Elevating the experiential quotient using social media

Social media is one of the most important tools marketers and curators use to amplify their event content today. Not only does social media enables your event content to go global without much investment but it also serves as a platform to receive prompt feedback on the event and what can be improved in it.

But a recent observation made by marketing gurus in reference to usage of social media by brands and agencies is that how none of their marketing strategies on the social media differ from each other.

Just like a decade back ATL was cluttered with all brands sending out same type of messages to their TG, social media too these days is filled with social media accounts of these brands who though use different platforms but have no uniqueness in the way their communication messages are rolled out.

What brands do these days is write a message and then copy+paste the same into all social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat and others. What they do not understand that is that even though social media is dynamic in its ethos, the same communication message through all platforms with zero innovation will reap no results for the brand.

Marketers and agencies need to understand today, that all social media platforms are popular because all of them have their independent unique features. A twitter is more prompt than facebook & allows only 140 characters to be communicated at a time and thus using the same fb status here would go unnoticed. LinkedIn is a professional communication tool and hence the communication messages here have to more crafted, for them to get the attention a brand wants and a platform like SnapChat has to be used to create pre-event buzz in form of small glimpses and definitely not lengthy articles.

If one looks at some of the most successful social media campaigns this year, they would see and realize that the success of creating memorable experience on social media for your TG roots back to using a particular social media platform to its benefit and not just ticking it off the list with a unified message across all platforms.

As an example, in 2006 Ecommerce vendor TOMS Shoes had launched a philanthropic campaign asking people to donate one pair of shoes to needy children. In May 2015, the brand took the campaign to Instagram with the hashtag #withoutshoes. As part of the campaign activity whenever someone posted an Instagram photo of their bare feet using the hashtag #withoutshoes, TOMS donated a pair of shoes.

The brand used a singular social media platform to create awareness about the campaign but used the platform in a way to best optimize the features of Instagram to ensure success. As a result, the campaign resulted in the donation of 296,243 pairs of shoes with people posting their legs without shoes photo on instagram for support.

Similarly, the last selfie campaign by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) managed to wow animal lovers through its innovative use of Snapchat. WWF used the idea that selfies disappear off Snapchat after 10 seconds to illustrate the disappearance of endangered species around the world. The result was worldwide branding and sharing that led to increased donations for the month in only a matter of days.

The reasons behind the success of this campaign too was its ability to engage its audiences through an innovative use of platform rather than just pleading people and advocating about animal rights.

Brands and curators need to understand today that social media has been around for quite a while now and its time to put the pedal on the metal and create newer experiences with them rather than their monotonous use. Using same marketing strategy for different platforms will not work anymore, what is going to help brands achieve a loyal TG is surprising them using a different marketing strategy for different social media platforms.