The digital dark arts are real… and they pose a real threat to you and your company’s online reputation.
In the modern age, journalists aren’t going through analogue archives, they’re trawling Twitter. Now, comments that you’ve made decades ago can be taken out of time and out of context to form new narratives.
Twitter isn’t the only place where historic information can be weaponised against your online reputation. Review sites and bot accounts can be deployed to spread misinformation, activist investors can run targeted ads and the dark web is a hotbed for any sensitive company and personal information.
The latter is a particularly serious threat, as those venturing to the dark web will have the sole focus of causing chaos and spreading destruction.
In short, online threats have a real-world impact on your bottom line.
ORM… where to start?
With such a multitude of threats, the question is how and where do you start your fight back?
When it comes to online reputation management (ORM) then an easy approach to take is to think of your businesses, or your, digital presence as a garden.
The first page of your Google search results are your flower beds. These take pride of place in your garden and are your most visible assets. Here you’ll want to place your most favourable pieces of content.
But just because your flowerbeds take pride of place, it doesn’t mean you should neglect the bushes in the back. Here, there may be potentially damaging content lurking, which needs to be weeded out and dealt with.
The more you know about these threats, the better. It’s critical to understand what information is out there about your company and your top executives to pre-empt, mitigate and ultimately protect your business’s online reputation.
For starters, here are some tangible steps you can take to protect your online reputation.
The online reputation of your leadership has a direct impact on your business.
Business leaders are now expected to be thought leaders, social media influencers and their own publishers. With this enhanced remit, comes greater risk and a heightened chance of exposure to criticism.
But it isn’t just the individual who is at risk. Say your CEO’s brother has been accused of tax fraud. Or a relative is active on some questionable online groups.
By proxy, this information can be used to paint a narrative about the CEO, which may be entirely false. But individuals can be made guilty by association, which has a knock-on effect.
It’s therefore important to audit your entire stakeholder ecosystem, finding all reputational risks, so you can be fully prepared for all eventualities.
Occasionally, you will come across a user with a full-on agenda against your brand. And their scope is firmly aimed at your company and its reputation
Mapping out these detractors and working out whether they are bot accounts or real users, will give you a benchmark to work from.
You can either address any issues with an active community management approach or monitor to get a read on how their activity changes over time. It’s better to be in the know than out of it, even if it can be a hard read sometimes.
It’s also possible to actively participate in discussions and take a conversation offline with a detractor.
Google is the gateway to your online reputation.
In many cases, Google is the first impression you give as a company, so it is important to know what users are searching for, in order to find your company.
Where most businesses get this wrong is only concerning themselves with core branded keywords. Let’s say, for example, Coca Cola.
This keyword is clearly important to the brand but it shouldn’t be the sole focus of a search engine results page (SERP) review. Keywords such as “Coca Cola sustainability” should also be considered.
A SERP management plan could then consist of creating assets that rank for “Coca Cola sustainability”. This is a way to ensure you are putting your best foot forward reputationally across a range of business-critical areas
The average business on Google has 39 reviews and these reviews can greatly influence the decision-making process:
It may not be the most reliable, but this is precisely why it can be a risk.
The open-source nature of editing allows for misrepresentation at times and agenda-driven edits being made to profiles. The platform can’t be ignored.
In a very literal sense, Wikipedia results are pretty much guaranteed to rank within the first few positions of the search results.
New social media channels are being created all the time. It wasn’t that long ago that TikTok was an unknown novel platform. Now it’s a household name with 1,000,000,000 active users.
New channels can present new opportunities, but they equally present new reputational risks. It’s important to be aware of these channels and how your brand is represented within them.
The likes of Discord, Club House and Reddit – although the latter is not a new platform – are three such channels that can be used to discredit your brand.
There is no getting away from the fact that the world of online reputation management is much more complex than it used to be. The internet’s memory is infinite and that can be a scary prospect.
The more you know the better – knowledge really is power in this situation.
