Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr - Plusses & Minuses for Small Biz

There’s no denying the fact that images speak louder than words.  Add to that videos and you have a powerful combination of content that business owners have an ability to make use of online to spread awareness of their business.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using the three most powerful social media platforms that generate massive amounts of image-driven traffic. We’re talking about Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Pinterest – The quickest to breach the “ten million unique users in a month” barrier.

Pros –

• Continues to grow at an impressive rate and drives more traffic to websites than  any other social media site, such as YouTube.
• Women outnumber men on this platform. So, if your business targets the ladies, then this site is a great place to get in touch with many potential customers.
• You have to market your product and services in a subtle manner; stokes creative marketing.
• Visitors to Pinterest stay longer, giving you the opportunity for detailed communication.
• Certain businesses that are easier to market through images, such as home interiors, crockery, garments, accessories, etc can truly leverage this website.

Cons –

• The content is largely lifestyle focused; this is changing slowly but creating pins and reaching out to a community interested in your products does require creativity and planning.
• Content posted on Pinterest ages slowly, it does not really go viral like how a link on Digg or Twitter might.
• Re-pinned images on others’ pages can gain more popularity, negating your efforts to get traffic. 
  

     Pros –

• It’s a free platform that is ultra easy to use. The important thing with Instagram is that it’s growing wildly.
•  You can post event happenings in real time; images and videos. Brand reinforcement through images.
• Great way to build a buzz around your product. Big and small brands do it. A teaser pic of a new pair of sneakers, announcement of a local contest, anything.
• Hashtags, geotags, and captions for the viewer’s information who can share the media you upload and comment on it as well.
• Converse with your audience informally. Images can give your business a face. Build a community and create qualified leads.

Cons –

• The Instagram app is available for iPhone and Android smartphones; that covers the bulk of smartphone users. That said, you have to ensure that implementers of any marketing project involving Instagram are using phones with these operating systems.
• Businesses need to ensure that the quality of pictures uploaded is of a high standard. You don’t want images put up via Instagram creating a negative impression about your product and service.
• The service cannot be used in isolation. You first have to create a presence on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
  

Tumblr – 134.5 million blogs on it and growing by the day!

Pros –

• The platform is easy to get started with and supports both text and images.
•  It supports audio recording of posts directly from your mobile phone.
• Its support for visually appealing media has made it popular with photobloggers.
• The inherently social attributes in Tumblr simplify the process of community building.
• Businesses can open their blogs to user content and improve engagement.
• With a well-laid out content strategy, you can use Tumblr’s online presence to boost your site’s SEO score.
• Tumblr is popular with the under-40 demographic, which gives your small business or large brand the chance to reach out to this demographic, which is internet literate and shops online.

   Cons –

•  Lack of full control and limited capabilities offset ease of use. Tumblr does not offer the functionality and formatting control offered by a CMS like WordPress.
• The extent of analytics is not detailed enough. If you’re planning to use Tumblr for your business, you need to be able to see your effort in measurable terms.
• You’re business blog on Tumblr is not self-hosted. So if Tumblr is down for maintenance or from a technical snag, your site is down as well.

All three sites offer advantages to companies building a brand or selling a product online. Which one you choose depends on your product, your audiance and you specific online marketing goals.