In a world where social sharing is the norm, our experiences have become visual; our journeys are traceable; our friend count can be quantified and what we have to say matters. In this world, our influence is now measurable, and there’s no stopping the ever-evolving revolution of the online community that we call “social media.”
There are endless digital opportunities to share what makes you you; to write on controversial topics that you’re passionate about, to take photographs of what you had for breakfast, the pretty tree blossoming outside your window, or the friends you just “checked in” with at the concert, to let the world know about the great (or not so great) things that happened to you yesterday, today, and what you are planning to do tomorrow. There are endless opportunities, on the web alone, to market the brand of you.
Now, you can visually represent the brand of you via the latest hype in user sharing: social scrapbooking.
Pinterest
Though it was founded in 2008, social photo-sharing pinboard site Pinterest has been capturing endless attention over the past year as it has quickly gained popularity, hanging with the “top dogs” of social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Between November and December 2011, Pinterest’s unique visitor count experienced a 55% increase and in January it crossed the 10 million mark faster than any standalone site in history.1 Pinterest generates more referrals to retail sites than Google+, Reddit and YouTube combined.1
Not familiar with Pinterest? It functions like Twitter and Tumblr, with a greater emphasis on visual elements. Essentially, the site enables the user to be a curator of their favorite chosen content, with the ability to categorize their posts into “boards.” Think of it like a virtual bulletin board. Read about how businesses are using Pinterest in our previous post, Pinterest for Retailers, by Melissa Zapata.
Pinterest isn’t the only image bookmarking/content curation site out there though! There are several other social scrapbooking sites that offer a variety of options for users. Take a look:
The Fancy
The Fancy originally began as an invitation-only (similar to Pinterest’s exclusive membership request) photo blog where users uploaded images of their own, as well as items they’d “like to own.” Now, The Fancy is described as “part store, blog, magazine and wish-list,” and is open to the public—in January 2011, it had over 10,000 registered users. The idea behind TheFancy is that instead of “pinning” items the way you would on Pinterest, the user clicks to “fancy” the item. From a broadened perspective, it is the same virtual hub of images as Pinterest.
FFFFOUND enables users to post and share their favorite images (of their own, and ones found on the web) and generates recommendations for the user based on what they post.
WeHeartIt
Similarly, WeHeartIt is a web-based hub allowing users to save images to “sets” while following and sharing with friends.
The images and items posted on these sites link the user back to the actual origin or domain of the image. According to The Next Web, 21% of users on Pinterest have purchased an item that they found pinned on the site. Social photo sharing sites like Pinterest, TheFancy, FFFFOUND, and WeHeartIt aren’t resellers themselves, but allow forwarding to the shopping cart process. There are, however, similar social scrapbooking sites that have the built-in store feature, allowing you not only to find your favorite items, categorize and share, but to take it a step further, and buy them as well. Below are a few sites that allow on-site purchases:
svppy
Svpply helps users to find what they love, assess where it is available for purchase, and offers the option to buy it. Like most eCommerce sites, Svpply offers search and filter options to help narrow results.
As defined on their “About” page, Wanelo is a giant social store, curated by the community. Users post products from any online marketplace, browse the network and save what they love. Saving the item earns that item a higher placement on the Wanelo homepage. The more followers and more saves that a user earns, the higher their visibility is. Items are presented in a visual grid and can be categorized like Pinterest and WeHeartIt.
Wanelo
Social shopping site Lyst, founded in 2010, allows users to follow designers, boutiques, bloggers and stylists to be informed on their latest and greatest trends. Lyst allows the user to add favorite items to their own “list” from those they follow. Fun Fact: Any item added to your list creates an automated email send from Lyst to you (the user) whenever it goes on sale in any store, world-wide, that will ship to you.
Polyvore
On Polyvore, users create style swatches and “outfits” – the site provides a task bar with categories of clothing items that hold the ability to filter by color, price and keyword. The user drags items onto a virtual whiteboard to “publish” an outfit. Users cannot make direct purchases through Polyvore, but their items all list descriptions of the item title, brand or location to purchase, and price so that the user can make their own initiative to buy.
How does all of this pertain to retailers and to marketing? All of these sites (and the assumingly dozens more out there that haven’t surfaced yet) will be stalking retail products to add to the product hubs featured on their sites. Retailers should be aware of all that’s available on the web so they can offer opportunities not only to market products and brands, but also to close the sale. Marketers, on the other hand, need to keep up to date with the trendiest social sharing sites as they assist their clients in converting these “pinned,” “fancied,” essentially “favorited” items into a sale!
1 Web Pro News, 12 February 2012.
