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Who doesn’t like to look at pretty things? Images that make you think? Quotes to inspire you? From mouth-watering recipes to the workout that whittles your figure into shape to wear your fashion fantasies, America is pinning. If social media were to have an “It” girl, in 2012, her name would be Pinterest. The site has seen tremendous growth in the past few months and pinning has caught on like wildfire, as users create visual boards containing their interests, desires, inspiration and personal expressions.

All this pinning caught the attention of Facebook, who integrated Pinterest when they rolled out the Open Graph last week. The Pinterest app was one of the first 60 apps available to users. As consumers’ engagement with Pinterest has grown, brands are beginning to swarm to the site. There is no ROI, or measurement system for Pinterest yet, but any social media marketer is going to take note of the potential to reach customers. Brands are heading to Pinterest as if it is a Gold Rush in the digital landscape.

Are you pining to learn more about Pinterest? We thought so! Sociality Squared CEO, Helen Todd will be presenting “Pining Over Pinterest” at Social Media Week – New York.

“Pinterest is THE emerging platform that’s going to steal the show for 2012. It’s simple, visually compelling…and best of all: it has clear business benefits that are tangible. Well, almost tangible. Brands already taking advantage of Pinterest are seeing increased traffic to their websites as one of the many benefits from this platform. Best practices and case studies are being created now, but YOU can stay ahead of the curve by attending this event that will explore what Pinterest is, current case studies and why you should be using it if you aren’t already.”

The event will be held on Thursday, February 16 from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM at Definition 6; Sociality Squared and Definition 6  are hosting. You can find the event details here http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=1422. Due to the speaker and the subject’s popularity, the event is sold out. If you aren’t one of the lucky attendees, we look forward to seeing you there! We will be posting Helen’s presentation on the blog following Social Media Week.

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/the-top-brands-on-pinterest/

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/real-simple-pinterest-drives-traffic-facebook/231576/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adage%2Fcomplete+%28Advertising+Age+-+Complete+Feed%29

http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=1422

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

Paul Adams is a user experience expert currently working on advertising products at Facebook. Having previously worked on Google’s social strategy, he gave a simple, yet richly insightful presentation about his research on social circles at UX Week in San Francisco this past summer. I highly recommend you watch the video when you have the time. Read on for the key takeaways.

UX Week 2011 | Paul Adams | How Our Social Circles Influence What We Do, Where We Go, and How We Decide from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Paul began his presentation by illustrating the fact that people are social by design, and have been since the beginning of time. That hasn’t changed in thousands of years, and is not likely to change anytime soon. Technology, however, seems to be evolving at the speed of light. As technology more aligns with human behavior, it becomes more valuable for people and businesses, which is Paul’s first theme:

The web is being rebuilt around people 

Why are we rebuilding the web around people? Because social networks are not new! The Internet is twenty years old, which is still quite young, and it’s been catching up to us being social by nature.

Technology changes really fast. Our behavior does not. It changes really, really slowly. Up to the past few years, technology has not really been very social. Social Networks entered the picture when tech savvy folks created sites like Facebook, which then gave us the ability to connect socially via technology. The marriage of technology and social networks gives us the opportunity for socially connecting to businesses.

Last summer, Ticketmaster launched interactive seat maps that can be linked to your Facebook account. This allows people to be more social when buying tickets. They can check themselves in and see which shows their friends are going to, and even purchase tickets near their friends. Mashable explains, “Ticketmaster’s research suggests that every time a ticket buyer shares his purchase with friends online, the activity converts to $5 in additional ticket sales. The hope, says Levin, is that Facebook seat-tagging will encourage ticket buyers to more frequently share that they’re attending events and drive up ticket sales as a result.”

Paul goes on to give other examples of how businesses are becoming more social by leveraging technology and social networks to connect people “the old fashioned way”, yet through technology. You can see gift ideas for friends on Etsy, or connect with someone about a trip you are planning on TripAdvisor. In essence, focusing on technology will not help as much as understanding behavior. We need to understand what makes people behave the way they do.

People live in networks 

People have sets of relationships that multiply in groups. Each person has multiple independent groups of friends that are built by life experience, shared experiences and hobbies. Paul illustrated this by posing a question: Have you ever had to make a dinner seating plan for your wedding? It is easy to see how one person is part of a diverse mix of groups (and at a wedding, sometimes you don’t want them to mix too closely, such as sitting your conservative aunt next to your college frat buddy). Obviously, people have different types of relationships among their groups of friends. The people who connect groups are not special. They are not “influencers”. They are average people connecting on social networks; they are you and I.

Networks determine how people are influenced 

 Celebrities make us aware, but they don’t influence behavior. We are most influenced by our networks, environment and experiences. The stronger tie we have with someone, the more influence they will have on us.

