Tumblr Vs Pinterest

Let us start with the cliché – Pictures tell what thousand words cannot.

But for strange reasons, pictures, despite the ease with which they convey the most complex, have been left alone for long. Their indispensability in social media communication can never be overemphasized. In branding they teach that if your product provides emotional connect, your product is an outright winner. Pictures are the most trusted most trusted media to forge emotional connect.  

It is in this space that the battle of social media is being fought. Vehemently so in the recent times. Some global, more local networking sites have registered phenomenal growth. Boutique offerings definitely create a stir but fade in no time as well. But here we would like to keep our discussion to the two major players in the domain: Tumblr and Pinterest. Before we do that we need to establish a couple of things though.  The foremost:

Is this even a competition?

Pinterest and Tumblr represent two markedly different ways people use the social media. If one is about microblogging the other is about social networking. As different as chalk and cheese, one could say. But in this world of social media integration and prompt imitation, the battle is always about grabbing and the time spent by an user on the social networking sites. Technically, there is another common underpinning that both of them provide content curation. So even as these two social networking sites fulfill two different needs, the business world seems to be finding a common ground where these two giants of the virtual space have a real battle in hand. The battle of Influencer marketing.

Yes, social media networks present a trove of influencers to the advertisers. Sheer number of influencers alone counts for nothing. Their engagement with the network would be a key determinant. Targeted reach would be another critical component of success. Does being present across all media of communication help get clients hooked to your site or a focused approach of engaging and nurturing one media works in the long run. If that was not all, there is always the danger of a breakthrough innovation lurking around the corner. Having established the first let us establish another critical aspect.

Whose side are we on?

Are we on the advertisers’ side? Are we taking side with the influencers? Or are we just the fence sitters and take a neutral view of things? Would a pure user engagement comparison make sense where every such attempt has a serious business undertone to it. We take the side of social media advertising in general.

We would compare these two giants of Social Media advertising on numerous fronts and see how they stack up against each other on the metrics of growth, engagement, demographics, targeted reach, e-commerce and business integration, number of apps being developed and number of startups springing up.   

Growth:

Before we do that let us see how the battle stands out at the moment.  Pinterest just toppled Tumblr in terms of unique visitors according to Compete.com (For a complete insight read on).  

   

This is how close the battle has been for the past few months since the inception of Pinterest. Tumblr to its credit has clocked a very steady growth but the pinning interest in Pinterest has grown majestically over the last 12 months. Pinterest has grown 2200% in the time when Tumblr grew by a more modest 50%. No mean achievement by Tumblr when you consider the huge base it had to contend with.

Pinterest is still in its formative years of customer acquisition and the appeal of simplicity and ease is definitely attracting new users to its fold. Tumblr, too, saw such growth when it started off. Three cheers to Pinterest for achieving this stupendous growth. But is this sustainable?  Sooner than later, as it grows older, Pinterest will start seeing a more modest growth. And getting older in the internet space does not take years. Orkut knows this for sure. It will have to prevent mass exodus. Does Pinterest have enough arsenals to keep itself ignited for years to come? Will it integrate other multimedia to fuel the growth engine? We will have to wait and watch.

+1 to Pinterest

Engagement:

Sheer UV numbers count for nothing unless used in conjunction with the average time an user spends on the network.

Not much too chose between as far as user engagement is concerned. Both of them stand pretty at close to 750 seconds per day and they have been holding on to that for some time now.  In this age where users change networking sites with the drop of a coin, kudos to Tumblr for holding it on that number. A conservative CFO would always favour a steady cash flow than a fluctuating one as depicted by Pinterest. Would Pinterest be still able to hold sway over its consumers by repeatedly asking them to do the same? There would come a time when pictures will stop speaking.

+1 to Tumblr.

Demographics:

It is here the chunk of battle between Pinterest and Tumblr is being fought.  Tumblr.com holds sway over the younger breed in the 18-24 years range whereas Pinterest has a tight grip on the 35-44 years range.

This stark contrast in the age distribution for the two can be explained by the fact that women, particularly middle aged women, have taken a liking for Pinterest whereas the younger generation vouches for their Tumblrs. If one were to go by the ecommerce spending by age group in US, one could easily figure out where the chunk of spending is coming from.   The most recent report by Statista clearly bring out that close to 43% of all online purchases is being made in the age group of 18-44 years range. 65% of Tumblr users fall in this category whereas Pinterest has close to 56% in that category. A good difference when we consider the 14M userbase for each site. The report also reiterates that this break up is not likely to change much in the coming years.

