SOCIAL MEDIA

Why ‘less’ can be ‘more’ when it comes to social media marketing

By our News Team | 2021

Oversaturating social media with brand content across many channels may cause your audiences to skip content or ‘unfollow’ you.

There’s no doubt that social media is an essential component of almost all business-to-consumer marketing and communications strategies across Africa. The question, though, is: How many social media channels are enough to achieve your objectives?

A recent study by international social media management platform Hootsuite found that oversaturating social media with brand content – especially repeated content – across many channels causes audiences to skip content or unfollow.

This is not good news for marketing professionals, who go to great effort and cost to acquire social media followers in the first place.

“It all begins with understanding your audience and the spaces they occupy”, said Desirée Gullan, Executive Creative Director of African-based communications agency, G&G Digital.

“Then you can craft value-adding content that speaks to your audiences in the channels they love. Doing so allows you to have a trusted voice on social media, as opposed to bombarding your target audience with generic content everywhere.”

What to consider when selecting channels

According to Gullan, the following are the five key aspects to consider when selecting social media channels:

1. Who uses this channel and what are they using it for?
Is it an important channel for your target personas?
What conversations are going on here?
What content type works best?

2. Will this channel help you achieve your objectives?
Why does it make sense for your business or brand to use this channel?
What goals will you pursue through your activities here?

3. Does the channel align with your content mission?
Will your content be viewed as unique and valuable, or will the community find it intrusive or irrelevant?
Have your competitors established a strong presence?
Could you lead the conversation on this channel for your brand’s positioning?

4. What results do you want to achieve?
What should you be asking followers to do after engaging with your content – share, comment, visit, subscribe or shop?
Is the community likely to take an action?
Do you have the right metrics, monitoring and KPIs to measure success?
What kinds of content work best on this platform?
Is your content strategy relevant to this audience?

“Talk to your audience, not at them,” Gullan emphasises. “People trust brands that give back; whether you’re providing valuable information, entertaining, sharing news, or simply providing a safe place where they can be with other people going through similar experiences.”

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