The power of social marketing

A recent report commissioned by The Grocer, highlighted the success of FMCG brands and supermarkets competing on social media, and emphasised the need for brands to invest in social marketing.

Both Irn-Bru and Aldi topped the respective tables that took into consideration a variety of different measurements including social engagement, reach and content. Both are reporting rocketed sales as well – coincidence?

Why aren’t you social?

Social media has carved out its space within communications over the past few years, and has become an integral tool that every campaign should now include.

Free to set up, many businesses may have Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn accounts that are managed regularly; however many fail to set up KPI’s that measure their success such as engagement, reach and ROI.

The beauty of social advertising

Great content is the key to social media. With the average American user (18-64) spending 3.2 hours per day on social media, it is important to make sure content is engaging, unique and gets a specific community sharing and discussing.

Social advertising provides the opportunity to test and learn – a concept that cannot be so easily used across traditional advertising platforms. It easily demonstrates what content works well on the page within the community, and boost the content that gets a strong engagement; targeting specific audiences.

This type of advertising allows marketeers to share engaging content with fans on a large scale, which will in turn also grow your social presence. Content can include anything from products news to brand messaging, but it’s important to ask what is its social currency; what does it offer, and why would people engage with it? Is it entertaining, or does it have a monetary value (competitions, vouchers freebies etc.)?

It pays to advertise

Many brands don’t have a budget pot for social advertising but can still receive high engagement from fans and followers. However non-advertiser’s growth is going to be slow in comparison. Platforms such as Facebook have introduced a new ‘pay to play’ approach, meaning that without investing in advertising each will automatically be drastically less than that of a paid post.

Pelican Communications are specialists in the environment, food and drink, outdoor and leisure and packaging sectors and offer a range of services such as media relations, brand management, event management and people development. Contact us for marketing and communications expertise.