A leading question that will, more likely than not, reveal how the company’s social media channels are taken into account in the last stages of campaign planning. Even brands who are generally really great on the social media front get this wrong sometimes.
When a marketing campaign is in the works – for example, a series of TV adverts – the opening brainstorms and goals will probably focus on the concept, look, feel and production of the advert. The advert gets made, then the footage is sent over to the social team to share online.
Having the footage is great, but if no one with social media expertise has been involved in the planning from the concept stages, there are a few things they haven’t been able to input on:
- Receiving dimensions for specific channels. Pixel ratios for Facebook news feed, Facebook stories, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram Grid and Instagram Stories are all completely different. A one-size video is not going to suffice for all of them.
- Acquiring stills. One cut of one video means your messaging is pretty limited. High quality stills to wrap into everyday social media posts (which should be focused down into specific interest categories) to generate conversations online will be really useful to a Social Media Manager, not to mention much clearer than a screen grab.
- The video as a whole will be great for garnering mass appeal. But that big viewership number isn’t going to equal the same amount of customers. If you’re familiar with the Hero, Hub and Hygiene content model, you’ll know that it’s those in-depth conversation starter posts that inspire conversation, inspire brand trust and convince someone to part with their money when it comes to your product. That is where your conversions happen. To carry social through the campaign, you need to be able to branch off into content strands and plan your assets right at the brainstorm stages.
If someone is expecting social media to carry a campaign that’s being launched offline in a different online format, they have to work with you to plan the extra assets you’ll need. Simple.