Trends and strategies for social media engagement

Going OTT

Dentsu Aegis owned mobile marketing agency Fetch’s head of strategy and innovation Julian Smith believes marketers must do more to prioritise mobile, keep up to date on the increasing fragmentation of the mobile social marketplace and bear in mind the growing importance of OTT (over the top) messaging apps. So, as well as thinking Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for social media marketing, consideration should also be given to the growing opportunities provided by Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, Viber, Tango and Path — as well as the likes of WeChat, LINE and KakaoTalk if targeting APAC audiences.

But the king of 2015 social media will be WhatsApp, asserts Etcetera/DDB Amsterdam social account manager Mark de Leeuw. Although many brands and agencies still have their focus on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, he predicts that WhatsApp will be the most important platform for sharing and consuming content. In the Netherlands, brands are already starting to include it in their strategy. An example is Dutch energy provider, Essent, which has integrated WhatsApp into its customer service, while Dutch international airport Schiphol is working on a pilot with WhatsApp as a real-time customer service tool at location.

“Facebook will still exist on 31 December 2015, but the negative sentiment about the paid brand presence in the timeline will surely grow,” says de Leeuw. “With the implementation of the new algorithm in January 2015, Facebook will become more and more an advert platform. Organic reach will decrease more, so brands and their agencies will be forced to spend more media budget on Facebook in order to get the reach they are looking for. As a result the consumer will search for new, ad‑free alternatives.”

True customer service

Many brands have squandered good opportunities to build relationships via social media through an inability to grasp that customers want to engage with the whole organisation, not just the marketing department. Those companies that have embraced Twitter for customer service have the ability not only to win the hearts and minds of individual customers, but to show the rest of the world that they are committed to doing so.

“Social media are soft media, and I expect to see more brands use them to genuinely talk to customers this year, not just sell to them,” says Publicis Chemistry chief strategy officer Kevin Allen. “Customers aren’t greedy, they’re just fed up with brands treating them as nothing more than purses. If I say something nice about a brand it’s not greedy to expect a thank you; if I ask a question, it’s only reasonable to expect an answer. Preferably a genuine one, not a piece of marketing spin. After all, it’s no more than we expect of the people that we meet on an everyday basis.”

B2B communities In B2B, where brands were typically slower to move into social media, there’s also an appetite for meaningful interaction. Property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle global brand director Brant Long is looking forward to the emergence of more “specially segmented communities”. He is keen for JLL or possibly other parties to develop communities — for example embracing the top 20 or so clients in a particular area — where information such as JLL’s research can be shared and larger topics discussed “for the greater good, or to do better deals, or create sustainable real estate”.

The model he hopes to see for communities of this type involves the free sharing of tightly focused content that is of “paywall” quality. Opinions may differ on precisely what the future holds. But there’s no disputing that the way to avoid cynicism and apathy towards social media activity is by giving your target audience a worthwhile experience.

“It’s all about value exchange in social media,” says Fetch’s Julian Smith. “If marketers can provide value for a social interaction, whether in the form of good content or financial incentive, then they get response. I don’t think the customer will become greedier — just more selective about the brands they engage with.”

Choosy is good, assuming you’re among those marketers making the right social media choices.

This article was originally published in The Marketer by Rob Gray