My wish for the new year? That brands stop sucking at social
Freelance creative strategist Zac Martin explains why your attempt to ‘culture jack’ Talk Like A Pirate Day isn’t going to grow your brand.
Most brands suck at social.
I’ve been freelancing for six months, and the single most common conversation I’ve had with clients is about how poorly social media is working for them.
It’s usually because they create too much. Someone sold them once on the legend of the content beast and its constant need to be fed. Brands convinced themselves it was a volume game, likely the legacy of maximising organic reach by posting often.
“Killer content” means great ideas. The Holy Grail of advertising. Often sought but rarely found. Because there’s no difference between most products and services. Nothing you can highlight with a great idea.
Interesting.
Can you expand on this point a little please?
“Focus most of your time, effort and budget on distributing your hero pieces wide. And build a media-based content program underneath. Artefacts like content pillars and even calendars become redundant – instead align target audiences and messages with your marketing plan.”
In what ways do you suggest aligning your target audience/messages with your marketing plan? And how do you see content pillars and calendars as redundant?
Your marketing plan defines your strategic opportunities for the year and in turn the audiences you need to influence. It also highlights events, sponsorships, campaigns, NPDs etc.
This should feed your social activity. The notion of pillars and calendars both enable the always-on genericism of content.
The solution is in a campaign model, where activity lives, serves a purpose, and dies.
Ok
I’d assume any decent social activity would naturally be aligned to strategic opportunities regardless of what informs it – pillars etc, or structures it, eg cals…
But then maybe I’m just well more cleverer than other people
You might be surprised. I didn’t realise brands were still investing in growth either!
Nah
Nicely articulated Zac.
So many brands still treat their traditional/digital advertising with completely separate approaches and measures of success, despite chasing the same objectives.
Preach.
This problem extends to many agencies that do not integrate their “paid media strategists & planners” with their “creative strategists”.
These words will sting any traditionalist creative/accounts team, but it’s a necessary sting that disinfects the wound that bullshit social gurus, ninjas, growth-hackers, thought-leaders and other self-anointed titlegivers of the industry have created with the content is king battle cry.
Your first sentence is exactly why I moved from agency to client side. I now get to be involved in the full process rather than just media planning. It’s so important to plan both creative and media placements together with the target audiences in mind. The media agency I came from was still keeping their digital and offline teams separated. The SEO and paid search was then another separate team from digital.
There is also the issue of responsiveness on social.
Customers see Facebook and Twitter as a way of interacting with the brand and a place to raise issues quickly, not just a platform for brands to push advertising.
From my observation, one major Australian department store retailer does not interact with customer queries on Twitter at all unless they are complimenting them on a promotion, and on Facebook merely passes messages on to individual store managers for a “phone call”. E.g. Take a look at visitors posts on major retailers FB pages. I observed someone complaining about a long queue and they were asked to DM so the store manager could call them. The person replied that they don’t need a phone call just wanted change. Similarly people ask if their local store has stock and they’re asked for their phone number!
If customers wanted a phone call they’d probably call themselves. Other brands (esp OS) are doing a good job actually assign customer service teams to Facebook.
Social customer service definitely not to be overlooked. I’d argue most brands suck at that too.
Brand’s can be so blatantly condescending on social networks. Take a campaign running currently by CBA on Instagram as an example, which talks about how their staff can volunteer for good causes and CBA will match donations. It is a smokescreen. If CBA stopped hoarding money and impoverishing the nation, we wouldn’t have to volunteer would we? The positive is that informed people are calling them out. The consensus seems to be telling CBA to advertise an excellent financial product, which beats the competition’s. Pathological hoarders.