Social engagement and the art of being memorable

You can have all the likes you like, but if you don't speak directly to your audience and arouse their emotions, they’ll switch off 

There has been a lot of talk about influencer marketing over the past few years. A very tempting social engagement strategy, isn’t it… Find someone who has a large following on social media and can credibly endorse your product/service through a YouTube web series or Instagram takeover, for example. Celebrities are still popular too. (Some brands even use both, like Target.)

It could be an effective part of a campaign, if you avoid the ethical pitfalls. But ask yourself, are you looking for a one-night stand or a long-term relationship? Build partnerships, yes, but the bond you should really nurture is a direct one between you and your customers, on a one-to-one basis even. As dark social and messaging apps become more popular – 84% of content shared by consumers is outside of social networks – this will become an even higher priority next year.

Reach vs engagement

But let’s get back to this notion of influence, and social engagement specifically. What does it mean? Well let’s start by saying what it doesn’t mean. Firstly, it’s not about volume of visits, impressions and other vanity metrics. Your post may reach X thousands of followers but what happens next? What do they do with that information?

Secondly, publishing more content will not automatically deepen engagement. This report by TrackMaven revealed that content output per brand in the US increased by 35% in 2015, but content engagement decreased by 17%. It’s that mass broadcast strategy creeping back in. Companies should actually be going the other way, having micro-conversations with different segments, turning to their own employees as influencers, if they have to.

Influencers are change agents. They can help to make a connection with your audience and raise awareness, but only if they sincerely love what you do and share your point of view. That’s being authentic. L’Oréal Paris recently signed up a “beauty squad” of young bloggers to produce content. Let’s see how far they “challenge” the brand.

Engagement is about prompting action as this AdAge article explains. A customer might visit a website, post an online review, open a marketing email, refer the brand to friends and family, download a brand's mobile app… “Experience creates emotion, emotion fuels engagement and both together impact brand and business outcomes.”

So how do we create emotion and provoke action?

The science of social engagement

Recent research by Marketing Land led to key three recommendations:

·      Encourage social sharing by publishing positive content that elicits a combination of happiness and surprise from your audience, and a feeling of being in control.

·      Encourage discussion and comments with content that inspires high-arousal emotions such as excitement and anger.

·      Balance out low-arousal content by incorporating an element of surprise such as an unexpected twist.

In short, every activity – from tweet to short film to event – must convey a feeling and prompt an interaction. Now we are in the business of business so how can you tell if your content is actually having an impact and generating return on investment?

 
How to measure social engagement

Your KPIs (key performance indicators) depend on your business goals for each individual campaign. Nevertheless there are a certain metrics to look out for beyond likes. Typically, these are the actions that require a little more effort on the part of the consumer. Gauge scroll depth on your pages, look for comments, monitor your return visitor rate, create call to actions such as newsletter sign-ups, measure watch rate for your videos and include tracking links for referrals from videos on third party sites. (As Facebook moves to all video – “probably”– the latter will become more significant.)

Don’t read too much into page dwell time. Think how often we open multiple tabs, get distracted, walk away from the screen. It’s potentially misleading. Then there’s meaningless sharing. According to the Washington Post, a depressing study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute revealed that 59% of links shared on social media had not been clicked on beforehand. Many of us are so excited and eager to pass it on, we barely skim the surface.

To make matters even more complicated, not every channel was created equal. What’s more valuable, a like/share on Facebook or a like/retweet on Twitter? Which social network commands greater attention? This BI Intelligence report shows that, “while Snapchat's monthly active user base is estimated to be slightly smaller than Twitter, the photo-sharing app is five times more effective at engaging users.”

Examples of great social engagement campaignS

Let’s put some of this thought into practice. Here at Scorch London, we believe brands should stand for something. That means treating a customer as a person, opening his/her mind and crafting campaigns that speak to them. That might mean asking busy bookworms to listen more or encouraging fizzy drinks lovers to just be themselves.

Here are some of our favourite campaigns, made by people who feel the same way. Each has brought real meaning to the word “engagement”, not least because the audience has created its own influence.

1. #ThisGirlCan

Universally lauded, and rightly so, this Sport England campaign aimed to address the fact that two million fewer women aged 14-40 were exercising or playing sport compared to men. Despite this, 75% said they wanted to be more active. A major deterrent was fear of judgment: being the wrong size, not fit enough and not skilled enough. So they set out to celebrate real “don’t give a damn” women doing sport in their own way, as little or as much as they liked.

Video trailers (shared by Grazia and other media partners) and subtle interactions on Twitter give women the “That’s me!” moment. A Missy Elliot-powered TV ad lit the fuse. Women began to share their new hobbies and triumphs on social networks. They could insert themselves into the campaign using this app. Sports clubs and societies began to join in. Twitter Q&As and Instagram discussions reinforced the sense of community. A special line of exercise clothing was later launched at Marks & Spencer. It’s been a movement in the truest sense because it really meant something to the audience. Figures in January revealed that 2.8 million women had done some or more exercise as a result of the campaign. At the root was a belief that the brand was willing to explore with its audience.

2. Domino’s – Lost for Words

How to describe the first bite of a freshly made Domino’s pizza? If anyone knows, it must be their legion of “Social Snackers” (young, mobile-first, digital natives) so the brand decided to use this campaign to ask them.

Research indicated that taste was a major reason to purchase but the clever part was analysing social media (both for Domino’s and its competitors) to learn how they chose to communicate this feeling. The answer? The language of the internet: emojis, GIFs, memes, CAPSLOCK…

Next, their agency created the tools and set the challenge. A TV ad full of “mouth-bogglin’” moments; a Snapchat filter for Domino’s-lovers to express their "tastebud-tinglin’" emotions through face-swapping; and a GIPHY channel to pinpoint and share their particular "GIFEELINGs".

This is marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing. It’s fun for the audience to get involved. And they certainly did. Over the 10-week campaign there were 8.5 million 20-second plays on Snapchat (double the benchmark) and 13% higher engagement than other content on Domino’s social channels.

3. Lynx – #BiggerIssues

In the UK, a man under 45 takes his own life every two hours, yet nobody talks about it. This insight led Lynx to partner with charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) to get suicide on the public agenda. The resulting campaign, #BiggerIssues, drew attention to all the comparatively trivial things that dominate guys’ conversations, “from man-buns to celebrity gaffes, superfoods to skateboarding dogs”.

A social listening team pulled out inane daily trending topics, which were then used to create content across social, online banners and digital billboards. As a clever nod to the core issue, the creative changed every two hours. Men were asked to support on their social channels and agree to a single synchonised message being sent to raise awareness on International Men’s Day.

The results speak for themselves. Awareness of suicide being the biggest killer of men increased by 45% during the campaign according to YouGov. Visits to CALM’s website increased by 125% while helpline calls rose from 4,858 to 5,619. This interest prompted the first every parliamentary debate on suicide. That’s the power of a meaningful campaign, one where marketing becomes culture.