Part 1: The Role of Community and Data Analytics in Creating Winning Social Media Strategies
Episode Summary:
Michael Brito, Global Head of Analytics at Zeno Group, joins Tejas Mehta to share how B2B brands can leverage influencer and community marketing, the influence of metaverse on social media, and the importance of storytelling for your social media strategy.
Key Highlights:
- 4:17 – 6:37 – Marketing Changes – Back in the early days, there was no advertising. It was all about community. There were no ads, and there was a sense of community where people would talk about great things. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn did a good job early on building communities and making their products indispensable for the consumer. Then, they started introducing ads, and what used to be a community platform has turned into a media platform.
- 6:37 – 8:45 – How Brands Leverage Communities – Brands, first of all, should have good products or services that meet the unmet needs of the consumer. If they have that, it’s easy to build a community of advocates. Then, you can think of building an ecosystem or an online community that provides value to users.
- 8:45 – 11:08 – How Small Brands Should Approach Communities – Small and mid-sized brands should develop a community-focused mindset. They don’t have the marketing budgets of big companies, so they need to lead with the concept of approaching a campaign as building a community versus launching an ad. You can also create private or public groups on Facebook or Twitter. It’s not ideal, but it is an alternative.
- 14:48 – 18:37 – Data Sources – Most brands get their analytics from blogs, news, and social media. These are great platforms, and many companies like to aggregate all that data and look at the insights. But an even more efficient way is to look at these different channels individually as your data source to understand the conversations, topics, and narratives around different trends. Also, looking at the news media is a goldmine of data you should use.
Part 2: Influencer Marketing, Future Social Media Trends, and Metaverse
Episode Summary:
Michael Brito, Global Head of Analytics at Zeno Group, joins Tejas Mehta to share how B2B brands can leverage influencer and community marketing, the influence of metaverse on social media, and the importance of storytelling for your social media strategy.
Key Highlights:
- 0:27 – 2:35 – Measuring the ROI on Influencer Marketing – Measuring the ROI for B2B can be tricky and challenging as the sales cycles are longer, and it’s more of a branding effort. You can engage in a lead gen program, collect leads, deliver them to sales to close the deals, and hopefully, you can reconcile that work to prove value. The bare minimum for B2B is tracking clicks and conversions. Start there, work your way down the funnel, and try to determine whether or not those leads become sales.
- 2:48 – 5:04 – Influencer Marketing and Community – Some brands look at influencer marketing at the channel level. But Michael approaches it on the topic level, aiming to find, for example, top travel, AI, or fashion influencers. If those influencers are active on LinkedIn or Twitter, activation will be in those channels. If other influencers are active on TikTok or Instagram, activation will happen there. The hardest part is finding those influencers who really believe in the community.
- 5:16 – 7:32 – Participation Marketing – In 2018, Michael published a book called Participation Marketing, a concept meant to enable employees to participate in industry conversations and become brand storytellers. However, considering work-related issues brands face today, like quiet quitting, it became more difficult to create advocacy programs. Brands need to be careful and do a self-assessment first of the culture. Once you identify the opportunities, invest in the right technology and create an advocacy program and strategy.
- 7:56 – 10:18 – Winning Social Media Content – User-generated and influencer content always performs well because it’s authentic. The idea of coupling creativity and copy is always a best practice. Also, think about the storytelling, the lead-up, and the payoff of telling a story within a feed.
- 11:56 – 15:11 – Metaverse and the Future of Social Media – Metaverse is an opportunity for brands to think outside the box with how they are, build community, sell products, and engage with consumers. Whatever you do today, you can do differently within the metaverse. Social media will change due to the metaverse, along with how you structure your marketing teams and the skill set needed to hire for marketing teams.
