More Australians are using social media than ever before – and for longer, on an increasingly diverse array of devices. As a result, newsfeeds are increasingly cluttered, fans are harder to reach and engagement for some brands has been dropping.

In order to reverse this trend, companies will need to adjust their approach to ensure their branded content reaches as many consumers as possible.  Here are five social media essentials that will help reach:

Make it mobile

How many times have you looked over someone’s shoulder on public transport and seen them on Facebook or Instagram? How often do you watch the TV with your phone in your hand?  Make sure that your content will look just as good on mobile as it does on desktop or tablet and time your content to coincide with what is happening on the TV screen to increase the likelihood of deeper engagement across the board.

Little but often

Brands that post 1-2 times per day with content that elicits a lightweight response (image, poll etc) are, according to Facebook, more likely to be seen by consumers over the lifetime of the consumers following of the brand. 

Social events drive excitement

Jumping on the bandwagon is no longer a bad thing.  Syncing social and in-real-life events more closely can also amplify the impact of each. For example, following the Red Bull Stratos stunt, Red Bull owned more conversation about Space than NASA and likewise, Oreo posting the blackout image during the Superbowl created more online buzz than the actually winner of the game.

One-to-one social engagement

Big data (one of the trends from SXSW this year) allows us to paint a better picture than ever of our consumer. Therefore brands should use this data in order to create relevant content that can be targeted to niche communities better than ever.

Visual Storytelling

When Facebook switched to a more visually-oriented Timeline in early 2012, engagement with visual content increased significantly. According to a Simply Measured analysis, visual content generates five times more engagement than non-visual content on Facebook. Combine this with the massive growth of visual platforms such as Tumblr and Instagram demonstrates the need for brands to tell their stories more visually than ever before.

Whilst not every brand will be able to adopting these tactics, using just one of these approached will help to increase engagement with their content and drive consumer advocacy significantly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex Lefley is head of digital at Edelman Melbourne. An award winning digital and social media specialist. Alex has consulted and led digital and PR campaigns both here in Australia and in the UK for brands including Shell, Grolsch, American Express, Pfizer Viagra and Hewlett Packard. Follow Alex on Twitter @AlexLefley

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