There is a lot of pressure on time-poor executives to add social media to their already hectic workload.
The amount of effort spent on Twitter and LinkedIn to build corporate or individual profiles can often feel futile, so it’s important to be strategic in how you approach social media.
I have outsourced my social media thinking and application to a specialist firm called Content Monkey which has worked with me for the past two years.
Deborah Shaw, head of digital, and Des Devlin, head of research, are very clear in their goals for my website and for my activity on social channels. I thought it worthwhile to ask them to share their thoughts on what a busy executive should think about and then action on social media.
How does Content Monkey establish the best mix of social media for my clients?
We like to spend time doing preliminary research on the client and their competitors in the space. Understanding a client’s position in their field is key to developing an appropriate tone and voice. It also gives us a better understanding of where and who our clients’ customers are. This is how we learn which platforms and content are the most effective for a particular client.
Keeping on-message and within the client’s field of expertise is vital but it is also important to show that a company is comprised of actual people living in the real world.
A company’s business philosophy and ethical position are increasingly important across social platforms and organisations must be ready to engage authentically in a public forum.
What do you look for in creating a social media plan to help cut through the digital noise of competitors and allow a company to be heard?
We begin by listening closely to our clients to understand their main business goals. We then identify their key audience groups. Many people think that trying to reach as many people as possible is the goal, however, we have found it to be far more useful to narrow down the target audience so we can speak to them about exactly what they are interested in, in a language they understand.
We take the time to understand a client’s audience, learning about their motivations and concerns, so we can develop a strategy that includes content and calls-to-action that directly address their needs.
It is no surprise that in B2B marketing you use LinkedIn and Twitter – are they still the key digital channels for businesses?
LinkedIn and Twitter are still the most effective social channels to be using for B2B, especially in the FinServices sector. Our clients are mostly small to medium size enterprises and we’ve found LinkedIn and Twitter to be very effective for their budget spends.
However, as millennials grow into business owners we’re starting to see some surprising shifts in how they use different social platforms to reach their target markets. As a result, we don’t make assumptions, and use data to help us understand where clients’ customers are active in the social landscape. We prefer to use an evidence-based approach rather than waste time and energy on guesswork.
So far you have chosen not to use Facebook for my clients – why is that?
Clients who understand the need to invest in order to grow reap the greatest rewards. If we see a client has a base on a particular platform we will definitely suggest the platform as an option.
There are two types of marketing – paid and organic. We specialise in content marketing (organic), which means we work with clients to:
- understand what information, products or services their own clients are seeking
- research and develop appropriate content speaking to these motivations and concerns
- develop specific and clear calls-to-action to encourage customers to engage
- track effectiveness of chosen strategy in order to refine
It generally takes a social media marketing campaign about 3 months to begin to deliver results, so a client needs to understand what they are spending their marketing budget on and what to expect.
Facebook’s hyper-targeted Custom Audiences allow businesses to reach and connect with very specific customer groups. With the right budget and resources available we might suggest creating Facebook Business Pages for clients operating in certain areas (for example, SMSFs, or wealth managers) to begin creating targeted content for those approaching retirement or looking for guidance on how to invest for their grandchildren, so people can share valuable information through their networks, spreading brand awareness always pointing people back to your client’s websites.
And while most people never mention Google+, you post everything to this site as well as Twitter and LinkedIn – why is that?
Simply posting to Google+ doesn’t mean much in and of itself, however, if your content is original, well-written, uses relevant keywords and talks authentically about your area of expertise, you are beginning to position yourself as a trusted authority and source of information in your field, and this does affect your SEO ranking in Google Search Ranking Pages. This is why you should be posting your well-crafted original content to Google+.
Are you fussed by Instagram or Snapchat for the business world?
Again, we would use the same underlying principles that drive our core philosophy – authentic customers gravitate to authentic content. The platform is simply a distribution channel. As platforms come and go it’s wise to do your research to understand who’s using them. There’s no doubt that marketing through Instagram will increase your brand awareness, especially if you’re clever with your visuals and messaging. We would definitely work with clients in both Instagram and Snapchat if they were willing to go there. SnapChat has a higher ratio of millennial users, where Instagram has more active users. So again, it depends on who, what, where and why.
As we move towards 2019, it looks likely that Instagram will continue to dominate the attention of consumers, which means financial services marketers need to take notice. While the best strategy is one where brand values, mission and campaign messages are aligned, the other vital ingredients for success are a willingness to think outside the box and experiment on the platform, while remaining relevant to target audiences.
What’s on your radar screen for 2018/19 in terms of digital reach and effective engagement?
We hope to work with clients who already understand the power of digital (come on already, it’s 2018!) and who genuinely wish to engage with their audiences by creating authentic, knowledgeable, useful and entertaining content. We aim to work with clients who can give us the bare bones of their knowledge space and expertise and we then love to go and research – we begin by listening deeply to our clients’ audiences, understanding their hopes, dreams and fears – and then we start researching around specific topic areas to create deeply engaging informative content (and visuals if required) that those audiences will find useful and can use in order to benefit their lives.