social media – Editorial PR

01/Oct/2020

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Social media now accounts for up to a quarter of marketing budgets, but brands need to do more to connect it to the “lifeblood and workflow” of wider business, according to new research published by Hootsuite.

The ‘Social Transformation Report’ takes a deep dive into how modern businesses are using social media to not only generate and connect with new leads and increase brand value, but also to drive greater operational efficiency across the business.

The first major insight is that investment in social media campaigns is growing. The process now captures between 13% and 24% of overall marketing budgets and is having a positive effect in a number of key areas.

Almost three quarters (73%) of the 2,162 respondents say that social media has enabled them to engage with prospective clients and customers in a way that is more efficient than other channels or media.

Perhaps more importantly for marketing as a whole, 63% claim that using social media is actually driving a greater level of efficiency from other forms of media.

In addition, when social media is integrated business-wide and each department is able to use it to build strong relationships, its value increases significantly, which suggests that the practice can lead to “organisational transformation”.

Two-thirds say that social media is now being used to forge closer bonds with their community, while a large number also believe that it is doing the same for employees and partners.

The findings indicate that social media works best when it extends beyond the marketing department, though the act of publishing high-quality content is generally the catalyst for all the subsequent benefits.

“For social platforms to work for organisations, they need to do more than simply post to the social platforms but also leverage social listening, use data to make better social decisions, integrate with their existing tech stacks, and seek the training and education to achieve their overarching business goals,” Hootsuite’s CEO Tom Keiser said in a statement.

Keiser added that social media needs to be focused on the customer’s experience first and foremost, and that more employees should be involved in the planning and execution of strategies on social media.

Those able to build a ‘mature’ approach to social media do benefit. Six in 10 of these organisations say that it has laid the groundwork for building stronger relationships – something that continues to benefit the business day in, day out.

Mature social media marketers also report a 300% increase in the improvement of brand sentiment. The report noted that this has been particularly important this year following the outbreak of COVID-19 as brands have often struggled to conduct conversations and develop relationships with customers.

In order to maximise the power of social media, Hootsuite advised organisations to use social listening to understand the needs of audiences with the view to building stronger relationships. The next stage requires the integration of social into the fabric of business culture so that everyone can use it as a strategic communications tool.

Effective social media management, whether built in-house or outsourced, is a “stepping stone” to wider digital transformation, a senior industry analyst concluded.

Aimee

11/Aug/2020

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Social media marketing will play a crucial role in the effectiveness of marketing campaigns during the next two years after more brands pivoted to connected channels amid the pandemic and the number of users soared to a record high in July, a new study by Econsultancy has found.

The ‘Future of Marketing’ report found that social media is now arguably the de facto outlet for content consumption for people of all ages as it is now embedded into the routines and habits of day-to-day life.

COVID-19 has accelerated this trend as new data shows that 3.96 billion people are now regularly using social media around the world, which is a 10% increase from a year ago.

The sheer scale of this number means that the fear of missing out is strong for companies of all sizes.

It is now easier than ever before to reach and engage with a wide audience regularly using content on social sites.

The social media boom, something that started more than 10 years ago with the rise of Facebook and Twitter, is set to continue during the rest of 2020 and into 2021.

Econsultancy found that two-thirds of marketers believe that social media will become intrinsically linked to the quality and effectiveness of marketing strategies and campaigns during the next two years.

Econsultancy also went into detail about a range of trends that it expects to see in social media marketing during the final five months of the year.

It noted that while organic social and content continues to take up greater shares of marketing budgets, ad campaigns have slowed since the start of the year, which is not wholly surprising considering the impact of the pandemic.

The lockdown also had an effect on influencer partnerships, something that could lead to a re-evaluation of relationships over the coming months.

UK social media users are still very much engaging with influencers regularly.

Fitness coach Joe Wicks was one of the most prominent content creators when stay-at-home measures were in place, but marketers are now taking a step back to consider the best way to use influencers moving forward.

Econsultancy noted that brands have been focusing on publishing ‘how-to’ style content recently as this allows them to provide vital information covering a range of topics from cooking to exercising at home.

Brands will also attempt to capitalise on the continued growth of TikTok in late 2020.

“Consumption on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube look set to continue,” Campfire’s CEO Joe Gradwell said.

On advice for marketers, he added: “There’s still time to build your presence across social networks you’re not yet operating on – build your TikTok strategy, begin the podcast series you often talk about.”

The onus will be on brands to experiment with new social media campaigns and management during the second half of the year.

After the disruption during the spring and early summer, brands now have an opportunity to try new things and optimise strategies to best suit the needs of followers.

