By Charlotte McClure, Content Marketing Editor
It’s one of the easiest ways to reach a mass audience and kickstart conversation about your brand. Social media is no longer optional for businesses – it’s crucial. But figuring out how to use your channels effectively can be challenging.
Whether you’re nervous about launching or revamping your social media presence, we’ve got five fail-safe tips.
Sell a solution
Ultimately, people don’t care about your product as much as they care about how it can solve a problem or make their lives easier. Replacing product-led messaging with brand-led messaging builds an emotional connection to your product. So, tell a story – one that resonates with your target audience.
Take FitBit’s #MyReasonIs campaign, which features powerful personal testimonials, front and centre. The camera barely focuses on the product because it doesn’t need to – instead of telling us why we need it, it shows us. Or rather users do: there’s a gym goer with disabilities whose FitBit inspired him to start training, a surfer who uses his to track his sleep patterns and boost his performance, and a woman who credits hers with helping her lose over five stone.
Be empathetic
Empathetic content and campaigns build strong social connections. They are built on a deep understanding of customers and support them to make decisions that improve their lives. Elvie’s Smart Bodies ad is a great example. Yes, it raises awareness of their hands-free breast pump but focuses chiefly on celebrating women’s bodies and starting open conversations around motherhood. It’s supportive and understanding: “Breastfeeding. Just because it’s natural, doesn’t mean it comes easy. Elvie creates smart tech for smart bodies like yours. That’s innovations that keep up with the genius of you.” It has over 15k YouTube views and the campaign hashtag #respectmysmartbody has 1.4k+ results on Instagram.
Top tip for creating empathetic content: Place yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about what would appeal to you or comfort you in their situation.
Find your target audience
To reach your target audience, you must first define your target audience. This can be based on demographics such as age, gender, location, education, interests or behaviour. Then you can figure out which social platforms you’re most likely to find them on and what type of content is most likely to grab their attention.
According to MixBloom, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform. But, if you’re trying to reach Gen Z, you won’t find them there because they’re on TikTok. That’s why it’s important to have a solid understanding of your target audience. As for the type of content, video is a good place to start. breadnbeyond’s video marketing infographic states that 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service through a video and 87% of users would like to see more videos from brands.
Ask yourself these six questions to sharpen your audience focus.
Get creative
You’re fighting to get noticed on social — not just with your close competitors. Social media is crowded, and users have very short attention spans. So, you need to get your message across lightning quick. Video is the ideal media, but only if you keep it short and digestible, and frontload your messaging. Otherwise, your audience will quickly lose interest.
#WombStories by Bodyform is a great example of a creative and memorable campaign. It mixes animation and real-life actors to tell the stories of several women at different life stages, from getting their first period to menopause. It’s boundary-defying, taboo-breaking and emotive. And according to digital marketing agency Sookio, it’s generated over 500k YouTube views, 14k Facebook shares, over 1k retweets and best of all, 1.1m views on IGTV (Instagram TV).
Work with the right influencers
A collab can be a great way to increase your following and brand awareness. But it’s essential to cherry-pick the right influencer for your brand. Your partnership should make sense, and the number of followers they have is less important than how much engagement they get. A small but engaged audience is social media gold and worth so much more than a larger, listless audience.
Still, debating whether influencer marketing is for you? Then these stats might sway your decision: according to influencer marketing platform Tagger Media, fitness brand Tonal saw engagement rates of up to 2.6% on influencer collaborations, while their posts had just .3%, and Finnish health tech company Oura saw their growth rate increase to 28% after a few months of sponsored mentions from athletes, electronics influencers, and lifestyle influencers.
Charlotte is Content Marketing Editor at Thrive and is passionate about the increasingly vital role social media plays in marketing strategies.
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