Picture this: you’re a big brand, and you’ve just spent big bucks on your latest ad campaign. You expect the same content to create a lot of engagement on your Social Media channels, but when you post about it, your audience… Just doesn’t care.

Why is this happening?

The simplest answer is: you haven’t tailored your campaign for social media.

Brands (and agencies) think this means just repurposing content, or creating a tab (a separate page within the page) on Facebook. Wrong! If your content is not inherently ‘social’, adding an extra step (visiting a tab) is going to make it even less so. A tab has to have a purpose, one that is not just putting a lot of content in it (if you can just share it on the page).

So what can you do to create content, and campaigns, that perform well on Facebook and other social media channels?

1)      Learn from your audience. What do the like? What do they hate? With every post, they’re talking to you and expressing, at times quite harshly, their taste.

2)      Keep. It. Short. When’s the last time you watched a 5 minute video on Facebook?

3)      Make it fun, engaging. Don’t just ‘broadcast’ content. But ask people to tell you what they think of it.

4)      Give them something. As trivial as it might sound, people like prizes, and exclusivity. Whether it’s the chance to win what you’re promoting, the chance to be part of your ads, or something similar, this will draw attention to your content.

And then the ultimate recommendation to make things work in social channels: make it shareable. Has your content the shareability factor? Does it make people go ‘wow’ ‘hilarious’ ‘crazy’ ‘I have to share this’?

So, am I saying you shouldn’t create campaigns if they don’t tick some of the points above? No, not at all. But different channels call for different measurements of success. What works on TV, print, etc might not work at all on your social channels. If you want a social media campaign, tailor it for social media.

But if you have a great ad campaign, you should then manage your clients’ or internal expectations. If the campaign is not tailored for social, then social results shouldn’t really be part of the KPIs.

You may also like -

10 things to avoid in social mediaThe T-Mobile Royal WeddingThe ASA now regulates social mediaJoe Cornish is stalking me on my mobile!