     

+1 to Tumblr.

Targeted Reach:

One key aspect that could decisively tilt the scale in Tumblr’s favour is its presence across all media of communication. Pinterest with its focused approach of concentrating on just one medium is certainly reaping rich rewards but it would find going touch tough once people particularly women get bored of the same stuff. Tumblr would have far more leeway to experiment than Pinterest. Only time can tell where does the proverbial egg fall finally. For the time being, I will go with Tumblr.

+1 to Tumblr

E-Commerce and business Integration:

What remains true is that no social networking site would remain viable unless they make commercial sense. This holds true for both Tumblr and Pinterest. Tumblr definitely has the first mover’s advantage in this regard but Pinterest is fast catching up. Right now the companies are providing an excellent platform for product promotion but sooner than later we would see a more tight integration.  

Whether they would continue to redirect traffic to e-commerce sites or online portals of advertisers or would double up as ecommerce sites themselves is debatable at the moment. In coming days we would see each one of the two take a decisive position and that should determine their fate in the next 2-3 years.     

It is here that we must mention, The Fancy.com which is already being touted as the next blue eyed boy of the start-up world. Fancy.com already has 250,000 registered users and is growing extremely rapidly.The Fancy is part store, partly blog, partly magazine and partly a wish list. It’s a replica of Pinterest in all respect except that it allows stuff to be purchased right from its own site. You do not require to leave the site at all for any purchase. Crucially, 60% of The Fancy users are men who are more often than not posting consumer goods of the Fab.com variety, high fashion clothes and accessories and exotic locales.

Fancy.com is definitely slated for a more meaningful presence in the coming years.

+1 to Tumblr, +1 to Pinterest

Number of apps being developed and the startups coming through:
Not long ago, mobiles were sold as a standalone product for the features they could provide. In today’s era where each set seems to have the same specs, the PoD (point of difference) has moved to a vibrant and thriving ecosystem of apps and services one is able to provide.  Looking at the number of apps being built around a networking site could help us determine the buzz the networking site is going to create. More apps definitely add to the pleasure aspect.  Presence across mobile and internet space is a given for both but what would be critical to their success would be the quality and engaging customer experience that these apps can help the companies provide to its user base.

Another determinant would be the number of startups that would spring around these two behemoths. There already have been number of service providers for Tumblr. Pinterest too seems to be creating a lot of buzz in the developer market space. With Pinterest still being an open forum, it does provide more opportunities for startups.

It is here that Virality.com must be mentioned. Virality.com is a platform that brings together advertisers on the one side and influencers on the other so that the advertisers could reach out to their target audience in the most natural way as possible. Virality.com has seen a lot of traction and is revving up in its effort to build a database of influencers in different categories ranging from apparel to fashion to FMCG to consumer goods. Virality.com already has few clients of note. Importantly advertisers stand to make easy bucks by spending a few minutes on the web everyday which they can donate, if they chose to, to some of NGOs Virality.com has tied up with.

+1 to Tumblr, +1 to Pinterest

Overall: Tumblr 5, Pinterest 3

This one is going to be a long drawn battle. At the moment it seems, the battle ground provides more cushions to Tumblr. Tumblr definitely has a better chance to succeed but it would require some doing on its part and strengthening its implementation in particular. Whatever happens, it is going be a fascinating battle of supremacy. 

Social Media Advertising – A chronology

Influencer Marketing dates back to the golden barter days. People who have had strong opinion and held sway over others have always been able to push items. In the absence of requisite knowledge we trust our kins, friends, subject matter experts to give us sound advices. Increasingly, consumers are turning to subject matter experts for advice and they may sit right in their home or thousands of miles away in Alaska. This is far more prevalent when the item being deliberated upon is a big ticket item, a once in a lifetime purchase item.

Marketing in the real world has made use of this phenomenon in numerous ways – celebrity advertising being one of them. If it is not Dhoni in every second ad then you are staring at Kareena Kapoor. Without doubt the consumers are being inundated with countless many advertisers vying for their share of attention and, importantly, share of wallet. Every opportunity to create an impression is being tightly scrutinized as a moment of truth.

Social media is one platform to create impressions. Social Networking sites provide an excellent platform to raise question whenever people face a doubt. If the consumers are seeking solution on the networking sites how could the advertisers be absent from such a forum. But a consumer could spring forth from anywhere? Where should an organization be present? The desire of the advertisers to be present on every possible platform requires lot of resources and has been as date – a qualified success.

