Friday 23 March 2012

Which Social Media Outlet Will Bring Business?


Like a child in a toy shop we are bombarded by new social media options - Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Tumblr, Pinterest - and it is difficult to select the right one(s). The child in a toy shop analogy works as well because this is a young industry and there is not much information out there on what is going to last the long haul and be meaningful to consumers.

Facebook has a foot in the door with retail type connection opportunities. Your editor did try a Facebook retail shop plug-in but the trial period expired with no real results and I am still waiting on more positive information from users before pursuing this course.

Pinterest is a very interesting new option. It is basically a pin board on the web and is full of lovely photos that you click on to finally get to a website buying option. The photos are all of a reasonable standard and we suspect they are hand filtered for appearance. If you have a product that photographs well, this may be for you.

We would be very interested in comments from traders who have tried any of these social media options as business links. Exchanging useful information could give QVM traders an edge over our rivals.