The more you know about how your brand’s online reputation is represented the easier you can arm yourself to protect your reputation and your search results.
Substack has dominated the mentions on social media platforms, especially Twitter, in recent months. It’s taking the world by storm, quietly and subtly, as users choose to disseminate information using their own personal newsletters. But one of the big things about Substack is who exactly has signed up to use it.
First things first, how does Substack work?
It’s a publication platform that allows its users to publish newsletters direct to subscribers. There’s a paid option so content can monetised. As well as words, you can add images, sounds, link out to social media posts and more.
For as little as $5 per month, a user can subscribe to written work and podcasts from the likes of rockstar Jeff Tweedy; esteemed food writer, Emily Nunn; former NSA agent turned scandal-soaked whistleblower, Edward Snowden, DC comic writer Scott Snyder, literary legend Salman Rushdie, and even the most notorious man in British politics… Dominic Cummings.
The best way to describe Substack is MailChimp x Patroen. The email build aspect of the platform is a familiar process to many. It also has 1,000,000 subscribers as of November 2021, each paying subscription fees to access content from their preferred authors.
Taking the written world by storm
One of the positive aspects of using a publishing platform is that the author has ownership of their content. And can charge access to their content.
Lex Sokolin’s fintech analysis, blockchain, AI and neobank newsletter is one of the top subscribed. The BowTied Opossum has hundreds of monthly paying subscribers and shares knowledge of all things digital.
As of February 2021, Substack’s top ten authors were making $20,000,000 collectively per year. Its seed capital is in the hundreds of millions, its growth figures constantly on the rise and all of this with only 5%-10% of its members being paid subscribers. There is huge potential for growth.
The platform was created in 2017 by Chris Best, the co-founder of messaging platform Kik, developer Jairaj Sethi and former PandoDaily reporter Hamish Mckenzie. There are similar Substack platforms to choose from. Ghost claims to be open-source, independent and funded 100% by its users. Their business model promises brand control, greater API integration, greater customisation and zero commission.
The year of change
You may have noticed that many media outlets and brands are ramping up their newsletter content. Larger companies have their own dedicated teams to look after newsletter production. As a result, Substack has come under fire by many outlets for its business model.
This kind of reaction was also placed at the feet of Facebook when it started getting a little big for its boots in the early years. But now every media channel in the world has a Facebook presence…
The Substack model does offer opportunities previously ignored, and the growing audience shows there is an appetite for this type of curated content.
And with Facebook losing users and stock plunging, people are looking for new ways to consume media. The rise of TikTok has sucked audiences away from the established platforms as people tire of them. Substack can provide personalised news from content creators who resonate with their audiences.
Perhaps though the only thing that could stand in the way of the growth of Substack are the media giants themselves, Zuckerberg and Pichai. Because, according to an article from Vox, Substack does not have any contractual lock-ins that will stop its writers from bolting to competitors. And both Google and Facebook are hot on the heels of Substack.
How can marketing and PR use Substack?
There is a clear pathway for consumer-facing brands to adopt Substack into their activities, while also expanding into new revenue streams. There is also a place for B2B activity here. There is an audience of hundreds of thousands of people, paying to receive emails, so from a content perspective, they’re getting something right.
We need to apply it to our industries. Look at the content they’re providing and see where you offer something of interest. Don’t try and charge for a Substack letter from the start. Especially with B2B, as the audience could be put off.
Agency-side, the debate is a little different. Creating a paywall for your deepest darkest insight is what agencies do after all.
But marketeers can still take away some of the principles of Substack and use them to enrichen their entire content experience. We’ll say that again, people are PAYING, to receive emails.
The Green Claims Code has come into force, meaning companies making sustainability announcements should review their claims. Marketing and PR teams will need to take notice of what the Green Claims Code means for their communication work.
The code has been introduced to stem the tide of greenwashing, the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information, presenting a company’s products as more environmentally sound than they truly are.
Companies that are found to be greenwashing may end up in the firing line of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). They are breaking consumer protection law.
