What’s a brand’s rightful place on social media?

What’s a brand’s rightful place on social media?

I recently co-hosted a roundtable discussion as part of a jam-packed, four-day long, digital conference put on by Social Media Week (now a part of Adweek) that Hootsuite sponsored. My co-host was Stuart Feil, VP, Branded Content at Adweek and we had six social media leaders from a cross section of industries having a great discussion under the theme of “reinventing social media marketing”.

Roundtables are great for peer-to-peer learning and I definitely came away with some new insights into the opportunities and challenges social media has for brands.

So, if you work directly on social media, if you’re an employee that follows your company on social media, if you like finding new brands or products on social media, or like the infotainment of clever brands that get it right on social media like Quebec Hydro, I hope you’ll also find something interesting from my biggest takeaways.

Spoiler alert: Brands can’t just interrupt your feed with bad/irrelevant ads and expect you to love them and buy their stuff or their services or come visit them or follow them so you can be annoyed by more irrelevant content. OK, that’s probably not much of a spoiler alert. If you’re in marketing, that’s patronizing. If you’re a consumer or a buyer, that might ring a little true though.

So where are smart social media leaders within top brands going?

Aspirationally, they’re trying really hard to live up to social media’s promise of being able to connect, build relationships and be accessible and transparent. They know marketing is changing and the path to building a relationship with their customers has changed. Even more so in the last year. And they still want to crack Tik Tok algorithms, because who doesn’t want a video post with a million views?

So here’s what social media leaders at six leading brands are focusing on.

Authenticity

There was a strong desire to be more authentic and personable as a brand. Which is not easy when you’re trying to represent a company. Some brands are taking a more conversational tone, lightening up and taking some risks on social media. But a bigger focus is leveraging the inherent strength of social media - the fact that it’s social. They’re involving a broader set of stakeholders to better reflect and represent the diverse people they serve. And everyone was unanimous that paying influencers for reach was a strategy that’s on the decline. Finding people who were genuinely delighted with the product, or service, or stay was the new goal. Leveraging user generated content, and listening for feedback and reviews is the more authentic way to let people know your brand is doing something right. And finally, tapping into a great source of brand enthusiasm, employees.

Support

Social customer care is on the rise and there’s a real desire to provide fast, easy support to customers they serve. A lot of brands are waking up to the fact that support via social media is fast and convenient for customers and efficient for companies. And it’s helping break down walls internally as it takes a cross-functional team to make it work. So it’s the impetus for bringing together sales, marketing, service/care, HR, and corp comms in a conversation about how they can help customers. What’s not to love about that?

Convenience

Social commerce and conversational commerce (using chat or messaging apps) is here and it’s going to get big. Did you know that 16-24 year olds are the first generation to prefer social networks vs. search engines as their primary source of information when researching brands? Check out our Digital 2021 Trends report if you want more juicy stats like this. 

The leading social marketers I talked to are focused on, yes conversion, but also on how to leverage convenience as a way to improve customer experience. With the pandemic, so many brands had to rethink in-person experiences with digital and ecommerce experiences. It changed what a conversion meant. It changed how you provided options to serve your customers. And social was a great medium and channel for facilitating that. Bye bye disjointed buying experiences.

Connection

I heard a lot about connection through story-telling. Not about brand/product positioning and taglines or sexy product shots. Stories about the people who work there, the people they serve, the places they operate, the background stories that made them who they are. The hard sell is out, and meeting your audience where they are (on social media) with content that’s relevant and that fits in, is in.

So there you have it. My big takeaways from a wonderful conversation about a brand’s rightful place on social media. 

I’d love to hear from you. What do you think? As a social or marketing leader at a business, or as a consumer or a buyer. How do you want to show up as a brand on social media? How do you want a brand to interact with you on social? Which brands are getting it right and blazing the path for better relationships with customers, employees and the communities they operate in on social media?

Roger Christie

I help clients harness the potential of their people online | Propel MD | Digital Reputation Academy | Podcast Host | Speaker | Exec Advisor | LinkedIn Top Voice

3 年

"As a social or marketing leader at a business, or as a consumer or a buyer. How do you want to show up as a brand on social media?" Love this question Melissa. And one that's equally important for leaders 'outside' marketing and social to consider! It's not just those in charge of established social marketing efforts who are being critiqued today, but those leading organisations themselves. They're setting the example for staff, engaging industry partners, attracting talent with their actions, and endearing themselves to customers, media and shareholders. As you say, authenticity and connection are particularly valuable for leaders in the social space - this is a huge and largely untapped opportunity for organisations. Thanks for sharing.

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