Photos and Videos, Hangouts
According to Google, much of the overhaul was designed to “make sharing more evocative.” One area that got lavished with attention was videos and photos. More screen real estate is dedicated to them. There was an emphasis on sharing from anywhere on Google, including YouTube and Google search.
The dedicated Hangouts page features a rotating list of current and popular hangouts, from pros and from your circles. Hangouts – like buffed-up conferencing — are still used primarily by tech-y and nerdy types, as is most of the Google+ network. The page hopes to make Hangouts more accessible to everyone else.
No one can deny that Google+ is thoughtfully designed. It was partly a matter of reaching out to a different type of user, namely, everybody.
Pinterest is still invite-only but new aggregated data indicates that it is taking its place among the social media behemoths in referral traffic:
- Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than Twitter
- Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than Google Plus (G+), LinkedIn, and YouTube combined
The data was collected from more than 200,000 publishers who collectively reach more than 270 million unique monthly visitors each month. Facebook still accounted for more than a quarter of the referral traffic. Subculture-centric Stumbleupon held on to its number-two position, while similar bookmarking site Reddit was also among the top.
This is Huge: Pinterest > Twitter
The biggest news here has got to be the Twitter connection. Twitter’s micro-blogging platform found its power in its concise, 140-character bursts of information – posts are quick to craft and easy to share. Along with its URL shorteners making it more than easy to put active links in posts, Twitter was a powerful source of referral traffic for businesses and marketers.
It now looks as if Pinterest is occupying a similar niche, with the added dimensions of being visuals-focused. There is power in pictures — and Pinterest is remarkably beautiful, and its content is infinitely clickable.
We’ve blogged about Pinterest before. We’re also marketers who have been eagerly watching Pinterest grow since the beginning. If you’d like to know more about how we can leverage Pinterest for you, contact us. Ask your questions. We would love to share what we know.
A minute on the Internet on its slowest day would be busier than a mega-city street on its most caffeinated, congested, and constructive day. The amount of consumption going on is staggering. See below.
