Social media marketing is a constantly changing world. We take a look at some of the most important issues for 2019 from influencers, data-crunching and fake followers.
With 2.27 billion monthly active users, Facebook is still the behemoth of all social media platforms. But is it still the platform of choice for 2019?
According to Socialbakers’ report, Most Important Social Media Trends to Remember in 2019, Instagram has a smaller audience size than Facebook but Instagram users are far more engaged than on Facebook.
“This demonstrates that Instagram is the go-to for capturing quality engagement within smaller communities, and will likely be the trend in 2019,” it said.
Jon Reay, CEO and founder of Rewrite Digital, agreed: “Instagram is a must for any consumer brand in the food industry. It’s not just the visual centricity of the platform, it's the strength of the community and how content is found and shared that makes it so valuable. Instagram Stories and Live features add even more visual flavour to any food brand.”
And while there plenty more social media platforms, it’s not necessary to be active on everything.
“The key advice is not to spread too thinly,” Reay said. “If you launch on everything, it’s not sustainable. It’s better to do one or two platforms well than all of them poorly. Think about what’s right for your brand and your audience, and what you can practically resource.”
However, what is true elsewhere is true for the business world: interactions are better in real life than in the virtual world.
Some of the best examples of companies’ social media engagement combine physical experiences with social, Reay said.
“Tate & Lyle created a pop-up in a hotel where seemingly ordinary items were in fact edible,” he told FoodNavigator. “The social buzz endured much longer than the one-night event raising interest beforehand, during and after as guests shared what they found.”
As for social media faux-pas, a gaffe doesn’t necessarily have to originate online to trigger a social media storm.
PepsiCo found itself the subject of ridicule when its then CEO Indra Nooyi made comments about different ways men and women eat snacks in public, and how the company was planning to launch a line of snacks for women that were “designed and packaged differently”.
“It blew up to be a huge story with an even bigger backlash despite Doritos reassuring its fans that its Doritos for women are called Doritos,” Reay said.
According to Statista, influencer marketing is projected to be a $2.38 billion market by 2019.
“Influencers can boost your brand awareness, make a positive association and give you something interesting to talk about outside of your products," Reay said. "However, you’re at risk of those influencers losing their value or reputation overnight. Use influencers, absolutely, but never rely on them 100% and know when to jump ship.”
The analysts at Socialbakers have another word of warning: beware of influencers who have ‘purchased’ fake followers to boost their profile.
While there is no fail-proof way to identify fake accounts among the real ones, tracking data on the metrics around influencer marketing – followers, engagement and interests – can allow businesses to identify fake accounts.
If a user has a sharp spike in followers at a time when its posting rates and interactions remain unchanged, this is suspicious.
This week (19 November) Instagram announced a strategy to 'reduce inauthentic activity'.
But brands can try to minimise the risk of working with influencers whose followers are fake by looking at two data points: the influencer’s performance over a given period of time, for example six months, and his or her engagement level per 1,000 fans, Socialbakers' report said.
“The former metric allows marketers to easily spot spikes of followers and performance that can highlight fake activity and the latter metric gives a clear insight into whether the influencer’s followers are actually engaging with the topics that resonate with the brand’s audience.
“In addition, benchmarking the performance of a few influencers over time can also greatly help to identify anomalies that are a result of fraud.”
Reay added: “Choose influencers that align with your brand values. Work with them to weave the association with your brand genuinely into their content and posts, always making it clear when it's a paid promotion.”
Data is key to understanding who buys your products and what they like.
According to Yuval Ben-Itzhak,CEO of social media marketing agency Socialbakers data should be the backbone of social media advertising.
“Today, it’s crucial that marketers are making data-driven decisions with their advertising budgets,” he said. “Not knowing how your content will perform and investing in posts indiscriminately, could mean you might be wasting half of your advertising budget - but which half?
“Content grading can help ensure that the quality content you do promote is achieving optimal engagement, improving cost efficiency, and maximizing your budget,” he added.
Social media platforms can also be used to harness data. Reay recommended companies grow their permissioned database by encouraging social media users in to sign up through competitions, offers or exclusive content.
“Social media platforms also support lead generation features without users having to leave their environment. Collect both implicit and explicit data to learn more about individual and trending preferences. These can support not just communications but also product development.
“You often only hear from people who’ve tried your product when something goes wrong, or occasionally when things go really well, but what about everyone else? Try to get feedback on what the majority of people think so you’re not swayed by the extreme views.”
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is said to be the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years and its impact on digital marketing has been considerable.
But Reay believes that in the long-term, GDPR a good thing.
“It has probably reduced the volume of direct communications but […] you're able to focus on building a more valuable database of people who actively want you to engage with them.”