It’s therefore imperative that sustainability information distributed by your company is accurate and true.
Development of the Green Claims Code
The Code comes after the CMA’s discovery that around 40% of businesses’ claims around their environmental work were misleading for consumers. More and more companies are adding green or positive environmental claims to their products and services.
Claims include suggesting a reduction in packaging pollution or that your item was produced more sustainably than your competitors’ product. Consumers have seen these announcements in all areas, from cleaning products to tech services to beauty supplies.
The CMA has found that these statements are often unsubstantiated or inflated.
This video from the CMA has more information about the Green Claims Code.
The Green Claims code guidance
The CMA’s is focusing on fashion and fast-moving consumer goods to start. Don’t think that other businesses can wait. The Green Claims Code guidance applies to every company. Non-consumer facing and services businesses also need to check their claims that relate to sustainability. Every business should review their green claims and ensure that they are meeting their obligations.
What does the Green Claims Code mean for my business’ PR campaigns?
CMA’s criteria states that all environmental claims must be truthful and accurate; unambiguous; substantiated and consider the full life cycle of the product or service.
If businesses are comparing themselves to similar companies, then any comparisons of services and products must be fair.
Your business cannot fall foul of the CMA’s requirements. Here are some steps that could be helpful as companies seek to change their operating models and principles to become more sustainable.
Look inwards and understand just how sustainable your business really is. Review the claims made by your company relating to the environment, sustainability, carbon emissions or socially responsible actions.
This should be thorough and cover every part of the company, from packaging, marketing materials, website copy and encompass visual representations as well as text. If you use a recycling icon to illustrate a product when the entire product is not recyclable, the icon could be an infringement as it creates a misleading effect for the consumer.
B2B companies should be wary of using words such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘eco-friendly’. The Code states that terms such as these may suggest that a product or service has a positive environmental impact or “at least no adverse impact”. To meet the Green Claims Code, words and claims such as these must be true and can be proved. Otherwise, the company might not meet legal obligations.
Once you understand how sustainable your business is, ensure the information shared with your audiences uses the right language. As mentioned above, all claims must be substantiated. Add a single click-through link to provide clarifications for the claims.
Review all links in your business’s communications that relate to sustainable and environmental work, products or services. Proof points are needed to substantiate all the claims made and so this may require new designs, marketing materials and potential retractions.
Ensuring compliance with the Green Claims Code is not a one-off process. Across any sector, the number and nature of references to sustainability will change over time. Invest in training for all employees and check they understand the requirements regularly. It is not enough for senior leadership to understand the importance. Marketing, communications, compliance, product development teams should understand it too.
Preparing for the CMA’s Green Claims Code may appear daunting. However, consider this as part of your wider ESG and Sustainability strategy, as well as part of legal compliance. Accreditation via cross-sector schemes such as BCorp and membership of industry-specific organisations can help you to ask the right questions about your green claims.
The introduction of the Green Claims Code is also an opportunity to refresh your ESG & sustainability messaging, so also consider outside ESG communications support to ensure your PR strategies are fit for purpose.
Find all resources and relevant information about the Green Claims Code here.
2022 is going to be a hugely interesting year for marketing growth and development. The lasting effects of the pandemic have altered many consumer patterns, creating new challenges as well as opportunities.
Here, we gaze into the crystal ball of 2022 trends and look at five opportunities you can take to develop your brand in the New Year.
Influencer marketing is set to reach $13.8 billion in 2021 and many anticipate this will only grow in 2022.
This was a huge growth market in 2021, the industry even saw the formation of more than 200 dedicated influencer marketing agencies. So, in 2022 and beyond, the space is only going to get more competitive and vying for positions. Attention will become much more strategic and partnerships must be much more considered and personalised.
What is intriguing is that engagement rates have proved to be better for micro-influencers than for the stars of social media. Brands will do well to factor this into their marketing strategies moving forward.
