This week, we’re working hard to get ready for our upcoming annual conference, which promises to be our best ever. We’re also keeping an eye on the latest trends, news, and statistics related to ecommerce.
Today, we’ll take a look at the recent announcement concerning the release of Timeline for Facebook business pages, and the emerging prominence of Pinterest and its applications for ecommerce.
Facebook To Make Timeline For Business Pages Mandatory By March 30th
Beginning this week, many Facebook business pages will have a new look. Facebook Timeline, which has been available for personal profiles on the popular social networking site for a few months now, has just been released for business pages.
As with Timeline for profiles, business page admins will have the opportunity to preview their business page with Timeline, customize the look of their new page, and opt in to Timeline before March 30th, the date when all Facebook business pages will be automatically converted to Timeline.
Facebook users familiar with Timeline will likely recognize at least some of the features being called the benefits of Timeline for business pages. These features include the ability to include a large “cover” photo in addition to a smaller profile picture, and the Timeline interface itself.
New, brand-specific features for Timeline include the ability to “pin” posts of interest prominently to a brand’s Timeline, and a new direct-message feature, which allows brands and consumers to connect directly via Facebook messaging.
New, brand-specific features for Timeline include the ability to “pin” posts of interest prominently to a brand’s Timeline, and a new direct-message feature, which allows brands and consumers to connect directly via Facebook messaging.
Increase In Pinterest Usage Among Online Retailers Increases, Copyright Concerns Raised
Many online retailers are starting to take notice of Pinterest, and membership in the digital bulletin board has grown exponentially since its private beta launch in 2010. As of this story, there are approximately 12 million Pinterest users currently.
This number represents an increase of 11 million from July of 2011, an increase that has prompted some to call Pinterest “the fastest growing site ever.”
Whether this is true remains to be seen, but it is true that users are pinning and repining (similar to sharing on FB or retweeting on Twitter) images of items that they like and find interesting, and businesses are taking notice of this trend.
With this astronomical rise in users and popularity however, come some concerns relating to the copyright and fair usage laws of images pinned on Pinterest. Some sites, including Flickr, have disabled the pinning function because of image copyright concerns. In an effort to calm copyright fears, Pinterest itself recently introduced a metatag NOPIN function that keeps Pinterest users from linking or pinning images on a site to Pinterest.
As issues of copyright and fair usage laws on the Internet continue to be raised, it remains to be seen whether the success of Pinterest will be eclipsed by these issues, or strengthened by its ability to respond to them in a straightforward, manner. For now though, it is clear that Pinterest has value both as a social networking pastime and a powerful social networking tool for retailers.
Miva