Social media marketing is a beast, but can it be tamed?
82% of the United States population is on social media today. That includes most businesses, small and big. There are an unlimited number of ways to market on social media, combining different strategies with different platforms. Influencer Marketing has been taking off the past few years and if not taken seriously, could be detrimental to a company.
Look at Revlon. Revlon was a cosmetics giant since it started in 1932 and is now filing for bankruptcy. Revlon lost market share to competitors like L’Oreal and smaller upstart brands who were heavily marketing on social media. Missing out on that has catapulted other businesses while sinking Revlon into anonymity.
Which Influencer Should I Give my Product?
These brands like L’Oreal SA aren’t just handing their products out to every influencer or any Joe Schmoe. Influencers are like the TV Channels of old. Each TV Channel is associated with a specific demographic, as are influencers. Nickelodeon will get ads for toys, dolls, and other things for kids but you’re not going to see the newest Hot Wheels Racetrack on the Hallmark channel.
A New Segment
Influencers create their own segment, their own group of followers who will buy what they buy, visit the places they visit, or use the types of services they use. Social media followers are becoming a segment of their own.
Influencers form a trusted relationship with their followers by only promoting items or products they feel are worth recommending. If you can get your product into the right person’s hands, you could get a whole slew of their followers looking at your product.
Companies are seeing this ‘social media’ segment and building entire companies around this idea. Take clothing company Shein, bought by Christopher Xu in 2012. His whole business model is quickly adopting fashion trends and integrating into viral marketing using social media influencers. His company recently received a private valuation of $100 billion.
Fashion companies are one of the categories that perform well with influencer marketing. You can see other examples of this in categories like cooking, travel and fitness & exercise. In fact, Influencers often extend their swaying power to into categories outside of their original niche (from makeup to travel, for example).
Messaging is Everything
Shein isn’t doing well just because they are on social media. The message they put out is important to the buyers. Shein is a low-cost clothing line. Normally, we associate low-cost with low-quality. Shein’s message is the opposite. They use social media influencers and celebrities like Katy Perry and Lil Nas X, to dispose of this theory that it’s low-quality clothing. Their message is yes, we charge less but we sell great quality clothing. I mean, look who’s wearing it!
Keeping a Pulse on Social Media
Having your product on social media and in the hand of an influencer is important but the key is knowing when and where to post your content and with whom to market your product. In the past, we looked at the same thing with billboards, TV commercials and radio. Posting a commercial for a diner may not do as well as a billboard will do for a diner. Same goes for social media. While a small business functioning in a single town, may do well only advertising on Facebook and Facebook groups and communities, a company targeting selling clothing to Gen Z will need to get on other apps like TikTok or Instagram.
Companies who navigate the waters of social media well can target the right segment but the social media landscape is constantly changing. This means you have to keep your finger on the pulse. 10 years ago, Facebook was mostly used by young adults, and now most people on Facebook are above 30. It’s not as simple as looking at it once and knowing where you stand.
MAi Research Can Help You Keep Your Finger on the Pulse
There are a variety of solutions we use to understand campaign impact:
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- Tracking: Look at how influencer marketing impacts key performance metrics over time, and identify which influencer or social media campaigns were successful and which were not. Additionally, our tracking monitors brand strength over time using our Brand Strength Indicator. This composite score combines the metrics most important to driving consumer choice in your category, including the influence of social media.
- Data Mining: Utilize prior research to determine drivers of choice. Understanding what is driving choice will provide you with a blueprint of which social media platform you should use is and what your message to that segment is.
- Text Science Analytics: Discover the connections and associations consumers have with categories, brands, and influencers so you can craft the perfect message for each segment in your social media campaign. This is an intimate and innovative look at customer decision-making that can help engage and influence your customers.
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Come find out more at https://www.mairesearch.com/ and how we can help you efficiently and effectively tame the social media beast.