Aimee

13/Jan/2020

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Social media management will be high on the list of priorities for SMEs and large companies in 2020 as 75% are expecting to increase investments in marketing across social platforms during the next 12 months, according to a new report from Slickdeals.

The ‘Embracing Social Commerce: Strategies, Successes, and Future Investments among Retailers’ study found that social media is now a prime battleground for engaging with customers and driving sales.

The rise of social and its collective billion-strong audience has also turned online shopping on its head, creating a new dynamic where many brands can drive as much commerce on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms as standard e-commerce websites.

Social commerce was just a fledgling concept five years ago, but it has since evolved into a vast and varied network, allowing brands to publish content and deliver experiences that support the online selling of products and services.

The use of social networks to push e-commerce transactions has become so important that three quarters of brands will be looking to spend more on social media marketing during the first year of the new decade.

Social commerce is widely practiced, with 89% of respondents in the survey saying that they are already utilising it or are expecting to do so within the next two years.

High-quality content should be at the core of customer engagement, but actually getting a meaningful strategy together remains a challenge for companies.

More than four in 10 said that their biggest struggle is developing and enacting a social strategy.

Meanwhile, 38% want to build a reputation centred around trust and loyalty to attract and retain the interest of consumers, which often involves using content to build on emotional bonds established during previous interactions and transactions.

Companies often use the metric ‘attribution’ to measure the value of engagement on social media as this allows them to see who has signed up for a newsletter or made a purchase.

First-click attribution gives full credit to the very first interaction regardless of the journey afterwards, while the inverse is true for last-click attribution.

The study found that 33% of respondents assign to the first click and 34% to the last-click.

Slickdeals’ senior VP Tom Straszewski says: “We see that those who invest more heavily in social commerce tend to look more at first click versus last click attribution, given that a consumer’s first click represents the beginning of their overall engagement with a brand and, thereby, the most meaningful step in the customer journey.”

As the new year begins, Forbes believes that social media has shortened attention spans and expects “snippety visuals” to be among the best forms of content for communication during the coming months.

Social will be an excellent outlet for these shorter, bite-sized forms of content, which can complement longer, editorial blogs and articles on corporate websites.

Forbes says that hitting the “sweet spot” in terms of audience attention will be crucial in 2020 as dynamic customers find new ways to consume content and interact with their favourite brands.

Aimee

02/Sep/2019

Brands using inbound marketing have reported a 72% increase in leads and a 55% hike in conversion rates, according to a new study by portfolio website Visual Objects that extolls the virtues of content marketing, SEO and other organic methods designed to deliver value to audiences.

Titled How Businesses Use Inbound Marketing, the study found that the technique of drawing customers to products via content is having a profound impact on tangible metrics, with just 15% of those surveyed saying that they have not seen any change in the number of leads after running a campaign.

Inbound marketing has become more popular in recent years as consumers are more averse to hard sells and targeted advertising, which are unlikely to take their own interests and needs into account.

Inbound output is the opposite, using high-quality content to inform, educate and entertain audiences via digital platforms, including social media.

More than three-quarters of enterprises based in North America are now using inbound marketing to promote their brand while also serving their customers in some way, and the vast majority have reported a surge in leads and conversions.

Content marketing is not only a viable alternative to outbound marketing but is arguably also the best method overall.

For those aiming to improve inbound strategies, the report offers a few tips and tactics backed up by the opinions of the 501 businesses surveyed.

Inbound marketing focuses on moving consumers through the sales funnel, and brands wanting to succeed must use content properly at the ‘awareness’, ‘interest’, ‘decision’ and ‘action’ phases.

Attracting leads takes place at the very top of the funnel, and more than half of the enterprises say that blog content is an excellent medium for driving awareness.

To achieve this goal, businesses are also creating visual content and investing in search engine optimisation.

Brands then turn to content promotion, including call-to-action hyperlinks within written blogs and articles and landing pages to push them along the sales funnel.

When used correctly, content can move consumers easily through the buying cycle, which provides incredible value in terms of sales and revenue.

The final cog in the inbound marketing machine is social media.

Nine in ten businesses say that they use social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to support distribution and other areas of their strategies.

This is no surprise, as social media provides brands with the opportunity to reach almost 3.5 billion people globally.

However, those surveyed admitted that they might need outside help from an agency to make the most of social media and the practice of getting content in front of audiences at the right time.

The study also found that attracting leads and converting them will remain the top priority overall, ahead of increasing website traffic and building brand authority, although the content is also likely to help in this area.

Silverback Strategies vice president of creative, Ben Kirst, said in a statement: “To really run effective campaigns takes expertise.

“There’s a degree of impatience and unwillingness to really invest the time and resources needed to gain that level of expertise.

