Social media marketing helps to validate your brand. A company’s social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that their brand is active and focused on thriving communication with consumers; this has the power to increase customer loyalty.
I recently found a report that claimed that there are over 3 billion active social media users around the world. That’s a scary number considering that the Earth’s population is estimated to be 7.5 billion people. The average twitter user follows 208 accounts, most of that will be close and distance friends, people you know, your favourite football team or popstar and Piers Morgan. However, only a few amounts of businesses i.e. marketing agencies, law firms, companies selling a product. If the average twitter user only follows a few businesses, how do brands reach out to consumers to gain their loyalty and attention? Pushing out informative, serious content is all good and well if that is an interest to the follower, but how do you cover the middle ground and reach people that aren’t necessarily interested in what you’re offering on social media?
It’s a lot to do with your digital engagement strategy; how do you communicate to audiences and differentiate your content between the different social platforms. We believe that there are a few factors on why you choose to click like or follow. If you think about it from the follower’s perspective; it could be because brands share content that appeals to your interests and needs. Or, it could be that they give you access to exclusive deals, coupons or other promotions, so as a consumer you have the opportunity to gain something else other than knowledge. Or, quite simply the content brands deliver is just ridiculously funny – there’s no better platform for humour than on Social.
Old Spice has created a way to tick all the boxes at once. Most people are familiar with Old Spice, they are the brand that seems to have been around for ages and one of their products has been bought for a grandad at least once before.
You might have seen this advert on the tele or popped up on your twitter feed, Old Spice’s campaign “Smell like a man, man”. The campaign actually targets female viewers, despite the product’s target market being male, as the company determined that women frequently make purchasing decisions in respect of hygiene products even for male household members.
The campaign stars Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice refers to him as “Old Spice Man”) addressing the viewer in confident, rapid-fire monologues which promote the benefit of using Old Spice products. While reciting the script, Mustafa progresses through various activities, locations, costumes, and extraordinary situations, all in one uninterrupted take while maintaining constant eye-contact with the camera. There is a fine balance between being fun and informative, this advert is just right.
Old Spice is known for their funny — and often ridiculous — marketing content. And what better place to let their freak flag fly than on social media? Just take a look at their “About” descriptions on Twitter, as well as a few of the silly posts to Twitter and Facebook below. (My favourite might be their use of a squid called Kraken to introduce their new body wash “Krakengard”.)
“Don’t use social media to impress people, use it to impact people.”
You can’t be online these days without some kind of social presence. It allows you to connect with your audience, show off your business personality and create a one-to-one conversation with your consumers. Its unavoidable and done right, can be powerful to help raise your profile, engage target audiences and have some cost-effective fun along the way.
Don’t get me wrong, Social Media isn’t the answer to all your marketing problems, but it certainly should be considered as part of your wider engagement strategy. Let us take a look at your social strategy and performance, and we’ll come back with some recommendations on how you can fully exploit your social media standing. We might suggest simple organic tactics or in some cases, paid content is relevant to achieve objectives – every client is different in how they need to use Social Media. But the outcome isn’t. We want your followers to have a great brand experience with what they’re seeing from you so they can respond positively, giving you the results you need. We call it Audience Delight and we think it’s the key to business success.
Written By Adam Burrage
Managing Partner at Trident
