SPARKIN' INTEREST

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media applications of 2013. Brands have been quick to acknowledge the apps importance, with over 60% of major brands having accounts on Pinterest. It is also bang on the hyper-visualisation trend, i.e. where consumers seek out the visual elements in digital content, and also the greater transparency of branding. The platform is obviously great for showcasing a businesses products or services and has great possibilites for e-Commerce. But Pinterest also provdes brands and businesses with a chance to show things other than their offerings. By 'pinning' a broader range of interests around a niche, a more intense brand identity can be formed and shared with the consumer. Here I present tools and apps which will help you create content for the apps, create a strong following, and monitor your accounts performance on Pinterest.

The recent annual release of Interbrand’s global Top 100 most valuable brand list and the CoolBrands Top 20 has revealed a re-emergence of luxury brands. Famous names such as Louis Vuitton , Gucci , Hermes and Cartier have all witnessed a large increase in their respective brand values in 2013. Luxury labels have also been regarded as being ‘cooler’ than everyday brands this year, with brands such as Rolex , Prada and Chanel knocking household favourites such as Ben & Jerry’s out of the top 20 ‘cool’ list. So what can be deduced from this somewhat reverse in fortunes for luxury brands and what is the current nature of ‘luxury’ in 2013?

It is a necessity to have a clear indication of your Twitter handle's performance and moreover to have a comprehension of your individual social media campaign's success in reaching set goals on the platform. Without these metrics one cannot gauge whether content is having influence and moreover it is unknown whether or not you are reaching your targets. It is also important for content marketers to see what content is 'in vogue' and to know what is being said about your brand in order to stay up-to-date with current conversation. Finally when attempting to build a community on Twitter you will want to have be following relevant and influential users within your niche. The sheer volume of tools available for measurement of Twitter performance and for more general research can be daunting. In this way I present what I regard as some of the best tracker and research applications currently available...