Over 100 marketing professionals attended the MA’s July 2024 Monthly Meetup, organised and hosted by the Digital Special Interests Group. The panel discussed Social Media strategies and tactics, sharing valuable insight into content creation best practise, and how to stay focussed when running campaigns that impact a businesses brand perception and the all important bottom line. Andrew Hughes, Paid Search Lead at Xero, delivered this comprehensive breakdown.

The panel was hosted by Zania Guy of the Marketing Masters podcast, and featured well known industry leaders - Tama Sefuiva of Snapchat, Ryan Stokes from Skinny, Julian Thompson from Mosh Social Media, Olivia Thompson of Thompson Spencer & Rachel Crockett from TikTok NZ.

Introduction

The event was sold out. Even a wet winter evening couldn’t deter the marketing community who showed up in droves to learn how they can improve their company’s social media efforts, illustrating the importance of this channel on modern day marketing.

The panel, a mix of supplier, client and agency side, provided a well rounded perspective on the state of social media from both an organic & paid lens. Some key themes shone through as the evening progressed - think about content from the users perspective, consider what you want to achieve before posting to socials, create punchy content that lands regardless of the format or duration, start small, test & iterate and scale from there. The discussion was full of valuable, practical insights which are so often difficult to come by. Leaning on a wealth of industry experience the group covered ground from posting cadence, to measurement, to trending topics and everything in between. We break down some of the key highlights from the discussion below.

How often should you post on social media?

There’s no clear answer as to the perfect frequency of posts, as it can vary based on your business vertical, available resource, and will vary from platform to platform. The overarching conclusion was to post as much as possible within your resource constraints and remember it’s still quality over quantity - as jumping on every trend will leave you struggling to get any meaningful cut through.

Ryan Stokes spoke on his experience at Skinny, where he focuses on building credibility through quality content. Creating one piece of thoughtful content per week on TikTok allows him to pull new users in, adding a slightly different perspective on the brand which is usually known for cost-cutting aesthetics. This varies from platform to platform, with Skinny posting more frequently on the likes of Instagram & Facebook.

Static posts vs video posts - what should I use and when?

Ultimately you’ll want to deliver the right piece of content at the right time, based on the current context of the user, so it’s important to have a combination of static & dynamic assets at your disposal to use on your chosen platform to meet the users need state. For example if a user is opening an app for a brief moment while waiting for a bus, a still image may be best suited to meet their mental availability at that time. If they’re reclining on the couch in the evening and have 30 minutes to spare, you’ll find longer form video is more attractive to the user in that moment.

The common thinking is that video is the most powerful & versatile format for all aspects of social content from awareness to engagement, having dominated our feeds over the past 5+ years. However static posts are making a comeback, having a strong influence at the bottom of the funnel - specifically when using a conversion based campaign objective.

Julien Thompson says of video: ”It’s great if you want people to watch a video but it doesn’t perform as great if you have an off-platform conversion, such as a Web Sign Up. We find frequently that a static image will perform better when there is a conversion objective.”

Ryan said he’s noticed static image carousels becoming more prevalent on TikTok, and that many TikTok trends are now using this creative format to tell stories - treating it almost like a storyboard. He is finding that the static image carousel, with a new spin on them, are becoming a strong competitor to video.

Content formats are forever changing, with new generations of users developing unorthodox, innovative new ways to engage with the platform using multiple media formats, such as repurposed video snippets, additional filters or drawing over video. This requires brands to observe, adapt and fast-follow. The advice here is to continuously test new creative as user behavior and content norms evolve over time.

Think in stories not seconds

Rachel Crockett who supports a range of New Zealand businesses on TikTok said she’s frequently asked by clients what she considers to be the most effective content format…and the answer is somewhat underwhelming but accurate, there is no golden rule, referencing Hilton’s 2023 viral hit which lasted 10 minutes. We’re trained to think in container lengths - 15’s, 30’s, 60’s. But the consensus is that if you can be succinct in the message you want to land, and you can do so in the minimum amount of time possible, that’s the best rule of thumb to follow.

