Businesses and brands need to move where the buyer goes. At present, that is social media.
For this reason, to make any headway and get your brand in front of an audience, marketing budgets, plans and strategies need to be highly focused on the relevant social media channels that your customers use. Yet, as social media has become a critical aspect of society and the economy, the customer’s mindset and dynamic has changed. Which means the way we use marketing has to evolve, too.
In a world in which the customer is in control of which brands they see, when they see them, and how they interact with them, it is no longer enough for a brand to simply be on social media. Instead, a business has to learn how to act on these platforms so as to cut through the noise and get into its community of customers.
Obviously, most users connect daily and that means that brands, too, need to connect daily. What is trickier is understanding what customers expect from your specific brand. Thankfully, there is one thing all customers want from all brands on social media: to connect with them on a deeper level by tapping into their ‘humanity’, through humour, feel-good stories, and relatability, among other things.
Social media actions cannot be discussed without mentioning the influencer
In fact, this is something which many brands don’t always understand. When we say that social media isn’t just about being seen – something which we call ‘impressions’ in the business – we mean that content on social media has to resonate with the person in order to get them to engage, which is what, ultimately, builds brand loyalty.
Therefore, brand actions on good, old Facebook et al. must differ to offline media action, which traditionally focuses on eyeballs and can, today, be seen as an annoyance. But how do you figure out what your customers want to see?
Well, the long and short of it is by dissecting the market, finding out who uses your products, and understanding how that group uses social media and what makes them tick. This will then form the basis of your social media strategy, which will allow you to target your demographic when creating and posting content that tells your brand story.
Each industry and business has to have a unique way of doing that but, as a rule of thumb, social media needs to be social. This, coupled with the control a user now has, also leads to one conclusion: consistently good-quality content that comes across as authentic and simulates the lifestyle of your clients is a must.
But this leads us back to a fork in the road, where there are many social media platforms to choose from. Once again, a business has to understand why their customers use each platform and find a good way of becoming part of their digital world. Facebook, for example, is a place where the user shares information about themselves and looks for factual content from brands; Instagram is about discovery and exploring aspirational lifestyles, meaning that branded content needs to be inspirational and highly visual; Twitter, meanwhile, is a place for quick news. Adapting content to this intent gives your content the best chance of being engaged with.
Of course, in 2019, social media actions cannot be discussed without mentioning the influencer. Your target user certainly follows at least one. For those still baffled by the trend, an influencer is someone perceived as a peer or a relatable voice whose advice on fashion, beauty, technology, or other matters, can be taken seriously. When a brand partners with an influencer, it is helping itself spread its brand message in a way that doesn’t feel invasive or ‘ad-like’. And, while a brand cannot rely on influencers alone, a solid influencer strategy is extremely important to support your social media actions through a native form of communication.
Finally, we must come to one question many of my clients ask me: is the time, effort and financial investment in social media worthwhile?
The answer is a resounding yes. Lifestyles have changed; fewer individuals watch TV without a streaming service and, even when they do, they always keep a connection to a social media platform close by.
When stuck in traffic, the last thing being looked at is the billboard in front of them; instead – while it is indeed illegal – many reach for the mobile phones to check the latest updates and pass the time. Social media has become an extension of our personality; and that makes it incredibly powerful in marketing.
So, TikTok… Oh, no, that isn’t time running out for your brand to launch a solid social media strategy; it’s a new social media platform that needs to be mastered.
Francesca Mifsud is a marketing strategist and entrepreneur who runs Infiltrend Agency, a company that creates marketing strategies with a focus on social media and influencer marketing. She also runs a marketing-tech platform.