The digital fatigue experienced by the general public during the lockdowns of 2021 will likely shift into 2022.
A combination of furlough, work from home and overall online overload led to a massive digital fatigue in the later parts of 2020 and into 2021, with people actively moving away from digital platforms for rest and respite.
What is intriguing is that, for so long, industry individuals have been predicting the demise of offline marketing. But, if digital fatigue continues to grow, then there is an argument to be made that the offline space is there for those who seize the opportunity.
As Instagram continues to prioritise video content as well as the continued growth of YouTube shorts, it won’t be long before video content begins to shape social media metrics and algorithms.
To stay ahead of this curve, brands need to adapt their content strategies to focus more on the creation and delivery of high quality, short videos.
Brands have been finding huge success with TikTok and there’s no surprise to see the likes of Calvin Klein and the NBA as two of the year’s most popular accounts. However, it’s refreshing to see the likes of the Washington Post and the World Health Organisation finding huge success through this medium.
So, there’s an opportunity here for non-traditional TikTok brands to start carving out a niche for themselves.
Gen Z: content marketing
Marketers have been obsessively focussed on Millennials for the last 20 years, but now we’ve reached a point where the Millennial population has capped out, as the first wave are now approaching their 40th birthday.
Gen Z audiences now present a much more diverse and much more digitally native audience than their millennial predecessors. From a content marketing perspective, this can be an absolute dream as it potentially opens a brand to more opportunities and a more diverse crowd.
*Aardman Director to support The Grand Appeal this year with exciting content exclusively for Jingle Jam gamers*
The world’s biggest games charity event, Jingle Jam, brainchild of Bristol-based gaming company, The Yogscast, is back today for its 10th anniversary, and better than ever, raising vital funds for Bristol Children’s Hospital dedicated charity, The Grand Appeal.
Each year, Jingle Jam raises millions for charities around the globe through its Games Collection, which is available for fans to get their hands on in return for a donation to their chosen cause.
This year, Jingle Jammers will have the opportunity to jump into the world of Aardman with Director & Designer, Gavin Strange. Creative power-house Gav will be doing a dedicated stream allowing fans to have a sneak peek into life at Aardman and provide the opportunity to ask him any burning fan questions. Audiences will also be able to receive the Games Collection in return for donating to The Grand Appeal.
Fans can get hold of the stream on Sunday 12th December as part of this years much anticipated Jingle Jam charity event which goes live today on 1st December at 5pm on the Yogscast Twitch channel. It finishes at midnight on 14th December.
Jingle Jam has raised a massive £15m for numerous different charities in the last 10 years. Previous Jingle Jam Games Collections have featured dozens of games worth hundreds of pounds, with this year’s bundle worth over £600. Organisers are aiming for the Jingle Jam Games Collection to be the number one gifting purchase for Christmas this year, with the aim to raise thousands of pounds for each of its 14 chosen charities.
The partnership with The Yogscast has raised over £1.1 million for The Grand Appeal since 2017 to fund a ground-breaking new development for Bristol Children’s Hospital. The pioneering new patient development will be one of the first of its kind in the UK for sick children and their families.
Nicola Masters, director of The Grand Appeal, commented: “The Jingle Jam is a fantastic and much-loved event across the globe that raises an incredible amount of money for worthy causes each year. The Games Collection is exceptional value for money, and we’re always blown away by the incredibly generous support we get for The Grand Appeal from the gaming community.
“This year, we are very excited to have the opportunity for Grand Appeal supporters to get involved with Jingle Jam by streaming their own content and where fans can purchase the Games Collection directly from. We are honoured to have Gav’s involvement and no doubt it will be hugely popular, and that Jingle Jam 2021 is going to be a roaring success for everyone.”
Gav Strange, Director and Designer at Aardman added: “Jingle Jam has become one of the key calendar dates for gamers in the UK and globally. Creating fantastic gaming content all in the name of raising money for charities like The Grand Appeal is a brilliant initiative and I’m really stoked to be able to do my bit to help this year.’
