In this workshop for in-house marketing leaders across various sectors looking to up the ante on their social media strategy, our experts shared the latest opportunities, challenges and best practise guidance for getting more from your channels.

As businesses seek new ways to reach and connect with audiences without diving too deep into budget, and platforms such as TikTok continue to take the market by storm with record-breaking user growth rates - are you making the most from a new era of social?

In this virtual session, our experts discussed where social media ‘fits’ as part of a wider marketing strategy right now, the differing platforms, opportunities and challenges they present, along with key considerations for in-house teams looking to get more from their social activation in 2024.

Our experts:

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In this Article:

  • The leading trends and themes across social media right now
  • Defining your social media strategy objectives
  • Proving ROI of ‘nurture’ activity with organic social

READ OUR KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE SESSION BELOW, OR WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP HERE

The leading trends and themes across social media right now

Building a sense of community

Jayne highlights, “audiences are finding a sense of belonging around subcultures and communities in platforms such as TikTok, which is fuelling its popularity in comparison to Instagram or X (Twitter).

I think it's important for brands and organisations to focus on cultivating a community through their socials, some brands are doing that great – such as Adidas who for a long time have been nurturing and speaking to grassroot footballer groups across the world to genuinely engage with audiences.”

View our Round-up: Organic Social 2023 – Trends and Opportunities for your Growth Strategy

PR and social media

Beth says, “with the influx of Digital PR, businesses are taking more of an audience first approach to their strategy – different variety of channels, content, conversation, and sentiment is now being used as a measure of success in PR campaign reports.

A good example of this is when Oxfam and Tony’s Chocolonely partnered for a giveaway of Glastonbury Festival tickets – from a PR perspective this brought case study stories, and from a social perspective, you seen reaction videos of the winners, demonstrating the talk-ability and share-ability across PR and social coming together.

Clare O'Hanlon, Head of Social at Recipe on Defining your Social Media Strategy Objectives

Defining your social media strategy objectives

Clare says, “when I think about objective prioritisation, I see it as a funnel around awareness, consideration, and conversion, including the opportunities within each of them from an organic and a paid point of view.

Similar with audiences, you often hear the different categories such as ABC1, biddable audiences, non-biddable audiences – the long and short of it is make sure there's appropriability to social and it's carried in throughout.

Ultimately, when clarifying your objectives don’t get lost in the jargon of it all – set out clear boundaries around what you want social to do, what an objective looks like and what the priority is and if that priority is attainable or reachable.”

Learn: How B2B Businesses Can Create an Effective Social Media Strategy

What are you looking to achieve?

From a paid perspective on defining your objectives, Sam highlights, “my first question to a client would be what are you looking to achieve out of paid social? What are the KPIs that you're focusing on?

Campaign objectives should be based around awareness, consideration, and conversion, yet we often find in those initial discussions with clients it's not quite clear what they want to get out of it.

Most paid social platforms are primarily awareness first channels, but platforms such as Meta certainly does start to work more from last click. So, it’s about setting out realistic expectations on your channels.”

View our Round-up: Organic vs. Paid Social Media – The Case for a Hybrid Approach

Proving ROI of ‘nurture’ activity with organic social

Talor says, “organic is showing your brand is relevant – you’re active on social media, you're using the platforms that are appropriate to your audience, you're engaging with that audience consistently, as long you keep at that, your organic will grow.

This may be slow burner but once those organic results begin to show, they can help support your paid activity if you decide to get into that space. Also as mentioned, community management is huge on organic social to keep connected with your audience and get your tone of voice out there.”

WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP PLAYBACK

If you're investing in your social strategy this year, make sure you're getting the most from your time. GO! offer cost-free agency recommendations, pitch management, and more - get in touch to get started.

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