While the big topic of conversation following last Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards was obviously Miley Cyrus and her hip-gyrating, tongue-wagging antics, there is another important item that advertisers may want to be focusing on.
AdWeek reports that, in a surprising turn, Tumblr and Twitter reported nearly comparable activity levels with posts about the big awards ceremony. In the past, Twitter has been seen as the foremost social networking website for up-to-the-minute, repeat posting during large broadcasting events. However, VMA-related posts (by keyword) on Sunday night totaled about 1.3 million for Twitter and 1.1 million for Tumblr — a much narrower margin than many would have expected, considering Twitter’s usual dominance in the live-chronicling realm.
One reason this may be true is the fact that the primary point of discussion, Miley’s moves, was all about ogling. Images, gifs, memes and other multimedia content was perhaps easier to create, post and distribute through Tumblr, which aims to be a more visual vehicle than Twitter’s 140-character count of content.
AdWeek also relates that, according to ComScore, Twitter still had greater overall activity during the VMAs. There were 3.9 million new posts while the awards show’s 10 million viewers tuned in. During Miley’s performance with Robin Thicke, that meant 309,000 posts per minute on Twitter — just about the spectacle happening on everyone’s screens. Tumblr, on the other hand, reported 2.9 million posts about the performances/performers during the ceremony.
An important lesson that Mad 4 Marketing gleans from this information is that visual social media marketing techniques may do as well, or better, on Tumblr, than simply posting pictures via Twitter. Posting separate content through two accounts can definitely cut a wider swath across the social media stratosphere — and targeted keywords can help bring them to the fore. Most importantly, Tumblr is certainly a micro-blogging site that’s still on the rise, and worth keeping an eye on.