IN OUR HEADS
March 02, 2020
By: Jason Gitlin, Associate Creative Director, RAPP SF
In a previous blog post, we discussed a brand’s ability to zero in on its target audience(s) via two interactive marketing channels: LinkedIn and Pinterest. Now that we’ve covered the best ways to utilize these platforms, we’ll turn our attention to the content itself.
Tone and vernacular always matter if you want your message to resonate, and in topic-centered channels like LinkedIn and Pinterest, the words you use are extremely important. They need to walk the line between promotion and relevance while also respecting each audience member’s individuality.
In some rewarding client work, posts we worked on for LinkedIn were directly tied to the career stage we identified for targeting. We acknowledged new jobs, recent changes, or high levels of achievement. We took a stand for individuality, kept the offer copy simple and the imagery straightforward. As noted in that earlier blog, the feedback we received from a LinkedIn user included the word “flattering,” which means our post made a connection and elicited a response that went beyond the utility of a valuable cash offer. We struck the right social media tone.
It’s that positive emotional response that makes the difference and breaks through as not being just another ad on LinkedIn. The platform has encouraged brands and marketers to consider “the three C’s” when it comes to creating a strong voice — compelling, confident, and clear. You want to compel the audience to join you along the business journey; you have to confidently address your audience members so that they trust you; and you need to be transparently clear so that they understand you.
For an image-sharing site like Pinterest, you can’t forget the pic or the topic. If your promotional Pin appears in search results for travel, ensuring your appeal generates interest is key. That requires the right language and social media tone, both in terms of words and visuals.
When we first started testing new channels for a particular client, their approach had been to create one set of deliverables with one set of images and use them across the board — without adjusting more than image specs. It’s not the best approach. You could throw an offer Pin into a travel feed, but it would always appear as an ad. It’s the “what” without the “why.” That might work on Facebook or Instagram, especially when retargeting, but it fails to land on Pinterest.
As such, there’s a great opportunity to connect with the language you use and the social media tone you strike. The “why” should be front and center. And when you’re crafting your “why,” take a look at the Pins you’ll be sharing space with. Do the contextual research. Don’t just throw some travel words in. We found that by spending time looking through Pins we were planning to align to, we could find language that aligned well with the topics’ vernacular — even functioning as responses or conversational continuations.
Using sharp visual content that draws in the audience is a tremendous way to maximize your brand’s exposure on Pinterest, which boasts 335 million active monthly users and more than 4 billion Pinterest boards. Studies have found that visual advertising outperforms plain text by 94% and is 40 times more likely to be shared among platform users.
That’s a huge opportunity you don’t want to miss — or mess up. When you work to iron out your social media tone and get it synched up with the right channels, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your sales funnel starts to fill. Consider RAPP when you require the expertise to identify your brand’s unique, powerful voice.