During the first two weeks in December, more than fifty Jingle Jam streamers are involved in special events – such as cooking, painting, poker, karaoke and more. For the first time this year, any creator keen to join in with the Jingle Jam can set up their own fundraising streams, with their audiences also able to receive the games collection in return for donating to charity.
Jingle Jam was the brainchild of Lewis and Simon of Yogscast in 2011, when they asked fans to donate to Oxfam via a Just Giving page, rather than send them Christmas presents. As the largest YouTube gaming channel at the time, Jingle Jam rapidly grew to include, live streaming, unique content and the introduction of specially curated bundles known as the Jingle Jam Games Collection.
What does the future of PR and marketing look like? Business leaders are planning ahead for 2022 in one of the most unique situations that people have faced. How do you prepare your business for life when dealing with a pandemic?
AMBITIOUS and Insider Media spoke to business leaders in the South West to find out what their approaches to PR and marketing will be in 2022. Which areas will be their focus? Where are they increasing their investment? And, where they’ll be choosing not to spend.
The answers show that business leaders in the South West are planning to invest: engaging with their core customers and visitors more than ever before. And not just their customers. Thanks to a skills shortage across many sectors, using online to source new recruits is alo where businesses will be investing. As a result, online activity is becoming more important than ever for PR and marketing activities.
Life really did move online during the last 12 months and while in-person events are starting to come back, digital has taken the lead on many aspects of businesses. As well as B2C companies, B2B businesses are seeing the value of social media and how to use it for success.
Mike Ribbeck, Insider Media Editor said: “As the purse strings tighten, business leaders look at expenditure and decide which are the most important functions to protect and which areas of the business are expendable.
“The reality is that, rather than bringing the world to a standstill, the pandemic has accelerated many of the trends that were reshaping the world that we all live and work in. The digital revolution has picked up pace and businesses from all sectors and different sizes have made the transition to operating virtually.
“All of that means that the need to get the message out about your business and the services it can offer has never been more important.
“And the channels of communication to potential clients and business partners have continued to multiply with social media playing an even more important role when it comes to marketing and PR.
“According to our survey, the majority of businesses have maintained the level of spending or even increased.
“One of the most interesting findings was where businesses will be concentrating theory efforts. The two main areas that stood out were content creation and social media.”
Our survey has found that there are six core areas where business leaders will be focusing their PR and marketing efforts, including content, PR and SEO. Results from our survey include:
Phil Smith, Managing Director, Business West, said: “In the past 18 months, South West businesses have wrestled with a unique and complex set of challenges as a result of Brexit and the pandemic.
“Whilst business impacts such as social distancing measures are temporary, labour shortages and inflationary pressures look set to continue (at least in the medium term) and could have a stymieing effect on our economic recovery.
“As the government looks to recoup some of the £300bn+ that it spent during the pandemic, SW businesses will no doubt be anxious about potential tax hikes and rate increases.”
It is encouraging that businesses recognise the huge part that PR and marketing play not only in boosting their brand and growing sales but generating awareness of new products and services too.
It is also evident that marketing has a vital role in attracting, engaging, and recruiting talent into the business (as well as helping to retain talent). Indeed, today’s job candidates discover and weigh up potential employers in the same way they find consumer goods, restaurants, and hotels. It is mission critical that marketing budgets reflect this digital shift.
The amount of online content consumed by the average person doubled to seven hours a day. Social media activity increased by 12.3 per cent with the average person spending nearly two and a half hours on social sites.
A clear, resounding message from the businesses we spoke to is that we are going through an accelerated pace of significant change.
The pandemic hit the fast forward button, transforming consumer perceptions, expectations, and behaviours almost overnight. There are no pause or rewind buttons – consumers and the world have moved on. This has profound implications for how we market ourselves. Failure to keep up with the pace of change could mean being left behind forever.
Download your copy of the white paper now.
