Everyone is screaming as loudly as possible on social media, but this isn’t the best way to cut through the noise. You have to know what your story is and how to present it on each social network in the best possible way.
Social media is essential for successful product marketing. Most people have a phone these days and it’s safe to say, the majority of these people use social media on them. According to eMarketer most people spend more than half of the time on their phones on social media. I believe this is a conservative estimate.
Social media has changed our consumption habits. 1 in 4 people use social media to help them decide what to buy. They might find out about a product through a friend’s facebook post or a viral Twitter campaign. It’s not just for the young. The use of social media by baby boomers has seen a rapid increase in recent years. This is an important fact as baby boomers account for 70% of spending.
It’s normal for new media outlets to overtake older ones. TV overtook radio and web overtook print, but the proliferation of social media has been much faster. So, marketers need to understand how to utilise these new platforms and tools. Social media is vital in our modern age.
A great marketing campaign relies on its content.
What do these social changes mean for marketers? Marketing needs great content and you have to tell people enticing stories. The only way you can stand out in the world of social media is through outstanding content. We no longer see individual ad campaigns that continue to run for six months as used to be the case for TV when the same advert would run continuously. Nowadays strong marketing means year round campaigns that provide fresh content daily. These new campaigns engross the customers in a story that provides brand exposure and ideally leads to a climax… the sale.
Outstanding content has to adhere to a few rules.
Firstly the content shouldn’t be annoying or intrusive, but instead blend seamlessly into the consumer’s life. Anyone can avoid ads or just scroll past it. Marketing content has to be genuinely entertaining or useful to catch the eye. It cannot be too demanding for the audience either. The ads must be in some way enjoyable for the consumers. Informative or interactive ads tend to work well as consumers enjoy them more. Even great content is meaningless in the wrong context. Effective content has to be native. This means it needs to fit the platform it is on and demographic using it. Don’t waste content by choosing the wrong platform. For example, it doesn’t look good if you post a bad quality photo on Pinterest, but you could post the same photo on Twitter with a witty caption and this would be perfectly acceptable.
A constant hive of activity. Accounts for a fifth of webviews. Facebook ads have tended to be relatively inexpensive compared to other advertising as well as highly targeted. Due to the Facebook algorithm it is becoming increasingly challenging to reach your audience organically, but there continues to be a great opportunity to target particular markets using paid advertising or promoting posts. To get posts to show in more people’s feeds, marketers need to create content that generates more interaction. Content that isn’t liked or commented on will not appear in newsfeeds. It’s hard work.
Provides some great opportunities for businesses. Allows marketers to connect directly with consumers. Twitter profiles unlike Facebook are usually public, making it easier for strangers to connect. It can be hard to reach prospects through Twitter though due to the large volume of information on the platform. So it’s hard for marketers to make their content stand out. News jacking is oftern used to make content trend. For example 13 Reasons Why. Hashtags help but have to be used correctly and tend to be most effective for marketing when longer, more specific keywords are targeted.
This is a platform which is not used by many businesses but I believe there is huge potential. A large portion of the user base is female. Pinterest is most effective for companies selling products rather than services. 5:1 Female to Male.
User Generated Content
Another great opportunity for brands is user generated content. The Nike + campaign is a great example. Users provide content by updating their results. It’s an app that lets people compare exercise results and compete with each other. This means there user generated content which promotes the company.
As more and more of our lives take place online, it is essential for businesses to use social media campaigns, so figure out what platforms are best for your brand and target your marketing to them. There is no one size fits all for social media marketing.
