With the rapid growth of Pinterest and Tumblr, many marketers are pausing and strategizing as to how to use these channels. Pinterest has shown that it can drive a consumer to a sale. Meanwhile, Tumblr is lower on the marketing priority list because most of the content-sharing is done by 44 million users and not brands. Yet, both social networking sites have 89 minutes spent per visitor according to ComScore. It is obvious there is engagement on both sites, but how does a marketer use them to drive an action?
All great marketers start with insights into what content their audiences are consuming and sharing. This is about getting into the sociological and psychological mind of the consumer. This requires exploring and discovering topics, themes and content they are most engaged with. By analyzing social conversation, we can quickly understand the emotional reaction to content.
For instance, when a brand is starting to work on the creative for a campaign, understanding what audiences will share and what to curate, is an opportunity to lower media spend and optimize results. In other words, a brand can develop creative and content assets that consumers will share and distribute for them. This takes creativity and insights. And it isn't an either or scenario or a debate - if you want great creative, you need to start with powerful insights from data.
Welcome to the era of data-driven creativity. It isn't as dry as you may think. For example, when you track and trend the purchase and consideration themes from consumer conversation in social data and understand what drives their engagement, you can then use the imagination and transform advertising with creative ideas. Your message is aligned to the audience. The story becomes more compelling. And if the creative connects with the consumer on an emotional level - they will share it with their friends, just like they would any great story.
Pinterest and Tumblr are just two new avenues for data-driven storytelling. By understanding what images, videos and content audiences share and the purchase drivers they act upon, you can tap into new creative depths and have consumers retell your story for you.