As communication professionals, it is our job to be savvy with the latest trends in social media. Beyond Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, there are new social networking sites that are drawing a great deal of interest. Pinterest, a virtual bulletin board to share and organize images, is rapidly becoming one of the hottest social networking sites and one that we are paying close attention to. We thought it would be valuable to look at the site’s capabilities and how it can benefit businesses.

We first highlighted Pinterest in a blog post about 2012 trends, where we discussed how Pinterest provides a platform for contests and a tool for businesses to demonstrate thought leadership by sharing fresh images.

Additionally, Pinterest can help businesses drive traffic back to their sites by pinning content. In fact, Real Simple reports that Pinterest drives more traffic to its site than Facebook. Companies like HomeAway are using the site to influence trends, by displaying beautiful vacation properties in hopes of becoming part of a conversation.

Retailers, such as Nordstrom, have started embracing Pinterest, doing a nice job pinning fashion trends, accessories, shoes, etc. to different boards that users can share. For retailers such as Nordstrom, this is an excellent way to find out which trends resonate with consumers. Some companies are using Pinterest to launch new products and gauge reaction based on repins. Additionally, Pinterest allows users to track how many pins originate from a website. For example, by typing in pinterest.com/source/Nordstrom.com, you can find all the pins that originated from that site regardless of who pinned them.

Each image on Pinterest is a “pin” that can be placed onto a board and into themes. The pinboards are truly inspiration boards where you can create inspirations for food, fashion, home interior design, or wedding planning, and businesses are catching on. These boards allow a company with several different focuses or products to easily organize its products separately. Consumers can pick and choose which board to follow based on relevance and interest.

Currently, Pinterest is invite only. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, you can’t create an account immediately. You must receive or request an invite from a current member.

Pinterest is still fairly new and it may be too soon to see just how it can benefit your particular business. For retailers, many are already reaping the rewards. We’ll continue to keep a close eye on this site. In the meantime, there are a variety of articles that offer tips to help you get your feet wet such as, Mashable’s article, “Pinterest: 13 Tips and Tricks for Cutting Edge Users,” or “Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network.”

But just be warned, like many other social media sites, it can be addicting!

PR Trends for 2012

As we get ready to ring in the new year, it is a good time to look at the emerging trends in public relations for 2012. As PR professionals, we strive to examine upcoming trends and tailor our recommendations to maximize results for our clients.

While evaluating potential trends for 2012, I came across a number of interesting articles that highlight predictions for the new year. John Trader from PRBreakfast Club wrote a piece, “Put Away the Toys, It’s Now Time to be Accountable ,” discussing trends surrounding measurement and accountability. Ragan’s recently published an article where Gini Dietrich specifically identified “8 Social Media Trends for 2012.” Based on research and my own experience of what we are seeing, I’ve highlighted four trends.

• New social media platforms. Between Twitter, Facebook and Google +, it does seem as though another social media site may be overkill, but social media sites such as Pinterest are attracting users. Pinterest allows users to create virtual pinboards. Pinterest has the ability to influence purchasing decisions and because of this, companies are hopping on board. For example, retailers are using Pinterest to not only share information by posting fashion trends, but using it to see what style trends consumers like based on engagement. Pins can also link back to products and businesses are using the site for contests. Some companies report that Pinterest drives more traffic than Facebook. Google + is not new, but Trader writes that in 2012 “more businesses will use Google + to extend their reach.” We are seeing this trend as we work with our clients who are eager to learn about how Google + can help their business. For more information on how companies can do that, you can read our blog post, “Google Earns a +1 for Google+ Brand Pages.”
• Focus on Measurement. Both Trader and Dietrich highlight the increased focus on measurement in 2012, not only on results from press coverage, but results derived from social media. Businesses are interested in tracking the results based on dollars spent. At Communiqué PR, we strive to set measurable goals with each of our clients and look for new ways to measure how social media is impacting their businesses. For each campaign, we develop a PR plan that maps back to the business objectives for each client with anticipated results. Following execution of the campaign we provide a recap to showcase how the results measured up against our goals. For social media, we use a variety of available tools to measure the influence of the handles we manage and provide this information back to the client, including Social Mention, TweetGrader.com and Klout.com.
• Integration of all disciplines. Dietrich predicts in 2012 we will see an increase in integration of marketing, PR, social media, sales, etc. Dietrich points out that this will be crucial next year and writes, “Today we talk about mobile, social, marketing, public relations, advertising, direct mail, email, customer service, and sales as if they’re working in silos. But 2012 is the year it needs to integrate. Customer service can’t do its job without talking to sales. Sales needs the help of public relations.” Dietrich predicts you’ll see these teams work in a circle rather than a silo in 2012. We are already noticing the need for these teams to integrate. For example, when researching speaking opportunities recently for a client, we were asked to look at lead generation to help sales. All disciplines need to work together closely to meet the company’s business objectives.
• Targeted Pitching. Next year, PR will focus on a more targeted approach to pitching. This is based on brands putting higher value on smaller media that speaks directly to a target audience. This will result in stricter evaluation of media lists and developing criteria to evaluate media. As PR professionals, we always evaluate if a publication reaches our client’s target audience, but we are getting more refined in our approach as many clients are beginning to place additional value on niche publications as opposed to broader pubs that reach a more diverse audience.

Predictions serve as a good guide for the upcoming year, but as with other disciplines, PR is constantly changing and it is up to us to adapt.

If you have any predictions to add, we would love to hear from you!