How does Twitch work? 

Twitch primarily makes use of the subscription service model which amounts to around $250 per 100 subscribers (stream scheme). With a payment method pre-saved for subscribers, sponsored live streams can be highly effective, the host acting like a tv salesman replying to questions and demonstrating in real-time. Other ways users can spend money that you should be aware of include emotes which are small emoji-like icons that you can purchase and use in any Twitch streamer's chat. Badges and bits, are virtual goods to be rewarded and bought as a way for users to show support for streamers along with something you might be familiar with, donations. 

These are all useful when looking at the overall market of free-spending Twitch has created. Each feature contributing to the rising 1.5 billion in revenue made in 2019 (twitch tracker). The average user is willing to shell out on nothing more than an emoji to send to their favorite creator. Needless to say, any product advertised on stream through the creator or as a standard paid advertised overlay (which is less desired) will make a significant impact, especially for small businesses. For those looking to invest more emphatically, digital events on the site can generate annual, consistent paydays, an event like 'E3' having an average concurrent viewer count of over 100,000 (twitch metrics).

How does Pinterest work? 

All three sites share the potential to create additional traffic, generating a conveyor belt of inbound links. Though it is Pinterest that specializes in converting browsers into buyers as shown earlier and here’s how:

Pinterest's mood board and pinning section are the main functions of the site, both effectively working as online shopping baskets. “Shopping ad revenue once again grew faster than our overall business and we saw a 6x increase in the number of businesses that used the shopping ads format in Q4 of 2020" (Pinterest letter to shareholders). You can see why “Shopping is Pinterest’s strategic priority for 2021”. The shopping ad format they are rolling out is an even more direct marketplace for businesses interested in selling and advertising on Pinterest. 

Another way of maximizing your visibility to consumers is through the use of tags and pins, a piece of code that you add to your website and products. Pinterest users being 70% more likely to engage with product tags (newsroom). Collection ads are an ad format that appears as a combination of one large pictured product followed by three smaller, secondary products. This alone drove a 6-18% increase in total basket size (ctfassets). The intangible culture of the website being another major factor, 8 in 10 Pinterest users say the platform makes them feel positive (business pinterest) this is no accident, “That positive environment translates to better results... people remember and trust brands who show up in positive places,” Jim Habig, global Head of Business Marketing for Pinterest. 

How does Twitter work? 

With all these features you can utilize across these apps, Twitter remains at the top of any companies list for online marketing. The sheer size of the user base out muscling so many competitors. With an advertising audience of 353 million, up 8% since Q3 2020, an increase of 27 million users (hootsuite). But how to take advantage of this extensive terrain? Well, 82% of B2B content marketers have been using Twitter for organic content marketing within the last 12 months. The added boost of this integrating with any video content, taking advantage of the 62% increase in video views on the site from 2019 to 2020 (content marketing institute). Twitter also provides the function to speak directly to customers, providing bot-manned help to customers through dm’s and Twitter chats, helping increase brand connection to the consumer. Promoted Tweets are a great way to plant your ads in the Twitter streams of specific users. All packaged alongside additional research tools made available and easy to access for business accounts on the site. 

These three sites are now becoming primary shopping outlets. A vital aspect of all three is that knowledge on how best to deal with and utilize influencers is necessary.