Access Creative College (ACC), a leading, independent college for the creative industries has acquired dBs, the sound & music institute. The move represents an expansion of FE and HE services for ACC, offering learners a coherent, connected and defined journey from post 16 to degree level.
From its campuses on Mitchell Lane, St Thomas Street and Wilson Place, as well as at its centre in Plymouth, dBs currently offers specialist music and sound production courses to help students build meaningful careers in the audio industry.
Access Creative College delivers vocational education in the creative industries to over 3,000 students at campuses in major cities across England, offering specialist courses in computing, games, media, music and events. The college aims to prepare young learners for careers in the creative industries through innovative, practical employment-led training.
In Bristol, students will have access to facilities across both the existing dBs and Access Creative College sites. ACC’s state of the art campus in central Bristol has just had a £4.5m expansion to include an events space, music studio and various production suites.
With a common goal to deliver the next generation of creative talent through engaging, industry relevant courses, ACC and dBs will come together to offer learners initially in Bristol and Plymouth an extended range of courses from levels 2-7.
It is anticipated that this full range of courses – including Access to Higher Education and degrees in Games and Computing – will subsequently be rolled out across ACC’s other existing cities including Manchester and Birmingham. Students will be able to move between cities and sites as they continue their learning journey.
Jason Beaumont, CEO at Access Creative College, comments, “So many students from both dBs and ACC have gone on to achieve a great deal of success within the creative industries in Bristol and beyond. We see this as a marriage between two institutions to provide students in the city with a coherent, connected and defined journey in their learning, at whichever point they choose to study, from leaving school through to degree level.
“dBs has a very strong track record in successfully delivering technical degrees up to postgraduate level. Our plans are to build on this and develop a suite of degrees for our progressing students across all our provision.”
As implementation continues on the Skills for Jobs white paper, Boris Johnson used his ‘levelling up’ speech on 15th July to underline the need to escalate the value of practical and vocational education through the lifetime skills guarantee. The ongoing reforms support the idea that more adults should have the opportunity to access the skills and training they need, which lead directly to a job.
Jessica French, Investment Manager at ACC’s backers Apiary Capital, comments “We are delighted to be supporting Jason’s ambitious plans to grow Access Creative College’s HE provision across the country and see this acquisition as an important first step in offering a new kind of HE experience for learners in the creative and digital sector.”
Nige Burt, CEO and Co-founder at dBs comments, “This is a very exciting development for dBs in Bristol. The joining of the two organisations means that students in Bristol have the opportunity for an exceptional learning experience leading to entry into the creative industries.”
This announcement follows a significant 18 months for Access Creative College, during which it secured investment from Apiary Capital and welcomed the National College for the Creative Industries (NCCI) to its portfolio. ACC has also recently announced a number of new senior appointments, including former Minister of State for Universities Jo Johnson, as the college’s new chair, and former Ofsted inspector and Adult Learning Inspectorate Steve Stanley as Director of Evaluation and Impact.
Some B2B brands find social media a challenge: your posts should be interesting and informative and be professional. Does your social media plan leave you feeling uninspired? It could leave your audiences feeling the same. It’s time to revisit your approach to social media.
Use SMART targets to get it right
SMART targets are a great way to set objectives that are achievable for your business. They’re a powerful and effective way to make sure your social media plan stays on track. They could look something like this:
S – Specific. What are you going to do?
We will improve clickthrough by 5% on our LinkedIn content.
M – Measurable. How will you be able to tell you’ve done it?
We have tracking in place to identify sources of traffic, as well as historical data on site usage, which will allow us to identify increases in visitors from specific origins.
A – Achievable. Is this something you can do? Is it within your control?
We have previously been able to raise clickthrough by 2-3%, so 5% should be possible with a more concerted and dedicated effort.
R – Relevant. Will this work within your organisation’s wider goals?
Site visitors are a primary source of sales leads, and this provides more opportunities for our sales team to work on.
T – Time-bound. When will you decide whether you’ve succeeded or not?
