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Yes, Virginia, There are Social Media Sites Other Than Facebook

posted on January 11, 2012


The Usual Suspects: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+

Yes, Google+, because even though they don’t have the user impact of the other three, they get the press. So what about Tumblr? According to numbers from eMarketer, the graphically-oriented blogging site has a few more users than Google+ (15.9 million vs 15.2) so why aren’t we talking about them every week?

I’ll go you one better. Have you seen Pinterest? This photo cataloging site makes Tumblr look like War and Peace by text comparison. This hot, new social media site encourages you to “pin” photos of items into like categories. You can use mundane categories such as foods or fashions, but Pinterest would like you to be more cerebral. “Things on my bucket list,” “Motivation” and “Kid-spiration.”

Pinterest is kicking up interest, no doubt, but is it worth your time? The site does have one of the highest growth rates for time spent, a whopping 512% increase since May of 2011. Tumblr’s not too shabby, either.

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Sina Weibo is like Twitter in China and it’s the fastest growing social media site out there right now with an 181% increase in audience year-over-year.

And then there’s Tagged, which reads like a social media version of Match.com.

So many social media sites, so little time. Is it worth it to spread yourself any thinner? I’ve tried Tumblr as a marketing method but haven’t had much success. The method of sharing between accounts is easy but getting people to follow you is tough. Navigationally hard to figure out, even. I’m definitely not sold on Tumblr as a marketing outlet.

Pinterest, on the other hand, has potential. Especially now that the site is gaining so much attention. If you have a visual product, then this could be a good place for you. Especially since you can group things in a helpful manner. The trick is giving the pages an interesting twist. A travel agent could put up a dozen pinboards of destination photos, but how about “most unusual destinations,” “most adventurous locations,” “craziest hotels.” Now, you’ve got my interest.

What do you think? Is it worth branching out beyond the usual suspects or are you already social media overwhelmed?


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  • http://www.susies-coupons.com Jamie

    I am always surprised by the sheer number of social media sites that people are using to share items when I look at my addthis stats. In the interest of time, I stick to facebook and twitter and let people have the choice to share with other Social Media sites of their choice via addthis plugins and a meebo toolbar. I just discovered pinterest, though, and it’s so fun. I’m starting to use it just because it’s so easy to pin things, and there seems to be a real community that builds quickly around the links you pin, with “re-pins” etc.

  • http://twitter.com/jonbarilone Jon Barilone

    Can anyone tackle the mystery of Tagged.com? I still don’t know how to explain its growth.

  • http://www.brickmarketing.com/seo-consulting.htm Nick Stamoulis

    The first step is to find out if your target audience is using these sites. If they are, it might be worth it. But don’t think that you need to have a presence on every site, especially if your target audience isn’t there.

  • http://www.beautybusinessblueprint.com Robert Samuel

    It’s such a full time job trying to tackle these social media outlets for business purposes. I haven’t heard of Pinterest though. I have to check that one out.

  • Ed Marshall

    What I find interesting about Google+ is the recent surge in users. Member sign up spiked after it left beta and invitations to join were no longer needed, but attrition dropped drastically a coupe of weeks after. However, the recent the growth has been tremendous, and I think that’s why there has been so much talk about it. According to http://googleplusadvertise.com/2012/01/, the user base is expected to hit 400m members by the end of 2012. Now that they’ve integrated social search into Google Results I have no doubt this will happen. Sure the privacy advocates are crying out in rage, but I don’t think the majority of users really care, especially if social search functionality improves SERPS. My only question is, what does this mean for SEO?!

    • http://www.internetmarketingtrainingresources.com Alva Reza

      Hi Ed,

      We knew that the purpose of SEO is to get our site list at Google first page. Few days ago I’ve read at Google’s Blog that they have officially launch Search, Plus Your World. Google is going to personalize our search result when we’re logging in to google account. If people in your circle is searching something that match your keywords, google will put you in the 1st result.

      maybe links below can explain it to you better than I am. :) Just in case you haven’t read it yet…
      http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html

      http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/10/tech/web/google-search-plus/index.ht ml?hpt=hp_bn6

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