We probably don’t need to tell you this, but everyone—you, your target market, your family, your friends, everyone—is on social media.
Of the 101.47 million Filipinos in the country right now, over 48 million of them are on Facebook, according to digital research firm We Are Social. That’s an impressive penetration rate of 47%. Social media use grew by 20% from January 2015, with most of them on Facebook (and its accompanying chat app, Facebook Messenger), followed by Google+, and then Twitter.
But these overwhelming numbers shouldn’t mean that your brand should charge headlong into social media. Here are the 5 strategies that you need to employ.
1. You need relevant, timely, and shareable content.
Whether it’s a witty caption, a helpful social card, or a fun video, these are the qualities your content needs to stand out from all the filler on a potential customer’s feed.
The great thing about social media is that it’s easy to collect real-time data on your campaigns. So how do you measure success? It’s important to look at two metrics.
1. The first and most obvious is fan acquisition; that is, the total number of likes.
2. But even more valuable than fan acquisition is fan engagement; that is, the percentage of your fans who are interacting with the content you produce, whether through likes, clicks, comments, or shares.
2. Relevant
Your content has to matter. It must add value to the lives of your followers on social media. Otherwise, it will just be white noise. Take Dove’s social media initiatives, which hew closely to the brand’s overall empowering, woman-positive message. In one initiative, Dove’s Facebook page used in-page apps to start conversations about the real meaning of beauty, while encouraging fans to upload pictures of themselves. More than being relevant to their target market’s interests, this content strengthened the brand’s approachability and credibility.
3. Timely
With content coming at users at the speed of light (or at least as fast as they can refresh their feeds), it’s important that your brand’s content doesn’t lag behind. You have to ride with what’s hot in the public consciousness—while still remaining true to your brand. Oreo (whose social media feed is always a master class of in-the-moment marketing) demonstrated this last year, when they timed a series of time-lapse videos to a spectacular solar eclipse, with the iconic cookies subbing in for the sun and the moon.
4. Shareable
When your post goes viral, you know you’ve hit social media gold. But your content has to convince your casual fan to hit the Share or Repost button. Like anything in marketing and publicity, virality is always tricky to guarantee, but in the realm of social media, you can take some clues from Tastemade. A digital network, Tastemade runs food videos from its network of creators and producers from around the world. With food videos among the most viewed and shared type of content on digital, their high-quality original videos rack up the hits thanks to their loyal fans’ shares—averaging 1.5 billion views a month across the entire network.
5. Remember the Funnel
Despite the ease of posting and sharing content on social media, don’t expect instant results. You need a long-term strategy. Keep in mind this sales funnel, which aims to build a broad base of social media fans, and converting a percentage of those fans into loyal buyers.
Awareness
Tactic: Run ads targeted to gain more ‘Likes’
Engage
Tactic: Regularly pump out shareable content
Convert
Tactic: Offer freebies to encourage them to sign up
Loyalty
Tactic: Offer exclusive incentives for your most loyal fans
Remember, almost one-third of the world’s total population are active social media users. With the Philippines alone on the #2 in the list of countries with the most active users, it would be inconceivable and irresponsible for a brand not to have a solid social media strategy. 48 million Filipinos spend an average of 3 hours and 42 minutes of their entire day scrolling through their feeds. Shouldn’t your brand be one of those things they like, share, and love?
