Emilie Tabor is Co-Founder & CMO at IMA || Forbes 30 Under 30
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I have to admit that in the past months, the online social environment has been a bit confusing.
We are living through a global pandemic that has forced us into social distancing and urged brands to heavily rely on social media platforms to sustain their marketing efforts and keep consumers connected and engaged. Happening simultaneously, social movements have put these platforms’ actions under a microscope, moving brands in the opposite direction to steer away from advertising there.
Many of the major social media platforms are being affected by some type of boycott for various and different reasons.
To protest against how Facebook is handling hate speech and the spread of misinformation, more than 1,000 advertisers joined the #StopHateForProfit campaign, pressing pause on their investments on the platform (and consequently on Instagram) to demand fairer standards. In a more recent turn of events, even celebrities have started to freeze their personal accounts as a sign of support for the campaign.
Twitter and TikTok are also under scrutiny, but this time over privacy concerns. In July, the Twitter accounts of major companies and personalities were compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding data breaches the platform has ever seen. TikTok, in turn, is facing (potential) political bans in key markets like India and the United States, for alleged privacy issues linked to the Chinese government.
While it has certainly been a hard year for these social platforms, brands are also struggling to wrap their heads around the next steps. If advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok remains uncertain, where should brands turn to? The current social media turmoil is pushing us out of our comfort zones and dragging us into exploring new paths.
The Untapped Opportunities Of Different Social Channels
All the challenges these major social media platforms are going through shines a light on the importance of not putting all your eggs in only one basket.
Brands who want to join the #StopHateForProfit campaign or those who are wary about investing their time and money into platforms whose future is not very predictable can tap into new opportunities by exploring other social media channels, such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest or even podcasts.
Each of these channels has its own strengths and represents a great opportunity for brands to delve into different audiences and new content formats, and even focus on their own content possibilities.
• LinkedIn, for example, is the ideal social channel for tapping into harder-to-reach B2B audiences, offering a very detailed professional targeting approach, with users who are more receptive to marketing messages.
• YouTube, on the other hand, is a platform where brands can master their storytelling capabilities, while taking advantage of its huge and diverse user base as the second most used search engine machine.
• Pinterest is perfect for visual and aspirational content, which typically has a longer lifetime value and a higher conversion rate when compared to other platforms.
• With podcasts, brands can dig into the growing popularity of audio format and leverage podcasters’ high share of voice, uncluttered ad space and niche audiences.
Leveraging a multi-channel strategy allows brands to tap into different channels’ benefits and audiences while diluting their weaknesses and risks.
Building a relevant presence on new platforms from scratch can feel very overwhelming. Another element to consider incorporating into your new strategy for social media marketing is enlisting the help of influencers.
Influencers Can Give Brands An Extra Boost
All of these platforms accommodate influencers who excel at creating content that offers real value to its most avid users. These creators represent a trusted voice for their community, and having them speak on a brand’s behalf will likely transfer the admiration and respect of their audiences onto this brand.
To illustrate, think about a LinkedIn top voice writing an article that features your brand in a professional context, or a podcaster trying your product live or talking to important people within your organization about topics that are of interest to their audience. These are only a couple of new ways you can test the waters with different and unexplored content formats. The worst-case scenario is you find out new and valuable information regarding your target audience.
On top of all of this, brands can even explore new content creation possibilities through influencer marketing and leverage the personal and meaningful connections influencers maintain with their followers, even outside the “main” social media channels.
Influencers are content powerhouses with enormous creative potential, so brands have the possibility of tapping into their authority and storytelling capabilities to create high-end and personalized content on a brand’s behalf. Another possibility is to get influencers invested in the creative process of product development, the so-called influencer co-creation, which brings many advantages to everyone involved, including more innovative or higher quality products and a curious audience that will be eagerly waiting for the launch.
All in all, no matter which platform you choose, the online world offers unique and unexplored opportunities that are definitely worth giving a try.
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