Every brand in Singapore wants to have a viral post or video.
While we have all witnessed the power of brands, products or services booming overnight thanks to social media platforms, it turns out that translating online trends into tangible business results isn’t easy.
Reaching millions of customers via social media requires strategic content planning, agile communications, and audience insights for the creation of a successful strategy.
If you’re looking to elevate your social media game, try these three tips first:
1. Create content, not sales pitches
Say you want to promote an inventive, never-seen-before product or service, so you come up with a high-production, high-cost video. To your disappointment, the video reach is low, and there’s barely any engagement.
Well, here’s why: one of the most common social media mistakes is focusing on what you want to say, instead of what your audience wants to hear. Yes, your job is to sell your product or service, but it has to be done for your target audience.
Always remember the importance of social listening; track and analyse social media platforms for conversations related to your brand to find out the hot topics and sentiments surrounding your target audience. Then, integrate your messaging into a content plan your audience wants to see.
H3 Case Study: Metro Trains Melbourne’s Dumb Ways to Die Campaign
Remember Dumb Ways to Die, the catchy song about rail safety that became the world’s most shared public service announcement (PSA) on social media? Within three months of its release, rail-related accidents dropped by 20%. First heard almost a decade ago, the song continues to live in our minds, with users creating parodies even till this day in 2022.
Their secret to success? Engaging, memorable content. Instead of a regular PSA, Metro Trains Melbourne featured adorably illustrated characters dying in morbid yet hilarious ways, piquing audience interest before ending with a call-to-action to be safe around trains.
Connect with your audience
Now that you’ve drawn your audience in with solid content, you need to build a relationship with them to keep them on your social media pages.
Just like any connection in real life, communication is key. One of the easiest ways to communicate with your audience is to utilise in-app interactive elements. Not only do polls, quizzes and question stickers quickly connect you to your audience, but interactive content is proven to grab attention and help differentiate your brand from competitors.
Case Study: Duolingo
Another way to build a relationship with your audience, both old and new, is through community management and interactions using comments. Language learning app Duolingo actively responds to comments on TikTok, often referencing pop culture and online trends that feed into their quirky (or some may call it unhinged) brand personality.
Besides commenting on their own posts, Duolingo drops comments on other page’s posts to increase their visibility outside of their existing followers. Piecing this together with trendy content and a distinct brand voice, Duolingo has successfully accumulated 4.2 million social media followers, with an astounding 19% engagement rate as of late 2021.
Mutant Example: Singapore Sports Hub
To befriend your audience, you also need to build brand loyalty. One of the best ways to do so is to encourage user-generated content. In April 2022, we launched a campaign for Singapore Sports Hub on Instagram and Facebook, encouraging people to share their own photos or videos alongside a caption on why they love the Hub.
For this campaign, we reached out to local photographers and reshared organic user content to encourage further participation. Over the six-week campaign period, Singapore Sports Hub saw over 300 user submissions. Many of the people who contributed have continued participating in the organisation’s subsequent marketing campaigns.
Evidently, focusing on the “social” in social media is the right way to go.
Venture into short-form vertical videos
We all know that TikTok has taken the social media world by storm. But that doesn’t mean you must be on the platform. While it may help you reach a wider, possibly younger (and especially Gen Z) audience, being on TikTok is not as important as adopting the TikTok formula — short-form vertical video.
Meta has announced that all new video posts on Instagram will now be shared as Reels, encouraging businesses to post content about their brand, product and services as mobile-friendly vertical videos on Facebook. Even YouTube joined the bandwagon with the creation of YouTube Shorts for optimised short-form vertical content.
With mobile video consumption doubling every year and only 30% of users turning their devices sideways to watch a video ad, it’s no wonder social media platforms are pushing for this strategic and fast-growing format as the main mode of communication.
Refresh Your Content Marketing to Reach Audiences in Singapore and Beyond
If there’s only one thing to take away from this article, it’s this: listen to your audience. Then, understand what they want and try your hand at creating short-form vertical video content that caters to their interests.
The ultimate goal? Get people so amped up about what you have to say that they organically become the ones spreading the word on your amazing creation or service. Think big and who knows, your brand might be Singapore’s next viral sensation.
Want to win at social media marketing but not sure how to start? You’ve come to the right place: [email protected]