With the social media landscape more crowded than ever before, it can be difficult for marketers and brands to know exactly where they should be investing their time and money. This month’s Networx featured some of Australia’s leading social media specialists, including Tyra Gunnis, Content & Social Media Manager at City Beach Australia, Hugh Rees of Expose Media, and Billy Perrier, Social Media Manager at Neds & Ladbrokes. Facilitated by PPQ’s Senior Digital Manager James Gauci, the panel shared their tips and insights on how to navigate the social media ecosystem and stand out from the crowd. These are our key takeouts.
Lead Through Quality Content
When you’re competing with so many users and advertisers for feed space, you need to make sure your content is engaging and high quality if you want it to be seen. It starts with understanding your target customer, then delivering quality content that you know your customer will want to see. If you can drive engagement through quality, organic content, this will lay the foundation for an effective paid social media campaign.
Dominant Social Media Platforms are ‘Pay to Play’
A few years ago, quality content might have been enough to build your business through social media. These days, if you really want your content to reach people, you have to pay for it.
According to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report, time spent on social media is plateauing, but Facebook ad revenue is growing at a rapid rate. This means brands need to invest in social media if they want their efforts to drive revenue for the business. The Facebook algorithm will put your content in front of people who want to consume it, but it will put it in front of more people if you put money behind it. Start with content that’s already doing well organically, then give it a push by investing some money in it and see where it goes.
Don’t Waste Time Trying to Go Viral
Everyone wants to know the secret behind creating viral content. But the truth is, there isn’t one. Sometimes, virality is just the luck of the draw. Other times, the things that go viral aren’t necessarily the things you want to go viral. At the end of the day, it all comes back to understanding your audience and your target customer. You’re never going to create something that your audience wants to share unless you understand their likes, dislikes, interests and what they really want to see in their social media feeds.
Don’t waste time creating a strategy around viral content, because more often than not, it’s not going to work out how you planned. Just make sure you have enough wiggle room in your strategy that if something does go viral, you can capitalise on this and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Compliance Rules Will Set Aside The People Who Know What They’re Doing From Those Who Don’t
Over the last year or two, we’ve seen a major increase in regulations around what you can and can’t post on social media. This means brands need to be more careful about what they say and imply with their content. This can actually be a good thing for marketers, because it will set aside the professionals from the amateurs.
If you can’t afford to seek professional help, or just prefer to manage your own marketing, the best thing you can do is to use your common sense. Make sure your messages are appropriate and aren’t going to offend anyone. If you do make a mistake, be transparent about it with your audience. Otherwise, you risk losing the trust you spent so much time and effort gaining.
Be Authentic
A lot of businesses make the mistake of thinking they can achieve social media success by copying what other successful brands or influencers have done. This will be the untying of brands on social media. Finding your brand’s authentic voice (and sticking to it) is what will build trust and engagement with your customer, which will ultimately help grow your business.
If you’re stuck on where to go next with social media, look at what’s worked for you in the past based on your data, try to figure out why it worked, then build your strategy from there.
Source: Reload Media