We expect to have achieved this growth by the end of the quarter.
Simple! SMART targets provide a framework for your social media work and what you need to create to hit those objectives. The structure will ensure that you have fixed goals, a solid scope, and achievable projects.
Follow your competition
Check out what your competitors are doing on their social media. You’ll be able to see what has and hasn’t worked for them. For example, if one of your competitors are using influencer marketing with success, think how your business could use them. However, look at where and how they’re using them. Where are your clients? Can you improve on their campaign? This is your opportunity to use their tactics and improve on them.
The emphasis is on using your competitors as inspiration. Don’t copy them. It’ll be obvious. And B2B brands need to stand out from the crowd, don’t follow the herd, don’t clone their efforts.
Managing your voice on social media
Crafting a stand-out identity as a B2B brand can be a challenge, but it can be done. A B2B brand faces different expectations from their clients than a B2C company. Playing it safe is understandable, but does nothing to distinguish your brand: find a middle ground that works for your business.
Listen to your audiences
You should always be marketing to networks; start by understanding what your audience talks about. Brands don’t have to start the conversation themselves: instead, they should align themselves with the discussion that’s already happening.
Check out Hubspot on Twitter. They aren’t starting the conversation, but they know what their audiences are interested in. “What I’d do if I was in charge” is a really common topic for the audience they want to reach, and they’re providing a forum to hold it in. This gives them that all-important element of successful social media marketing: authenticity. See their conversations around different topics and how they manage.
Perfect your content mix
People want different things at different times. Sometimes people are in the mood to read a blog. Sometimes they want to watch a video, or they’re just aimlessly scrolling to kill a little time. Knowing this, your brand needs to create a range of content to have the best chance of engaging with them.
Create content for your audience, put them at the heart of your plan. For example, while video is the king of social media for younger users, B2B brands may well be targeting a more senior audience. What content will pique their interest?
Start engaging
One of the highlights of social media is that brands can interact directly with their audience. From helping with a support issue or sharing a joke, look for ways to chat. Make sure that your team knows who will be doing the engaging, what to say, and how to say it.
Making a success of B2B social media marketing
A successful social media presence doesn’t happen overnight, and it certainly can’t happen without sustained effort. The elements of social media planning that we’ve covered should give you a good idea of where to start, and the questions you should be asking of your team. For expert assistance with your B2B marketing, or to have a discussion about your brand’s online presence, just drop us a line today: [email protected]
We were catapulted online for business and personal last year. It was our only way of connecting and communicating with one another, and users turned to social media to replace day-to-day interactions. The number of users and the time they spend online has increased during the pandemic, with some studies reporting a jump of almost 10% from April 2019 to April 2020.
Social media was still very relevant in people’s lives in the modern age pre-pandemic, but the platforms then took on a wholly different purpose, and the way they’re being used is changing.
Social media platforms’ shifting role in the community
Tom Keiser, Hootsuite’s CEO, says that the role of social media has changed fundamentally during the pandemic.
It’s now the primary way that people interact with their loved ones and the wider community, including businesses and meetings.
It’s developed to be more than just a fun way to share photos and status updates; especially as we didn’t have much to take photos of. Because of this, users don’t just want to pull the spotlight onto themselves (and those who do are often pilloried online). People are seemingly wanting to replace that lost aspect of “social” in social media, by generating meaningful dialogue.
Brands can’t lead the conversation
Brands must be careful interacting with customers when trying to generate a real, meaningful conversation online. Being too direct, pushy, and blatantly obvious selling does not go down well at all. Brands that are used to being in control and leading the conversation need to change how they communicate. Rather than being the driver, they need to be the passenger helping and influencing the driver to its decisions.
Any brand that wants to make social media work for them needs to adapt to this new way of interacting online.
Keiser puts this into perspective with an analogy from physical retail: “When you walk into a store, the sales assistant doesn’t come up and tell you about all the products they’d like to sell you. They ask what you’re looking for, and that’s how brands have to think on social media.”