“We want results and we want them now.”

Aimee

22/Jul/2019

Paid search and digital advertising continue to be hit or miss for brands targeting growth and increased brand awareness due to an inability to fully leverage audience data and meet volume targets, a new study by Marin Software has found.

The State of Digital Advertising 2019 is an all-encompassing study of how B2B and B2C marketers are dealing with their quests to address challenges and take advantage of new opportunities now that six months of the year are over. The study canvassed 450 marketers in the US and the UK for their views on a variety of topics.

Paid methods are often used to complement organic content marketing to amplify reach and engagement, but the study found that brands face “constant challenges” due to the growing threat of data privacy and the need to use analytics effectively to target the right consumers at the right time.

Paid search remains the most popular digital ad channel, as it commands more than a third of total budgets on average. However, paid advertising in social media is on the rise, and activities on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms now make up 18% of budgets, putting it in second place overall, just ahead of display ads (16%).

It is perhaps no surprise to see brands increasing their ad spends on Instagram due to the photo and video-sharing service’s growing popularity, especially with younger generations, but the study found that Facebook is not losing ground. More than two-thirds said that their advertising spends on Instagram will come via incremental budgeting as opposed to pivoting away from Facebook entirely.

Amazon is also making waves in the ad industry, and 60% of respondents said they plan to increase their investment in the e-commerce platform during the next 12 months. More than half view Amazon as a primary growth opportunity, and around 25% want to use it to drive more purchases at the bottom of the sales funnel.

However, it’s not all good news for Amazon, as 23% believe its reporting tools are not as sophisticated as those on Google and Facebook, which is a problem in today’s world of tracking metrics to determine ROI. Three in ten also say they have not yet got to grips with the ad environment on Amazon.

Google remains the most trusted published overall with an impressive score of 4.5 out of 5 on the trust index, and all but 2% of respondents rated the search giant as either 4 or 5. Many are also looking forward to using Google’s updated Search Ads format to improve their paid search campaigns.

“This year’s report shows a shift in advertising spend as marketers explore alternative channels and emerging ad formats,” Marin Software’s SVP of Marketing, Wes MacLaggan, said in a statement.

He added: “The digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, with advertisers struggling to close the skills gap as publishers innovate. At Marin, we’re seeing a greater emphasis on video and new ad formats like Responsive Search Ads and Shoppable Images to gain mindshare and drive growth. The eCommerce landscape is a hotbed of innovation, presenting retail brands with many opportunities and some challenges to navigate.”

Aimee

01/Jul/2019

A new report published by the Local Search Association (LSA) and SOCi is one of two released last week highlighting the urgent need for brands to publish localised content on social media and across other digital platforms to drive engagement with audiences in regional markets and support franchise brand growth.

The Localized Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report provides compelling evidence that localised social marketing is delivering tangible returns for brands of all sizes. It found that the top ten performers are realising growth at a 300% faster rate than category peers over a five-year period.

“Localized Social Marketing is the key for multi-location businesses to compete and win in a world dominated by e-commerce and Amazon,” said Greg Sterling, LSA’s VP of Strategy and Insights.

He added: “When done effectively, it can propel brands to the top of organic search results, build and maintain a highly engaged base of loyal customers and drive increased traffic and, ultimately, sales to local businesses.”

Social media is now a key battleground for brands, as it has evolved into a primary driver of consumer behaviour. Platforms that were once mainly hubs for customer relations and keeping in touch with customers are now vital outlets for content marketing and other digital experiences.

Recent research by Social Media Today showed that more than three-quarters of purchases decisions are directly influenced content posted on social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, while 75% of engagement comes via brands’ local pages.

LSA said that the latest findings make it clear that a localised strategy on social media is no longer a luxury but a necessity for brands and should form part of their wider marketing strategy. LSA noted that this change has occurred during the last decade and resulted from customers demanding more personalised and local level experiences.

SOCi’s Chief Marketing Officer, Monica Ho, added: “This vehicle provides brands the opportunity to personally engage with each and every consumer and create true brand advocates. To keep pace with this trend, social media platforms are providing a growing list of features and functionalities, such as reviews, social conversations, and local Business Pages that now enable what we have come to call Localized Social Marketing.”

The joint study also found that seven in ten consumers are now reading content, including reviews, before making a purchase and that this figure increases to eight in ten for younger people aged 18 to 35.

A report released by the CMO Council last week also put forward the idea that local content and experiences based on language and culture can give brands a competitive edge, although 73% of marketers believe they are not ready to meet the needs of modern, digitally savvy consumers.