But as social media advertisement matures, we will see more and more turf wars being played out. Let us take you through the chronology of small and bigger battles that have waged in this arena. Let us peep into the past a little to see how things will shape up in years to come.

The biggest migration in the history of human kind happened in 2003-2004 when people moved form Orkut to Facebook in huge numbers. Suddenly Facebook was every advertisers’ best friend. Facebook came in as a harbinger where consumers spent considerable amount of their idle time – a time advertisers could intrude and make impressions in. This was a direct way of reaching out to the customers. Everyone jumped on to the bandwagon. Almost 75% (source: Compete.com) of all Fortune 100 companies have a Facebook page and at least 90% (source compete.com) of them update their pages at least once in a week.

Slowly Corporate Facebook pages have become a hygiene factor. No one notices if you have one. Even if being present is not making a lot of economic sense for everyone, it is still better than being conspicuous by absence.  

Facebook was the first time advertisers tasted the waters of online social media advertising. Spreading word through Facebook moves at its own pace. The message does take time to spread to the intended audience. With more experimentation, I am sure, shrewd marketers would be able to devise more concrete and effective ways.  Meanwhile there was a lot of traction being seen in the blogging space.  

Microblogging to be precise. Twitter emerged on the picture as a wildfire. A microblogging site where people could share their status in real time made perfect sense. Their 140 character limitation worked wonders for them. Definitely a masterstroke to realize that blogging was already where people could get as verbose and expressive as possible. But that was more of a story telling. Old is boring. Real time is fun. Brilliantly, they targeted people who were a little handicapped when it came to waxing eloquence and spoke precise and concise.

Twitter was born with a silver spoon in its mouth and the staggering success it achieved would be hard to emulate. Without doubt Twitter holds the pole position in marketers’ minds for advertising and engaging their audience. 340 million tweets are exchanged daily as of March 2012. More than 50% of all references of a Fortune 100 companies are made on the Twitter.

One astounding fact that might startle everyone is that Twitter is the most preferred site when it comes to sharing videos…of course only the URL. That would leave anyone, with slightest business acumen, confounded as to why did not Twitter integrate videos in its offering. They did not want to tone down their USP of simplicity of text, perhaps? They are the best people to answer that and let us leave that to them.

Tumblr saw an opportunity in the space and came up with a microblogging site which provided multimedia capabilities. Essentially it was a Twitter where one could express through text (still 140 characters), videos, pictures, blogs and the best part was that there were more precisely delineated categories.  This simplification and wholesome offering was quickly latched on by the users. For those who might be interested, Twitter and Tumblr share most of the investors.

Tumblr promoted itself as a curating site where people could express their deepest and unknown desires. It provided them with themes, analogous to interior designers, and encouraged people to decorate their personal space as they would decorate their own house. This definitely touched a chord somewhere and its user base swelled in no time. Tumblr reached 14M unique visits in August 2012.

But Twitter and YouTube kept on growing as well. One could infer that communication through pictures did have a lot of value in itself. You give someone too many options and u make things more complex for him. The same seemed to have acted against Tumblr just a touch.

Pinterest was quick to comprehend that “making a house” of pictures alone was a pretty business in itself and it would look pretty as well, definitely lot less cluttered. And Pinterest came on the bandwagon and the success it has achieved has been unparalleled. In just two years of its existence it already is the third largest followed social networking site. It has garnered around 12M unique visitors who dedicate close to 800 seconds on average on the site every day.  

Whether it was by design or by luck, Pinterest users are predominantly females who seem happiest pinning their crafts projects, parenting tips, recipes, decorative items for the home.

Fancy came ahead to restore the balance of the world. Male discrimination is not a nice thing to have. Whether it was the hurt male ego or lack of options for male counterparts that drew them to Fancy, but Fancy has registered phenomenal growth in the only 6 months of its existence. Fancy integrated e-commerce within itself so that it made business sense from the day zero. It is partly a store, a blog, a magazine and a wish list.  60% of The Fancy users are men who are more often than not posting consumer goods of the Fab.com variety, high fashion clothes and accessories and exotic locales.

Though Fancy is too small right now to be considered a serious threat to Pinterest or Tumblr, but the growth it is posting and with its built-in business model, it is definitely going to be one to watch out for.