Social image sharing sites changing the web

Bizrate has just conducted an online study of social image sharing sites like Pinterest and the data is electrifying if you are an online brand or retailer.

The social image sharing site users are much more engaged than typical social media sites. They share more, they spend more — all key to brand management and growth on the web.

Buyers

Fully, 32% of all visitors of these sites like Pinterest have bought a product online because of them. So if roughly 25 million users visit sites like Pinterest (15 million), Polyvore (3.5 million) and others, then nearly 8 million have purchased product because of their activity on those sites.

That is a significant lead generation source and is clearly trumping Facebook in terms of quality if not quantity.

Enticers

The other interesting piece of data from this research is the stimulation these sites are causing. Fully 37% of visitors to the site were engaged by the products and caused a desire to buy. When we think of the typical cost of engaging users into a purchasing-oriented process, online or off, this new category looks like a huge home run.

To Do List for Brands and Retailers

  1. Move quickly onto Pinterest if you have not already. Only 24% of all online retailers have built a presence on Pinterest.
  2. Learn from the best. Check out Etsy, Burberry, Sephora , and Bottica among others to see how they manage their brand.
  3. Invest, invest, invest. These sites are about engagement. Design. Product. Sales come from and engaged brand. The more the brand demonstrates interest and involvement, the more involved the audience will get.
  4. Don’t sell to this audience. Let the brand and the audience do the selling.
  5. Note that 16% of the responders did not purchase because of friction between the social imaging site and the ecommerce site. That’s alot of people who want to buy.