Rebranded Piqora Adds Tumblr and Instagram Analytics for Brands

Social analytics company Piqora—the startup formerly known as Pinfluencer—has rebranded itself and expanded its product line to allow brands to gauge their performance on Tumblr and Instagram.

The new expanded product suite aims to enable companies to track hashtag campaigns, images and brand advocates on the three networks through a single dashboard.

Such networks provide a better opportunity for brands to engage users than Facebook, says Piqora chief executive Sharad Verma, who tells ClickZ the company is eyeing further expansion into other visual-based interest networks. He lists sites such as We Heart It, home renovation platform Houzz, and fashion network Polyvore as fast-growing networks focused around users’ passions and interests that could be of interest.

“Facebook is more about personal relationships and people spending time with family, whereas user-based interest networks provide brands much more potential to go viral,” Verma says. In contrast to Facebook, content on Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr is public, interconnected, and can be more easily shared. Hashtags in particular provide a good way for brand content to be discovered.

Brands are also being talked about on these networks, whether or not they have officially joined them. Analytics will enable them to follow consumer reaction and “stay on top of the discussion,” he says. The new tools offered by Piqora let companies view overall interactions, images and audience tastes, as well as allowing them to see more detailed reports focused on one network. Verma declined to give details on the pricing of its products.

Each network has its own character. Pinterest for example, is product and e-commerce oriented while Instagram is focused on “casual creativity that expresses lifestyle” Verma says, which makes it appealing to entertainment companies or brands such as Starbucks that try to present themselves as having a very human personality.

Brands including AMC and Crate & Barrel have signed on for the newly integrated dashboard. Sephora, Zappos, and Steve Madden are also current Piqora customers.

Social analytics is a hot area right now, with different vendors vying to become companies’ product of choice. Last week, Union Metrics announced that it would expand its line of analytics for Tumblr users to small businesses and individual users and also said it would eventually expand beyond Twitter and Tumblr.

Pinterest has an estimated 70 million users, while Instagram is said to have 130 million users. Tumblr, which was acquired by Yahoo in June, says it hosts over 125 million blogs.