The amount of information we must process when making a decision has exponentially increased in the Digital Era. Building our social network gives us more brainpower for making decisions. Paul gave another excellent example about someone who was in the market for a new car. This guy spent hours online researching and finally had a sense of what he wanted. He found a car he was interested in and asked a friend to come along for the test drive. He wanted his friend’s opinion; buying a car is a big purchase. As soon as they get to the dealership, the guy’s friend says, “I don’t like it. One of my co-workers has that car, and I really don’t like him. You can’t get this car.” And there you have it the car buyer has made his decision. We ask our close friends for their opinions. They are more likely to influence us over anything else because we trust them.

In this world of exponentially increasing information, our strong ties influence us the most. Which means the wave of influence is strong through our social networks. We don’t share facts; we share feelings. Sharing is a means to an end; we want input from those we trust and we want to help those close to us. In the next two to five years the social network will disrupt vertical business. Who is best positioned to help businesses adapt? User experience designers.

Paul’s final recommendation for business owners: You need to reorient your business around people. If you don’t, someone else will.

More information related to this article can be found here:

http://vimeo.com/29576241

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

Did you know that Facebook has several pages of their own? These pages were created to provide outreach and resources to the different types of communities that utilize the Facebook platform. Here are a few of Facebook’s pages that we find particularly helpful:

• Facebook Marketing Solutions: http://www.facebook.com/marketing Great case studies and tips for improving engagement.
• Facebook Ads: http://www.facebook.com/FacebookAds They share interesting success stories and often host webinars to explain changes to the ad platform.
• Facebook Platform: http://www.facebook.com/platform Use cases and tips for integrating the Facebook Platform and social plug-ins across the web
• Facebook Pages: http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages Keep up with changes being made to Facebook pages, big and small, by liking this page about pages (confused yet?)
• Facebook Marketing: Small & Medium Businesses http://www.facebook.com/smbmarketing Learn how small to medium size businesses are using Facebook and how to make the most of Facebook without spending thousands

Are there any other Facebook pages that you have liked and found particularly helpful? Share them as a comment below.

Post written by Biana Bakman aka @bianalog. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!

Over the past couple of weeks Facebook has added a lot of new features throughout the site. We’ve given you the top line for each new feature and included links to All Facebook, Inside Facebook and The Facebook Blog posts with more in depth information about each.

Personal

Hide Recent Activity [Source: All Facebook]: Gone are the days when you have to individually remove your recent activity on Facebook so that no one discover’s you’re actually looking through last weekend’s photos when you should be writing a blog post on new Facebook features (NOTE: I have never been guilty of such a heinous crime of procrastination!). Facebook has restored the ability for you to hide all your recent activity from other Facebook users.

Shortened @mention Tags [Source: Facebook]: I rarely call my friends by their full name so it is rather awkward when I have to do so in a Facebok Wall Post or comment. Fortunately, Facebook has made a few updates that make tagging easier and reflect natural language.

Business

Facebook Deals [Source: The Facebook Blog]: Facebook is continuing to expand their Deals offering and integrating it more and more throughout the site. If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the test cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco then check out what deals are available at http://www.facebook.com/deals.

Groups [Source: All Facebook]: We all knew this day would come. It’s time to say goodbye to old Facebook Groups! If you’re still using the old Facebook Groups (trust me the new version is infinitely better) then you want to start migrating now.

Page Suggestions [Source: Inside Facebook]: With the past site revamps Facebook has really buried the Page Suggestions feature to the point that I stopped recommending it as a way to promote your page. Perhaps with these new tweaks the feature will regain prominence.

Send Button [Source: Inside Facebook]: Facebook likes (no pun intended) to name, remove, and rename their buttons quite often and it can get rather confusing. First there was like, then share, then share left and there was just like again and now we have send. The good news is that Facebook is paying attention to users’ behavior and adapting to what helps spread content the best.

Ads

Ad Analytics [Source: Inside Facebook]: Facebook is adding some amazing new data points to its ad analytics which reflect how ads are displayed on Facebook and emphasize the social aspect of Facebook ads rather than just mimicking the data provided with search ads. I’m most excited at the prospect of being able to see exactly how many new likes were acquired from an ad. This feature is just starting to be rolled out so be on the look out for it soon.

Sponsored Stories [Source: All Facebook]: Though Facebook is not exactly calling these “ads” despite the fact that they live within the advertisement dashboard on Facebook, these “sponsored stories” are a great way of spreading the word about your Page/App/Place by promoting social activity (John Doe likes your page) and content (Mom and Pop’s Barber Shop posted this link).

Ad Targeting [Source: Inside Facebook]: For me, filling out the “likes and interests” portion of ad targeting with keywords is like a big game of word association and I’m a huge word geek. For those who haven’t mastered the keyword game, Facebook has introduced Broad Category Targeting.

Creative Library [Source: Inside Facebook]: Facebook has introduced the “Creative Library” as a great visual way to view your entire catalog of ads with image, headline and copy. You can view the ads individually, edit them and even create a new ad using old ad images and copy in just one click.

Have you used any of the new features yet? Which have you found to be the most useful?

Post written by Biana Bakman aka @bianalog. To learn more from fbadz.com, become a fan!