Finding your (social media) way
In part five of Stand Out on Omnichannel we discuss the best ways to reach out to consumers on social media – while making your brand shine.
Showcasing your brand on social media platforms is an everyday part of marketing. But with so many platforms to choose from, and each with a different audience, where should you start? And how should you get your message across?
Hitting your target
Though there may be an initial desire to spread your messaging across as many platforms as possible, you don’t want to clog people’s social media feeds as this can come across as a scattered rather than confident approach to marketing. Narrow down your target audience and that will guide your social media messaging journey.
A good place to begin
Facebook remains the most used and engaged with platform despite recent criticism and a growing lack of interest among younger generations. People aged 25-34 make up the largest audience, and of the roughly 2.8 billion users worldwide, over 98% access the site from a mobile device.
The best of the rest
Following behind is YouTube, with Instagram bringing up the rear. Concerning the former, YouTube has over 2 billion active users ever month – which is a whole lot of marketing opportunity. More than 70% of users access YouTube on their phones, with the average session lasting approximately 45 minutes.
And then we have Instagram with its target audience of more than 1.1 billion people, the vast majority of whom follow at least one business. Instagram’s most active users are aged between 25 and 34, and the platform has the fourth largest audience worldwide among mobile device users.
What works where?
Overall, this shows an increasing dependency on mobile devices. As such, marketing should be approached with a “mobile-first” mentality. And with the majority of social media platforms dominated by Generation Z, Generation X and millennial audiences, your branding needs to be snappy, colourful, attention grabbing – and genuine.
Another factor to pay attention to is format, with audiences showing particular interest in motion graphics and video content. Other more straightforward factors to consider are when to time posts and how many times a week you should be posting content.
A change of marketing pace
Today, we are also witnessing the adoption of an entirely different and more personalised approach to marketing, with Twitter offering some great examples. On the site with its roughly 187 million daily users, almost half of whom are aged between 30 and 49, we’re seeing more brands sell themselves without selling anything at all. At least, directly.
Take frozen meat company Steak-umm, which has very successfully built up its image by humanising itself. Instead of outright telling Twitter users about its latest products, Steak-umm tweets about topics like the spread of misinformation online, and of the hardships of modern life – especially in COVID-19 times.
Whatever social media platform best suits you, your products and your audience, there is no escaping how vital these channels can be to your brand’s success. This is true of all sectors, but especially food and beverage – with brands in this area accounting for a third of all tweets – the highest share among all industries. Food and beverage brands also make up six of the top 10 most popular brands on Facebook, while a massive 86% of millennial YouTube users search for recipe tips on the platform. All of which creates ample opportunity for food and beverage manufacturers to grow their customer base.
In the sixth and final part of the series, we’ll revisit our past stories and highlight key takeaways. Join us as we journey back by subscribing to SIGnals Update, our bi-weekly newsletter.
- February 22, 2022