We all know that social media is integral to any communications campaign. And yet, with the goalposts moving so rapidly and the ever increasing number of platforms to post on, how can we truly utilise it for businesses within the satcom and broadcast industries? I travelled to Social Media Conference Cymru to hear my peers’ takes on the current landscape.
Authenticity over everything
There is a real shift in the content people want to consume now. Perhaps fuelled by the rise of AI or maybe the overly curated social feeds we have been accustomed to creating, we are seeing a surge of consumers wanting to see the nitty-gritty. Lo-fi content (aka videos/photos captured on your phone) is taking the lead across all platforms. Behind the scenes content like ‘a day in the life of…’ and ‘watch us do xyz’ are gaining the best engagement, with people wanting to take a look behind the curtain and see the inside workings of businesses. This boils down to the most important takeaway from the event: people engage with people. You need to make your brand human. Socials are a great way of doing that.
Catrin Jones
Account Executive, Radical Moves Ltd
Storytelling is key
Echoing my previous point, the most effective marketing happens when people buy in to what you’re selling. The hard sell no longer works – what are you actually trying to resolve with your product? And what story can you tell that demonstrates that? People love a good story arc. And as in all good stories, that includes the twists and turns of life. Hit a roadblock in your product development? Share it. Show how your expertise navigated it and how it strengthened your processes. Is the industry facing a problem? Spell it out. Explain the impact its having in real operations. Show how your problem-solving and insight is having a positive impact on the challenge. Reputations are built through trust. You build this narrative by being real and showing ownership of the challenges you’ve met and the innovation (and more importantly, the PEOPLE) you relied upon to navigate them.
Surviving in an attention economy
You need to be catching the attention of social media users and keeping it. With so much content bombarding us all of the time, this is an art in itself. Your first frame needs to be punchy: do you have a strong statement in your video? Are you solving a problem which others in the industry will relate to? Your hook must be strong to keep people watching beyond the first 3 seconds – that’s how quickly attention wanes! Editing plays a huge role in this – get rid of pauses and keep things slick. Tease information and lead people into wanting to listen/watch/read the entire thing.
LinkedIn and its evolving algorithm
Despite changing far less than other platforms, LinkedIn is shifting a few key elements in its algorithm. First of all, it’s important to understand how it prioritises engagement. LinkedIn’s preference: comments>likes>reposts. If someone adds a long, insightful comment to your post, it is far more likely to be seen more widely on LinkedIn. This is important when you consider the role of employee engagement on the app. Having employees share the post is brilliant, however asking them to add any insight or opinions on the post itself as a comment is where the algorithmic magic happens ✨ Interestingly, LinkedIn is set to rollout a ‘save’ button. This is going to hold a lot of clout with the algorithm as it ascertains value in the content. This proves something that we already know: educational and thought leadership content is key!
Another hugely important aspect of the LinkedIn algorithm is dwell time. LinkedIn is paying attention to how long people stay on your post. Hopefully by now you all know that authentic, lo-res, punchy video featuring real people is a great way of achieving this. However, here comes the argument for including carousels in your content. Imparting your opinions and knowledge via carousels is great for dwell time and engagement. They don’t need to be painstakingly time-consuming (refer back to the popularity of lo-res content) – it could be a text overlay over some snaps from an event you attended or a brainstorming session you had. But make sure you’re keeping people hovering over your content – LinkedIn wants proof that your audience is actually engaged with what you have to say!
You’re not saying it enough
The rule of 7? Try the rule of 28! That is the average number of times a consumer needs to come into contact (digitally or physically) with your brand to make a purchase. Translating this into social media, it makes you realise how often you need to be reiterating your messaging. You’re not boring people; they need to hear it. Of course, that’s not to say you should be posting the same social posts over and over again. This is where creativity steps in! Businesses need to have a plan – how can you repackage this message so that it packs the same punch and keeps your audience interested? How does social media feed into your other strategies such as your newsletters, blog posts, marketing collateral? Get that message out over and over again, just keep it interesting!
It was truly great to head to Social Media Conference Cymru to meet with other communications professionals and to share our hits and flops. Trial and error was the fundamental overarching message: you have to try new things – not every post is going to convert to a 200% increase in sales. But it is super important to continuously review your analytics – these will be the key to truly unlocking what your audience responds well to. And with that, I think it’s important to add that I am not saying that businesses need to scrap all of their professionally shot content or glossy marketing decks just because lo-res is ‘in’. It’s just important to remember that a little sprinkling of realness is what’s really getting customer to buy in to brands now. People buy from people, and social media truly is a great tool to celebrate your best assets: your employees!
The world of social media holds so much value for brands and having the time to stay on top of engagement trends and platform preferences takes time. If you are finding it difficult to focus your social media strategy, we are here to do that for you. From social-only approaches to entire marketing and PR management, we know the value of packaging your expertise into powerful media campaigns. Reach out to our team and we can have a chat!