The CEO of Worldwide Partners said that enterprises need to do more solve the “localisation gap” and called on them to overhaul their strategies to help them to provide “personalised, contextualised and culturally relevant experiences.” Brands that also make use of translation and transcreation services will also give themselves a better chance of achieving new customer-centric goals.

Aimee

17/Jun/2019

Six in ten content marketing teams admit to suffering delays to their campaigns and projects and just 7% are “fully satisfied” with their processes as a whole, a new joint study released last week by We are Social Media and Planable has found.

The two companies announced their intentions to collaborate on a comprehensive report in March, and after three months of analysing and dissecting insights and data, the Content Marketing: Behind the Scenes study is the result. The study presents a plethora of interesting takeaways on the success of campaigns.

Enterprises are getting better at supporting higher workloads, as 45% of marketers say they now post 11 updates on social media and publish five or more pieces of content,such as blogs and articles,over a seven-day period, although this figure drops to 33% for in-house marketing teams. However, many still grumble about how they get to that total, with a dearth of collaboration and time-wasting drawing the most ire.

Delays are a common bugbear, as 61% say they have been forced to put back completion dates due to process issues, such as excessive back-and-forth emails and problems with multitasking. The study notes that “future proofing” teams to support better workflows and habits could transform the process entirely.

“Our work grows in complexity every day and the difficulties multiply when our own marketing house isn’t in order. It’s affecting everything. From the success of the work to those lost nights and weekends,” said Miruna Dragomir, Planable Head of Marketing. “In the next phase of content marketing, the winners and the losers will be separated by how well teams work together and how scalable production processes are.”

Currently, the journey from content creation to distribution and publishing takes 5.4 days on average, with about a third of that time devoted to collaboration. However, 35% said their ability to push out work at a faster rate and be highly productive is often hampered by multitasking and email issues.

The report says that brands can truly scale their content marketing efforts by breaking down many of the barriers and outdated processes that are still in place when creating content. This is due in part to workflows not catching up with a new wave of advanced tech and the growing demand for content. However, brands will need to make changes to better manage bigger teams and more complex workflows to achieve success.

“The need for more content is not going away anytime soon. Brands have to be ready to face the continuous increase in demand for more unique and actionable content. The Internet is moving fast, and the brands that will win are those that can get their houses in order and be able to create, approve, and share great content with lightning speed,” explained Geoff Desreumaux, co-Founder and CEO of We Are Social Media.

Aimee

22/Apr/2019

Restaurants brands may be missing out if they fail to leverage the power of content marketing on social media platforms, according to a new report by MGH, which found almost half of the diners in the US go to a new eatery after reading or watching a post published by a brand online.

While restaurants are traditionally centred around offline experiences and interactions, supporting standard marketing efforts, such as local ads with digital content, can help to attract new diners, improve brand image and increase customer loyalty and retention. MGH, a full-service restaurant marketing agency, said social content can have a “great influence.”

The power of content may have been overlooked in the food industry, as 42% of diners have now interacted with a restaurant in some form via a social media platform, and two-thirds say these positive experiences make them more likely to order more food from the restaurant and visit in the future.

Restaurant-to-consumer engagement is beneficial in several ways, including enabling brands to tap into new audiences and reach more people. About 45% said they ventured to a restaurant because of an article, blog or video, while 22% said that type of content has enticed them to return.

“For restaurant marketers, it’s clear that high-quality social media content, along with active engagement practices, still has great relevance to consumers,” MGH Social Media Marketing Director and Executive Vice President, Ryan Goff, said. “When done right, social content marketing can have great influence over where diners choose to spend their hard-earned money.”

Brands that regularly post content online have a better chance of accruing more followers and friends, which, in turn, increases engagement and the potential for consumers to spend more on food. Three-quarters of respondents who actively follow a restaurant brand on social platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, say this relationship makes them more likely to visit.

While the upsides for social content are plentiful, MGH did sound a word of warning, as 13% of US diners admitted that a low-quality post has discouraged them from offering repeat business to a restaurant. The takeaway here is that content must be relevant and meet the needs of consumers to ensure they do not hold a negative view of the brand.

Social media has become nearly ubiquitous for diners in the US, as 89% have at least one active social media account. This means brands may be missing out on reaching potentially millions of customers if they do not manage content campaigns on social and across the web.

Six in ten also say they log into social media three or more times during a single day, and four in ten follow restaurants. A further 39% said they keep track of a restaurant’s social account to determine whether they want to dine in or out.

MGH conducted the latest survey of US diners in February when it asked 1,069 adults about social content and their food eating habits. Those who responded all regularly dine in, order takeaways and get food delivered.