What is a ‘Hook’?

This was mentioned a number of times prompting Zania Guy to ask the obvious question - what is a hook? The panel said it’s a tactic used to capture the users attention in the first 2 - 3 seconds, and summarise the video to increase engagement and virality. Examples of hooks can be anything that will get the users attention, like sounds, or consistent use of opening frames (eg. opening a door). Another way to think of a hook, is like telling the punchline of your joke at the start rather than the end, or starting your video with the outcome, and then telling the story of how you arrived there.

The best viral videos start with what was described as the ‘tip of the tongue test’. In other words, begin your video with a quick summary of the videos content eg. “I’m going to x restaurant to experience the most expensive dish on the menu”. Why? You’re more likely to capture the users attention. This technique also lends to creating more word of mouth referral as it’s simple and fast for the user to summarise your video content when talking with friends.

Do you need specific content for different platforms?

The answer is somewhere between yes and no. Full screen vertical video will work across Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Facebook etc, however, there are nuances and differences between platforms that you should be sensitive to, for example:

  • Reformatting to use the native fonts found on the platform can actually boost engagement / performance, most notably on TikTok
  • While it may seem foreign or difficult to use, Snap lenses are worth exploring if you want to extract maximum value out of the platform
  • A recut TVC may be suitable in some placements but is definitely jarring in others

How can I discover what’s trending?

Each platform has a tool which indexes it’s biggest trends, and some even allow you to add your business area to identify the types of content relevant to your audience. This way you can discover which trend is relevant to your brand, and then create content that speaks to this theme.

It is advised to view multiple posts of the trending content organically, or in situ to truly understand the context of that content in order to recreate the content effectively. Spoiler alert: this research does require a considerable amount of doom scrolling!

Each platforms trends will usually be specific to that platform, unless you’re looking at a cultural trend, such as fashion trend or notable current events. Therefore it’s unlikely your trend post will translate well on other platforms. For example a TikTok trend post will not transfer well to Instagram due to missing context. Most TikTok trends, which last around 2 - 3 weeks, rely on a sound which is usually not available on Instagram, and even if it is available, it won’t have the same level of relevance on Instagram. There are also other factors to consider such as formatting.

How should I measure my efforts on social media?

Before you post to social media it’s important to have a plan - think about what you want to achieve and what is your purpose.

When running a paid campaign, Tama Sefuiva of Snapchat says it’s critical to be crystal clear and single minded about what you want to achieve; in other words be intentional about the objective you are focused on when setting up your social media campaign. Put simply, if your campaign aims to raise your company’s Brand Awareness, then don’t select a Sales objective in your social media platform. While sales are a welcome bi-product of your brand activity, it should not be measured as a key outcome, or be viewed as a campaign objective, as this will lead to misspent advertising dollars and unclear campaign outcomes. While this may seem like common knowledge, all panelists said they’d witnessed misaligned objectives many times in the past, making it difficult to measure campaign effectiveness - one of the common pitfalls of social media paid advertising. Equally, if you have a sales objective but your campaign is not delivering additional sales, it is quite obviously a failed campaign and will require some revision.

Olivia Thompson of Thompson Spencer mentioned there’s a number of different metrics and tools available to understand your social media success, as in-platform data will only give you one view of performance. For example you can look at as Zavy and Tracksuit to understand how your brand benchmarks against your competitors across shares, comments, likes, with shares being the highest form of advocacy. Digging into community sentiment via comments is also important to understand how your brand is being received and ultimately perceived by users.

Do I need a social media strategy?

Yes, otherwise you’ll flounder around in the attention abyss frantically trying to create a viral post that may never happen. Be intentional & meaningful - it’s important to remember that Social Media Marketing is simply a subset of Marketing. Therefore it’s imperative to build a social media strategy that is informed by your core marketing strategy, of which is informed by your overarching business strategy. This is critical to ensure your social media content and performance is delivering a material value to the business.

Source: Andrew Hughes, 5 August 2024