A brand's social media success is not a 1-size-fits-all approach

(Photo Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)

As the social media manager for a mid-sized, non-profit organization, Akron Children's Hospital, I have the luxury of thinking about the topic of social media participation on an ongoing basis. We all use social media – personally, professionally, and for our brands – to inform, entertain, communicate, build relationships, and manage our reputations with key audiences.

Akron Children’s Hospital’s marketing/PR team, as well as departmental staff, uses nearly 30 social media channels to inform and engage in conversations with the organization’s patient families, the general public, peers, donors, and employees. Our ultimate goals are to engage and excite our online audiences as well as improve customer service and satisfaction. My biggest concern as the manager is the amount of channels, therefor, causing our team to be spread too thin. This is a very realistic concern for an organization developing its ongoing social media strategy.

Sadly, today, social media is less organically driven and has evolved into a “pay-to-play” space for brands even if they are doing everything right for the audiences they strategically built during the last several years. Social algorithms favor personal content over branded content making it harder for brands to reach the very people who have chosen to follow them. This is important to note so organizational leaders realize the marketing team will need a budget to be successful. Advertising dollars are required to combat the algorithm.

In addition to platforms generating revenue from branded posts, they benefit by keeping users engaged in their social space for as long as possible and creating a desire to return frequently. I cannot stress enough that engaged is the keyword here. According to Econsultancy's Chris Lake (2009), the objective of any social media strategy is "to provide the right tools, so that people can engage with your brand/people/products/services onsite and offsite."

Every good marketer knows that content and audience aren't one-size-fits-all when it comes to engagement and neither are social media platforms. A brand’s approach should reflect this. Choosing the right platform(s) is the first step in having the right tools. One platform is not better than the other, they’re just different. So, depending on the brand’s goals, the audience for that message, and that piece of engaging content, one platform might be more favorable than the other. Before we discuss content, let’s take a closer look at the platforms themselves.

• Facebook: Followers of a Facebook brand page want to be entertained not educated by content in their newsfeed. It’s a great place for comments and conversations (i.e. customer service), as well as sharing. Photos and videos (recorded and live) are a successful way to entertain this audience. To have a successful brand page, you also need a budget to boost posts to help reach your key audience.
  
  Facebook Groups – public, closed and secret – each have a different purpose than brand pages. They are like a special interest support group. Members want to learn from each other and have access to educational and informative information, as well as being entertained. A budget is not needed. 

• Instagram: Instagram’s quick, fun nature is highly visual and artistic. Instagram is all about capturing moments and telling stories to build your brand with original photos and short videos. Conversations are kept to a minimum, and users can’t create links in the text or share the post.

• Twitter: Twitter is a news medium so it’s great for breaking news and sharing information. Users don’t typically have conversations with each other. Posts are short and can’t exceed 280 characters.

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is specifically for the professional community to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.

• Snapchat: Snapchat is a mobile app and is unlike any of the other platforms because of its fleetingness nature. It allows users to capture and augment their reality and share it with friends. These multimedia “snaps” can be private or semi-private. Geo features add fun to the platform for users, as well as marketing engagement options for brands.

• YouTube:YouTube is the most long-standing video sharing platform. Users can subscribe to brands’ channels and interact with their videos with views, comments, likes, shares and such. The platform continually expands to support other types of video including 360, live streaming, and 3D. Copyright laws are strictly enforced here. 

(Photo Illustration from Flickr: Dell Inc.)

Two other key factors: Perfecting the content and creating relevant conversations with your audience

Once an organization has decided the perfect social places to be, it needs to focus on what the audience needs and wants from the brand. The goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships. Regularly creating and sharing a wide variety of content – e.g. something educational and/or entertaining, photos, videos, articles, special offers, etc. – on social media that your audience enjoys or finds valuable will deepen the relationship. Remember, the content must be relevant to the brand!

If the content is not engaging and followers are not interacting with it, over time, it will hurt the brand. You won’t get the reach/impressions that you desire because the social media algorithm realizes your content is not interesting to them. Organizational politics will sometimes try to dictate content that you, as a marketer, know will not be engaging. Use analytics to support your recommendation that that content should be communicated in a different way. Remember, the platform’s number one goal is maximizing the user’s time there.

For my organization’s brand page on Facebook, I strive to create content that my audience will share. Something so good that he wants to be sure his friends also see it. Or tagging a friend’s name in the comments – it’s not as awesome, but still appreciated! Many studies have shown that people are more likely to believe and trust something that was shared by a friend/family member rather than a brand – it’s a powerful tool. The “share” is a double edged sword, though. While it’s a compliment that they want to help spread your message in an organic way, it’s now being seen by those who might not be in your target audience. They could likely not engage with the content which will lower the content’s engagement rate and affect your ability to understand its success. 

Beyond sharing, content that encourages conversation adds life and meaning to the post. Catherine Novak (2010), says, “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising.” This creates personalization and makes the customer feel valued and not just a consumer or number, hence the ability to build relationships – just like in your personal life. We all have a voice that wants to be heard, so brands should certainly “like” users’ comments, at a minimum, or write back with text and, better yet, incorporate the person’s name.

Creating this “noise” for a brand is a good thing; conversations can certainly be thought of as noise, so those monitoring the social channels want to ensure its not negative noise/conversation. While negative feedback and complaints are important for customer service, it doesn’t help build a brand’s reputation. In that situation, the goal is to always get the conversation offline to resolve as quickly as possible. Overall, the conversation sentiment should be neutral and positive for the brand to benefit. Analytical tools can help measure that over time across the brand’s channels. Marketers will quickly see if adjustments should be made in messaging, visuals, or, hopefully not, the product/service/business strategy. Detecting this early is crucial, and social media can be a key tool for it. But brands must “listen” and not just “broadcast” to reap this benefit.

Brands that excel in this “personal” social media space will also develop trust. This is especially important for brands with a long purchase funnel or something that can be a negative or emotional purchase, such as medical services. While much of this success won’t be seen in ROI figures, the brand will strengthen over time and consumers will truly believe they can rely on the brand.

Lastly, in addition to choosing the appropriate set of social media platforms and executing great content, marketers also need to be willing to try new tactics and trends to remain relevant to their social audience. The space is constantly changing, so brands need to adapt as well. “What worked for you yesterday, and what your audience found engaging, might not work tomorrow,” said Christoph Trappe during a webinar on social media analytics. He encourages everyone to “just keep trying.” I need to keep his advice in mind, because I am finding the performance of my brand’s tried and true content declining.

Reference 
Novak, C. (2010, July 27). “Why conversation, not content, is king.” Social Media Today. [Web blog]. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com 

Trappe, C. (2018, October 25). “How to create a culture of data-driven decisions in social media implementation.” Mayo Clinic. [Webinar]. Retrieved from https://socialmedia.mayoclinic.org/webinar/how-to-create-a-culture-of-data-driven-decisions-in-social-media-implementation