Aimee

18/Jun/2018

In 2017, agencies and brands alike began to see the importance of digital marketing in targeting and connecting with niche audiences, the IAB Digital Video Centre of Excellence says. This was particularly evident with video ads. The results of the March 2018 survey of 353 media buyers and brand marketers conducted by Advertiser Perceptions indicated that 23% of video advertising budgets in many businesses are set aside specifically for ads on social media sites. IAB revealed the results of the survey in April, with 50% of all respondents claiming they intend to spend even more money on video ads over the course of the next 12 months.

Social media advertising spending

Ads on social media often incorporate video content in the form of advertisements on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Professional guidance can help these video ads to increase their click-through, conversion and customer acquisition rates. A third-to-a-half of a company’s advertising spending should be spent initially on content that allows scaling, according to Chamber Media’s Travis Chambers. As the advertising spending grows, content will need refreshing every quarter for a couple of reasons.

One reason is that content will become less effective as the audience watches that content multiply over time, and another is that social algorithms are aware of this and that content’s reach will also begin to decrease if there is not enough new content being uploaded. However, evergreen content can be served to new audiences continually and still retain its effectiveness. For high-converting mobile video, the most effective format is to have a hook within the first couple of seconds that will keep the viewer interested. Make sure both the problem and its solution are referenced very early, and then use humour, strong calls to action to entice a purchase, with press references and testimonials included to enhance credibility.

Strategies

With social media videos, many advertisers have rather polarised strategies, either being of a more traditional mindset and expecting to get results with a focus on brand awareness or more focused on e-commerce and immediate sales, often at the brand’s expense. These mindsets are correct together but not independently. Both avenues are required to achieve success, with several brands making huge top-funnel video adverts for social media but lacking any plan to ensure the customer stays engaged afterwards. Once the high funnel video has been served, it should be followed up to the same consumers with mid-to-low-funnel content that gives credibility, offers reminders and creates a sense of urgency, such as offers, origin stories and product demonstrations.

Mistakes to avoid

One easily avoidable but common mistake in regard to social media buying is viewing numbers in a vacuum, with many marketers examining ad platforms individually rather than as a whole. This mistake can result in a misinterpretation of failure when the opposite is true. A holistic mindset is vital when judging the effectiveness of campaigns. Another common mistake is using lower-paid junior ad buyers with limited experience, which rarely works out. It is far better to invest more in elite advertising buying talent, which over time can end up being worth millions.

Aimee

12/Feb/2018

Video is now the go-to content format for many brands, but William Grant & Sons Global Senior Content and Connections Manager Cathal Gillen believes marketers sometimes “over-invest” in the production of creative clips without considering whether it is beneficial for the business in terms of ROI and engagement.

In a new interview with marketing news website The Drum, Gillen claims he has seen first-hand how brands and ad agencies often divert a huge percentage of their media spend to video. While he agrees video can play a role in successful content campaigns, he believes other, more viable formats are often overlooked in the process.

He said: “Videos only go viral occasionally and there has to be budget to amplify it to get the right reach for your video content.” Going viral also seems an outdated concept in an age where consumers are looking for brands to serve up more personalised, informative and educational content, which actually adds value to their own lives.

Gillen continued by urging brands to recognise just how invested they are in media and social giants, such as Google, as a lack of alternative outlets for content could potentially have its downsides in the long run. He added: “We have to be really cautious towards the big channels. So much of the revenue and budgets are going into Facebook and Google. It is important to be really mindful about the power they bear on us. Martin Sorrell calls them ‘frenemies’.”

Finally, Gillen touched on the ongoing issue of transparency and metrics. He believes brands must do everything they can to measure effectiveness to ensure they are not wasting time or money on ineffective platforms and content formats, though he admits it can be challenging due to the statistics served up on social platforms.

He said: “When we look at impression numbers and reach numbers, we try to see how people have been impacted. You might have reached 10 million people but, how many people have viewed it? With Facebook, if you’ve been counted in as three seconds, is that good for you? Probably not. But if the view is something like 20 seconds out of 30 seconds in video then that’s potentially good.”

Video has been central to content campaigns for some time now, but last year saw the arrival of another major marketing trend: influencers. Contiki Social Media and Influencer Manager Natalie Siagian revealed in late January how the use of celebrities and other high-profile figures who have access to large audiences should not be seen as a silver bullet for engagement success.

There are around 500 million tweets posted every single day, so the scope for a targeted influencer campaign is considerable, but Siagian said it should never be a substitute for high-quality, relevant content. She added: “If you are looking at influencers to solve all your problems, that’s not going to happen. But if you are looking at influencers to communicate a message to reach a new audience, you must make sure you’re being smart about it.”

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