Social Media: organic and paid social.
What is Social Media?
Social Media comprises online content in many forms across various platforms and has grown enormously in scale over the last decade. More specifically, it involves global networks of communication where content and ideas can be shared between users. Businesses, too, can benefit from the many opportunities that social media presents and through curating engaging content they can achieve many different business goals.
Ever since the primitive days of social media where typically users would upload a basic profile and make friends with others, it has been evolving at an unprecedented rate. In today’s world, it is now often the first place people look when finding out the latest news or when they want to share a significant life event with friends and loved ones.
Social Media & Business
There are two main focuses when it comes to using Social Media as a platform to achieve business goals (Organic & Paid) which we’ll go on to outline below. Both strategies must be taken into account to develop a solid Social Media approach. Paid Social is a strategy implemented across owned Social Platforms and involves boosting content to existing or new audiences, whereas Organic Social, by contrast, is all non-paid for activity across Social Media platforms. Paid Social is especially effective in terms of building awareness and reaching potential customers through many specific targeting options. It can be tailored and optimised across channels to cut through the “noise” and more effectively generate a positive response to achieve business objectives. Through analysing campaigns and assessing results, future strategies can build upon learnings from key demographics and audience responses, as well as the performance of various creatives.
The main form of content on social media is mostly user-generated, however as mentioned above, businesses may leverage this tool and generate either paid or organic content in order to connect with, and/or acquire new customers. Businesses have also been evolving alongside this ever-changing medium and adapting their strategies based on what the platform offers and how to best communicate with their target audiences. This isn’t surprising when we consider how much of the population uses social media on a daily basis.
Social Media Management involves the organisation of content as well as the analysis and reporting of data. Businesses can schedule content around key periods and times when audiences will be more likely to be using a particular channel and therefore more receptive to engaging with content. It also involves the strategy behind this and the many ways in which the business goals can be achieved such as a product launch or driving sales.
Social Listening
Social Listening is a way of monitoring online discussions and topics of interest across Social Media platforms. A few examples are analysing conversations on Reddit, tracking hashtags on Twitter or looking into product mentions on Instagram (or any of the other Social Media channels).
This is particularly useful in the case of brands who undoubtedly will have an interest in what people are talking about on Social and will want to be on top of current trends. They will be able to understand customer behaviour and needs more effectively, as well as listening to useful feedback. Knowing how often their products and campaign hashtags are mentioned as well as tracking how competitors are performing is invaluable information which will inform and refine future strategies.
Social Media Channels
Here at One Day Agency, we work daily with all social media platforms with a specialised team in each. Here’s a list of the most popular:
The most popular platform by all metrics, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users (MAU) or roughly a quarter of the planet earth. With their demographic getting more popular in older groups, the platform's largest user base still is the 18-34-year-olds.
Popularised by its focus on content (photography, video), Instagram is a money-making machine for brands having the digital ad format that yields the best ROAS (return on ad spent), Instagram Stories. Their core group are Millennials with 64% of 18-29-year-olds are active.
With a more informed audience that is trigger-happy, Twitter is still a relevant social media platform. Popular with sports, news & overall trends, Twitter is still the king of dialogue and information sharing.
YouTube
It is simply the second largest search engine and its viewership in the UK is the size of all broadcast tv channels combined. Social video is set to take over the world in the incoming years and its targeting capabilities are extremely compelling for brands. In particular, since it is keyword-based.
One key aspect distinguishes Pinterest from all the other social media platforms, and even digital media channels! It’s a discovery platform so in a consumer journey, takes the very first spot. People use Pinterest to find and discover new products, services, trends, ideas and more that they are considering or not purchasing in the future. 87% are female, with half of their active user base of high-income.
Snapchat
SnapChat takes the crown for 13-24-year-olds but leaks active users to other platforms such as TikTok. SnapChat has been around for years and offers a robust marketing platform for brands including dynamic catalogues.
Established as the to-go-to platform for professionals, LinkedIn matured its advertising platform in recent years and is now the number one choice for many B2B advertising campaigns.
Twitch
Twitch world’s user base is the size of BBC1 and the centre of all gaming and e-sports. With video-only ads, Twitch's highly-engaged audience is prime for advertisers for industries in consumer goods, entertainment and more.
Reddit is the front page of the internet and its users are closely tied-in into communities which makes this platform unique, authentic and at times wild. Reddit offers display advertising across its website and mobile app, and any brand considering approaching this community really needs to understand its language.
TikTok
TikTok conquered the social media for the gen-z (Generation Z) against SnapChat and other younger audience platforms. What sets TikTok apart from other social media channels is that its video and content are focused on specific activities thus extremely engaging. As a brand, you really need to consider carefully how to approach this social media platform and with what content.