Brands shouldn’t be looking at what they have and figuring out how to sell it; they should be looking at what people want, and how they can provide it.
Brands need to learn to listen
Make social media work for you! You will come to realise that the beauty of social media is your customers will tell you what they want – you must be listening to them. Brands need to be looking at the way their audience interacts with each other, and this will help gauge what people on a wide scale want from you. This is because few people will try and have a conversation directly with a brand.
Firstly, understand what it is your audience is talking about. Let’s look at an example: Clarins, a beauty and cosmetics brand. They saw that as the pandemic set in, their audience shifted away from makeup (as no one was going out) and into skin and self-care. Their audience wasn’t discussing their newest products for a night out; instead, they were sharing tips for keeping well during another month inside. Their marketing team identified the change in their audiences’ discussions and needs so they began to create social media content around self-care and self-love.
It’s also important to look at how your audience talks to each other. Especially through memes and satire posts, if you keep an eye on these and play it right, it can gain traction. Yorkshire Tea is a great example of this, with social media content that’s playful yet safe. There were memes circulating about the ‘perfect shade of tea’ which was starting natural discussions, they jumped on board of this at the perfect time for their audience. It might sound effortless, but you can bet they thoroughly looked at how their audience spoke to each other before settling on a tone of voice.
How to reach out to your audience
It might sound strange but you, as a brand, aren’t just here to sell – you’re here to participate in a dialogue and contribute something useful to it. If it ever sounds like you’re pushing a product, all your hard work will be undone, so don’t just post links to your sales pages! A brand that’s listening to its audience knows what it can offer them, and now it’s time to reach out!
So, what can you offer your audience? A how-to guide on making the perfect brew? A new competition to ‘win your pet as a hat’? Just something to make them smile? Position your brand to be relevant and a part of the conversation within your audience. This is essential for engaging new customers and retaining existing ones as part of the digital customer lifecycle.
Investing in your social media platform strategy
A social media platform strategy is vital for a brand, it enables them to be successful online. A brand that can pivot quickly and follow the conversation will excel as this is a hugely important sector for marketing. All too often this is left to relatively junior staff; Keiser talks about how his daughter has been made the ‘social media manager’ for the last 3 restaurants she’s worked at simply because she’s the youngest member of staff. Brands should take social media seriously – teams should have senior marketing staff onboard not only for their experience and insight but because of the large impact it has on a business.
Social media needs to be done properly, it is the ultimate tool for reaching and engaging your customers. So, remember listen, don’t lead! Take the time to understand what you can do to help your audience – this is the foundation of a successful social media strategy.
If your brand could use a little social media power, contact us today to see how we can help you.
It was a complete surprise when AMBITIOUS was been named Best PR Agency of the Year by The Drum Recommends. This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve won, and we’re so proud that our clients have recognised our hard work and efforts.
The award we won is in the agencies under 40 staff category, and there was definitely had tough competition from other UK agencies. The Drum organises the awards to celebrate agencies and is one of a kind in the industry in how it chooses the winners. There are no entries to submit, creative to show or papers to write. Winning can only be achieved through the high regard of clients, supported by their ratings and feedback.
The Drum is a global media platform and the largest marketing website in Europe. Their Recommends database contains over 64,000 ratings left by brands, businesses, and organisations. Here you can find client feedback covering PR strategy, content planning, media relations, and social media. It has the essential ratings for performance levels – from effectiveness to value for money.
Companies searching for suppliers can understand what it is like to work with you and how you perform. The Drum Recommends is a valuable database.
Lis Anderson, Director, AMBITIOUS, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the team. It’s a real reflection on the effort and work that everyone has put in over the past 12 months.
This time last year was very different for everyone, personally and professionally. At times pretty tough. I know we asked a lot of everyone: they delivered. So for all the reasons this win feels pretty special.
We’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead, working with our valued clients, growing the business and expanding the team.”
For more information about our award-winning services, please get in touch.
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