Over the past few months in Australia we have had a huge change in the way that social media operates, particularly for brands and influencers. The removing of likes by both Instagram and now Facebook has caused outrage in some corners of the social media world and rejoicing in others. The question now is what this means for business, and I am the first person to say who the heck cares if they’ve hidden the likes – that’s not the point. Outrageous, I know.
Read MoreLet’s talk about digital communication and sales.
As part of an ongoing conversation into how we should all be using social media in 2019 is the conversation about sales. Social media managers are increasingly being asked about the dollar value amount they bring into a business, what’s their ROI. And we have no issues about being asked about our ROI – what we do want to look at is what we mean when we talk about the “return”.
Read MoreHOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2019
We have to change the way we are using social media in 2019. Not just you, not just me, but all of us.
Read MoreDIGITAL ADVERTISING IS NOT A CURE ALL
I was once told an absolute gem of a fact that has really stuck with me through the years, so forgive me if you’ve heard this one before. You are more likely to complete Navy S.E.A.L training than you are to click on a banner ad. And yet brands continue to invest in and be disappointed by the results achieved through new ways of, and greater quantities of, digital advertising. Whether it’s the post that appears every 10 images in your Instagram feed or the onslaught of promotions you see in your email inbox or around your favourite blog, there are more ways than ever to target people digitally. Digital advertising should never be seen as a cure-all as part of a marketing mix. Simply launching digital ads, whether they are display, social, or programmatic, does not guarantee you business. It’s really as simple as that. I can completely understand in a small business that we believe, in the modern age, that there should be a magic fix, a simple solution to promoting your products to the right people. But its just not true. Those who make the platform (Facebook is a really easy example in this case, but all the platforms are similar in this regard) are trying to get you to spend more and more on digital marketing – and so they promise highly targeted, specific delivery to your ideal audience. The reality is that they can’t guarantee that – and even if the ad is served to the right audience, that doesn’t guarantee that the audience is interested in the product or service you’re trying to sell. In the days of print advertising, a print distribution of 50,000 units did not guarantee you 50,000 purchases. It did not guarantee you 5 purchases. It simply told you how many eyeballs would be on your ad, maybe, if they saw it at all. Im not trying to suggest that this is the right approach either, particularly if your brand has low marketing budgets, but we need to think more broadly about how to target our ideal audience and not simply look for the quick fix. The horribly unsexy truth is that the best way to capture your ideal audience Is to create content that engages them. It’s not as simple as “build it and they will come” but use the technology we have (namely social media,…
Read MoreWhere have all my followers gone?
There have been a lot of conversations lately around the watercooler about social media engagement. About how brands are getting less and less of it, the platforms are charging you more and more to reach your audience (in the form of advertising) and the penalties that come after advertising. There is a reasonable amount of fear going on, that brands have lost their followers, and they are right to be afraid.
Read MoreWhat the hell is social media engagement?
Engagement is one of the most tossed around terms in marketing. No longer is it just a phrase we use in digital marketing, now we are talking about the engagement at events, the engagement with printed collateral and the engagement of our spouse with the dishes (I have the data – the engagement is none). But what does it actually mean?
Read MoreWHAT VALUE DO YOU BRING?
Value is a term that is often tossed around, mostly from people trying to sell you things. For me, value is about what I learn, grow or get enjoyment from – and that is a pretty broad set of standards. In the fast-paced, often vapid-seeming world of social media though, the question we should ALL be asking is “What VALUE does my social media bring to my customers lives?”
Read MoreSocial Media Damage Control – how do you handle it?
Social media is a fantastic thing for small businesses, giving you direct marketing access to your customers and allowing your brand to be a part of their every day and every movement. Thinking back 40 years ago, brands had nothing like the access we have to customers today – but that works both ways.
Read MoreThinking out of the box – literally – with Frozen Oak.
You have probably seen that Frozen Oak is now available for a limited time at a couple of petrol stations in NSW via social media. What a great way to gauge the public reaction to the concept of a new product range! With limited availability across NSW, Oak is asking purchasers of their Frozen Oak to share their experience on social media using a series of custom hashtags – creating demand in other states for the product, getting suggestions for new flavours and essentially killing it at making a user-generated content-lead campaign. The advantage of doing a soft product test launch like this, using social media as your primary testing and measurement mechanism, is that you get your feedback almost immediately from the comments, likes, reactions, shares and also by gauging how fast your Frozen Oak machines drain out! If your brand is established, you have the ability to ask consumers directly whether or not your new product has a valid reason for launching onto the market. Failing to ask or listen to consumers regarding how they feel about your new product idea will ensure failure within the FMCG sphere (see: Coke Life). If your brand is new to the market, your established brand is planning to release a completely different product or you’re planning to release an innovative new product that nobody has heard of then obviously your mileage may vary. Finally, if your product truly is a failure in the eyes of consumers, you can gracefully fade away into the dark abyss of social media update notifications and hopefully learn something about what your consumers really want. (Hint: Try again later!) This campaign has been really beneficial to the Oak brand as it brings Oak to the forefront of the consumer’s mind within the category, pushing out competitors such as Dare, Big M and Dairy Farmer’s Classic. In a competitive and well-established market like this, it creates a point of difference that gets people talking about the product, reinvigorating sales. The fact that we have been having an absolute scorcher in Sydney and the product is targeted at that “summer feeling” doesn’t hurt at all – good timing and great ideas make for great campaigns! Now all Oak has to do now is roll out the Frozen Oak machines to service stations across the state or even nationally that are happy to further promote the Oak brand…
Read MoreWHY YOU SHOULD BE COMMENTING ON BLOGS
Commenting on blogs is both my most utilised tool as a social media manager, and the most underrated tool I see in other’s social media activities. If the end goal of being involved in social media is to create conversation and dialogue, then a comment is the response YOU make to the question or statement being posed by the writer – without it, you aren’t fulfilling your end of the conversation. As a content creator of any kind, your aim is to develop a community of like-minded people, who are essentially picking up what you are putting down – whether that’s knowledge, reviews, experiences or warnings. So it’s absolutely natural for comments to happen, as people respond to your content. Think about the blogs that YOU read. How many times have you sat at your computer during your lunch break and verbally gone “Ugh YES” when the content is great, or “Pfft” when it’s a bit off. THIS is when, how and why you should comment. Be part of their conversation.
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