The 10 Most-Followed Brands on Pinterest

The Perfect Palette, a wedding blog that explores “the color palette possibilities for your wedding” and serves as a resource for other wedding ideas, would seem to be a perfect match for Pinterest, and it is.

The site is far and away the biggest brand on Pinterest with more than 240,000 followers, according to Zoomsphere. The rest of the list illustrates that media titles that cater to the nesting instinct have a definite advantage. (As do publications that write about Pinterest, including Mashable, which clocks in at number 10.) In fact, while the likes of Coca-Cola and General Motors might not have much use for Pinterest right now, brands like Rachael Ray (about 500 followers) and Diapers.com (400 followers) might want to step up their game.

 Zoomsphere released a list of the top Pinterest brands on Wednesday. As you may note, even the The Perfect Palette is a mere piker compared to Jane Wang, Pinterest’s top overall user, who has around 2.4 million followers.

Are you surprised to not see a certain brand on the list?

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Latitude Leaderboard: Does Google Want to Be the New Foursquare?

Google is expanding its reach across social media — first with Google+, now with Leaderboard, a new feature allowing users to earn points for checking in to a location via GoogleLatitude.

Last week, Google launched an updated version of Google Maps for Android, equipped with the new feature similar to Foursquare.

The company hasn’t officially said it wants to compete against Foursquare. Leaderboard’s addition to Google Latitude has been kept hush-hush. Google doesn’t even list Leaderboard as being a new feature on the Android Google Maps update. It only says it fixed bugs and has “improved battery performance for Latitude and Location History users.” Leaderboard is only available on the latest version of Google Maps, and not everyone has access to the feature yet.

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DigitalCoCo Leads Industry with Largest Restaurant Social Consumer Database

The Restaurant Social Media Index tracks more than 30 million U.S. restaurant consumers in first year

The Restaurant Social Media Index (RSMI), created in 2010 by DigitalCoCo, recently surpassed more than 30 million social media consumers in the restaurant-related industry. Launched by technology and publishing executive Paul Barron, the database initially tracked upwards of 2600 restaurant businesses, brands and independents to provide a full rank of the industry. It is now recognized as the largest restaurant social consumer database in the U.S.
 
DigitalCoCo, a leading digital agency focused on social analytics, audience acquisition and interactive campaigns for the hospitality sector.  They designed RSMI to be the first deep-dive analytics system for the restaurant industry’s social media activity. Connecting social media and the restaurant industry developed as a result of Barron’s 20 years of experience.
 
A crew of social media experts, design mavens and culinary connoisseurs supports a wide array of global restaurant & hospitality brands and suppliers. The DigitalCoCo team monitors millions of social media engagements per week at their Social Insights Command Center in South Florida.

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Does Your Branded Franchise Need Its Own Social Media Strategy?

While social media can perplex a single business unit, imagine the challenges and multidimensional complications that can arise when a franchisor decides to incorporate social media into his or her integrated communications plan. Social media does not dictate an entire marketing program, but it must be approached with the same level of attention and definition as the rest of its marketing counterparts.

When considering social media within the bounds of franchising, the questions of how one designs, develops, executes and measures the program multiply tenfold. The franchisor, unlike other business owners, has to be concerned with the performance of several franchisees as the continuous extension of his or her brand.

It all comes down to structure. Should franchisors manage brand social media from a corporate perspective, or should they empower franchisees to do so on a local level?

Whether to pursue a centralized or decentralized approach to social media really depends on the individual franchise. Franchisors, answering the following questions may help you decide which approach works best for your system.

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Location-based technology will redefine behavioral targeting, maybe sooner than you think

That future in which a bus-shelter ad equipped with geofencing technology scans your smartphone as you stroll by—inviting you to, say, a free latte or a cut-rate back rub—may not be so far off after all.

“2012 is going to be a huge year in terms of innovation—not just with respect to being able to leverage location to contextualize the types of advertising and offers that a consumer receives, but also then to turn the corner on that and turn it into actual commerce in the physical world,” said Walt Doyle, CEO of the location-based service Where. Last spring, eBay bought Where to facilitate its mobile transactions. It will figure heavily in the forthcoming mobile-commerce initiative of eBay’s electronic payment service PayPal, which has already been tested with Best Buy and Home Depot.

And geotargeting doesn’t stop with the widely cited example of a free cup of Starbucks. While often accused of not living up to its promise, we likely will see the day, and soon, when location-based technology redefines behavioral targeting as we know it, when a consumer packaged-goods company recognizes that a shopper is in the cereal aisle and sends a Wheaties coupon to her phone.

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