On average, users spend two and a half hours a day scrolling through social media. This gives brands a significant opportunity to engage with their audience where they like to hang out.
The challenge for businesses is identifying which platforms their audiences like to use and tailoring their messaging and content accordingly.
On average, Americans spend 30 minutes of that two and a half hours on Instagram. The platform has over two billion active users and is the fourth most popular social media platform in the world. But if your customers don’t use Instagram, you’re wasting your time and budget.
Users are also 50% more likely to engage with a brand after having seen an advert.
Being prepared to test and iterate will be an important part of weaving social media into your multichannel engagement strategy. Knowing what works, what doesn’t and what’s worth building over time is important.
But first, you need to understand how it all fits together.
The Right Content for the Right Audience
Before you create any content you need to know your audiences. Different demographics want to see different things.
Depending on the industry, businesses can have a broad range of audiences subdivided across any number of data points. What you sell and who you’re selling to will inform the kinds of data you need to consider.
A fast fashion retailer will need to consider segments such as age, ethnicity, sizing, hair colour and eye colour. A sports betting operator will be more interested in preferred sport, favourite team and location. .
Understanding this data will have an effect on the content you put up. Relevance is key here.
B2C
When it comes to building a social media presence for businesses, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your goals and target audience. Once you have a clear direction, creating content becomes much easier.
Partnerships with models and influencers is a common tactic to increase brand awareness and followers on social media platforms. However, it’s crucial to choose the right partners whose following aligns with your target audience.
High-quality photos and lifestyle images showcasing your products in use are effective ways to highlight product benefits and improve customer engagement. User-generated content is also valuable in building social proof and encouraging purchases.
By sharing relevant content consistently, you can easily move followers down the funnel, ultimately driving sales. Additionally, using social media analytics can provide insights into what content is resonating with your audience and guide future content creation.
A well-executed social media as part of a multichannel strategy can increase brand awareness, improve customer engagement, and ultimately drive sales for eCommerce businesses.
Sports betting and gaming businesses face challenges when it comes to communicating with audiences beyond their app or website. They must avoid directly promoting gambling on social media, and instead take a pundit or commentary approach.
Paddy Power have become hugely successful by creating a community that looks forward to their take on sporting events and even events happening around the world.
By taking a different approach and building a community around commentary and news, SBG businesses can effectively use social media without directly promoting gambling and risking backlash.
B2B
There is plenty of value you can add to your customers and followers through social media. Users are always looking for updates and news on different industries and social media is the perfect place to provide it. There is space to not only be seen as an expert in what you do as a business, but also an expert on certain topics and providing information.
Which seamlessly leads us to the next point, which is thought leadership content. Share thought leadership content such as blog posts, whitepapers, and e-books that provide valuable insights and information to your target audience. You can use a marketing agency software to help you streamline these processes.
You can also look at social media as a way of attracting potential new employees. Content surrounding company culture, values, and mission on social media is eye catching and gives people an insight into how you operate. This can also help to attract new customers who share your values.
There are plenty of other options that can help with B2B social media posting. Product updates, customer success stories, CSR, and event content all play a vital role in a successful social media profile.
It just always ties back to understanding how it ties into your wider strategy when it comes to multichannel engagement.
Data is your friend
When it comes to multichannel engagement there’s plenty to understand in the lead up to the campaigns you launch across your channels. And when it comes to social media, data is most definitely your friend.
Gone are the days when you could post the same content across all of your socials. Things have changed and businesses need to understand that different people expect different things on each platform.
The data at your disposal and your understanding of it will guide you to making the right decisions on the platforms you use.
Adding Social Media to your Multichannel Engagement Strategy
Based on your target audience and content strategy, choose the social media channels that are most relevant to your brand.
You may want to focus on Instagram and Facebook when it comes to the 18-34 age group. If it’s younger than that then TikTok might be your best bet. Whereas if you are targeting professionals, LinkedIn may be more appropriate.
Adding these channels into a multichannel engagement strategy will enhance your overall communication campaign. Data collected from email, sms, push channels, and social media can all talk to each other. This leads to richer communications and an overall better experience for the customer.
Integrate your social media channels with your other marketing channels, such as email marketing, SMS marketing, and your website, to create a cohesive and consistent brand experience across all touchpoints.
How Social Media Platforms Stack Up
Understanding who your customers are will give you an idea of where they spend the majority of their time. A lot of the time it’s age and gender that will direct you the most when understanding where to talk to them.
Take the following statistics as a guide.
- 2.91 Billion monthly active users.
- Biggest age group is between 25 and 34, making up for just over 31% of their users.
- Main gender split is 43% female and 57% male.
- 2 Billion monthly active users.
- Biggest age group is between 25 and 34, making up for just over 31% of their users.
- Main gender split is 48% female and 52% male.
TikTok
- 1 Billion monthly active users.
- Biggest age group is between 10 and 19, making up for 25% of their users
- Main gender split is 61% female and 39% male.
- 810 Million monthly active users.
- Biggest age group is between 25 and 34, making up for just over 59% of their users.
- Main gender split is 48% female and 52% male.
- 211 Million monthly active users.
- Biggest age group is between 25 and 34, making up for just over 31% of their users.
- Main gender split is 43% female and 57% male.
Depending on your main age group and the industry you operate in you will likely put more weight on a specific platform. But in general, B2B customers will spend most of their time on LinkedIn. While B2C customers will be spread across the other four platforms.
What you post on your platforms will be based on your data as well. Customer buying behaviours will give you an idea of what leads a customer towards a conversion.
Some demographics will be inclined to purchase after they see one of your products being used by their favourite influencer. Others might see more value in the reviews you have. It’s important to include these different aspects in your content.
Don’t Stay Static
Customer behaviour changes regularly. It’s up to you to stay on top of these changes and adapt to whatever is set out in front of you.
Constantly updating your customer data in real-time means your multichannel engagement efforts are as up to date as they can be. Leading to more effective campaigns and higher rates of engagement.
If you want to know more about how customer data can help you get more out of social media and multichannel engagement, book a demo with the team today.
