Pinterest now gives us Pinterest Web Analytics which serves us with Pins, Pinners, Repins, Repinners, Impressions, Reach, Clicks and Visitors.
Pinterest is part of the vast social media landscape.
Social media is part of the vast digital landscape.
And digital channels are just some of all the numerous channels in which you can interact with your hang arounds, prospects and customers.
So what happens when you get a new tool/interface, presenting additional metrics with new names and perhaps slightly different definitions for practically the same things?
This happens: The exponential curve of new things to understand and evaluate as a result of new sources of data expands even further.
But isn´t it a good thing to be able to get into details with Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook as well as your own website and any other kind of marketing? Yes, it is always good to be able to do fine tuning in the specific channel. But the question is whether the contribution exceeds the drawbacks in each specific case. And the answer to that question depends on how your organization deals with data overall.
The thing is that with data you need to go top down and not bottom up. This will illustrate what I mean:
Bottom Up: The social media group in your company registers an in increase in Pinterest reach and Facebook likes by 50% respectively. Everybody cheers!
Top Down: The CMO notices a 2% increase in sales from social media, which still means 80% less money generated compared to e-mail. Social media marketing is handled by four employees and e-mail is handled by one guy. The Social media group still has a few more months to prove themselves or there will be cutbacks. Nobody cheers… (there is still a 50% increase in Pinterest reach and Facebook likes).
The bottom up example illustrates what happens when you get a split focus. Everything can be good. Everything can be missed.
The top down example illustrates a scenario where you are clear about your purpose of doing business, and have stated your goals. You access all data in one place and you make comparisons based on the same metrics with the same definitions. From that top level you can drill down to analyze why you saw a certain effect. Perhaps it was due to your loyal repinners?
If you have started in the right end, so that you can keep your eyes on the ball, then Pinterest Web Analytics is adding possibilities for optimizing that specific channel. And it might be that a more heavily repined picture of a puppy will end up in added revenue, so that is a good thing. But if you haven´t done your homework you will only add noise and more suggestions to how things are actually going. And that leads to confusion, lack of direction and energy drain.
So for the social media industry (not least the consultants), Pinterest Web Analytics is more good news. For the rest of you, it is a double-edged sword.
Andreas Franson, andreas[@]internetintelligence.se, +46 733 56 41 51
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