In today’s ever-changing digital world, simply being present on social media isn’t enough. The space is noisy, and with little effort, your posts will reside happily in their little bubble which is you profile page. They may get good engagement by your team, or the odd comment from your social media managers mum, but is that enough? Probably not.
For businesses and brands who are truly hoping to connect with their audience and drive real results, it’s essential that they understand the fundamentals of a social media campaign – because yes, it does differ from boosting a post on Instagram or sharing to your story…
What is a social media campaign?
In simple terms, a social media campaign is basically a co-ordinated marketing effort carried out across one or more channels to reinforce a message to your audience. Unlike day-to-day social media activities, campaigns have strategic, time-bound and goal-oriented focuses.
The reasons you might initiate a campaign can vary massively, but might include:
- Raise brand awareness
- Promote a product or service
- Increase engagement
- Drive website traffic
- Launch a new product
- Collect user-generated content
Campaigns are often a cross-channel mix, and might not be purely on social media. Typically, the more touch points you can have with your audience, the better, but you must keep in mind that what works well on social, might not work well plastered on the side of a bus or in the local weekly newspaper.
The key elements of a successful social media campaign
To ensure that you are maximising your opportunity to achieve the best results in your campaign, you should be considering the below in every element of your campaign, including the planning, implementation and analysis:
Set clear objectives
Before you dive into the fun bit of copy writing and creative, ask yourself: What do we want to achieve? Whether it’s 1,000 newsletter sign-ups or the sale of 500 units, your objectives should always be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time-specific.
Not following these points can lead you to have a campaign that might be ill-informed, random, impossible to measure, and there’s potential for you to take no learnings from it.
Know your target audience.
Not all content will suit all audiences and a successful campaign ultimately hones in on the people they want to talk to. Think about elements like their needs, behaviours, platforms of choice and pain-points. In other words, what problem are you solving for them?
From here, you can tailor your time, visuals and messaging to your audience. Plus, if you’ve evaluated that your following on TikTok is very different from that of the following on Facebook, there’s no harm in tweaking the message. In fact, it’s preferred as there will be less wastage.
Content Planning
Posting static after static after static is probably not the approach you want to be drawing on when you are planning your campaign. Make sure to keep in mind all of the different content types, and maybe weigh up which channels they might perform best on. Examples include:
- Static → Facebook, Instagram
- Short form video → Instagram reels, TikTok
- Stories → Instagram
- Polls → LinkedIn
- Influencer collaborations → Instagram, TikTok
Of course, the above list isn’t limited to this, and you can certainly multipurpose your content to suit!
To ensure that your campaign goes to plan, maybe think about:
- Clear Call-to-actions and easily accessible content.
- Having a clear posting schedule
- The times of day you’re posting (e.g, there’s no point posting your new drop post at 11 pm when everyone’s tired and tucked up for the night. Whilst users may still see it, they might be less likely than normal to comment or share!)
Paid advertising
Whilst we all wish we can pop-off on socials like Surreal or Rhode Beauty, it’s simply isn’t the reality for a lot of brands, and that’s where paid ads can come in. By no means are they essential, but they will help you with achieving your goal for the campaign.
By utilising paid advertising, you will be ensuring your posts reach a wider audience than just those who follow you. Paid Meta Ads and LinkedIn allow you to use niche targeting which means you can reduce wastage and avoid targeting those who might not resonate with your brand. The purpose of your paid ads could be to drive traffic, increase brand awareness, generate sales and leads or something else.
Other than paid ads, you can also boost your Meta posts to basically allow them to be prioritised in the algorithm. This means you will get increased impressions and maybe more likes, but there are no targeting options, thus your results might look great, but could be of lesser quality.
Engagement Strategy
One of the downfalls of social campaigns is not having clear roles set from the start. You need to ask yourselves, who is responsible for replying to comments? What is the process for that or do you have free rein? Will you be reposting content? If so, is there a criteria for that? Are there any incentives for audience participation, and if so, who is responsible for the follow-up and delivery of this?
Social media campaign analytics and tracking
Something that is so important to remember is your tracking and analytics. Some people skip this step, but the issue here is that you cannot quantify what your ads specifically then achieved, or calculate an accurate ROI.
So, at the very start of your campaign, before even going live, ask yourself what are you looking to track. Is it website sales? Is it form submissions? Is it social engagement? Each of these aims can be tracked and accurately recorded using a number of tools like Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, cumulative data dashboards and more. The possibilities are endless.
Plus, if you’re after a quick tracking win – UTMs are your best friend.
What are the different types of social media campaign?
There are lots of types of social media campaigns which you could use to help achieve your goals. These include:
Product Launch Campaigns
When launching something new, you can’t just plonk it on your site and expect it to gain interest. Instead, use a product launch campaign to drive interest through teasers, countdowns, influencer collabs, and easy how-to videos!
User Generated Content Campaigns
UGC campaigns are on the rise, and in many ways, are preferred to the OG influencer marketing campaigns. UGC influencers are relatable and trustworthy – so have a think of who could align with your brand. It’s essential that there is a clear connection, and you’re not confusing the audience. E.g. there’s no use gifting a coffee product to someone who is known for being anti-coffee and pro-tea!
Awareness Campaigns
This really is what it says on the tin – a campaign where you aim to raise general awareness of your cause, product or service. These are the campaigns that get people to rally round a mission or message so it’s crucial to be authentic.
Seasonal Campaigns
Think Christmas, think Black Friday, think Valentines Day, and every other diary worthy event. Think if you can be increasing your presence at that time with a special discount or offer. Or, if you don’t want to do this, see if you can tie your business to the season and encourage action in that way too.
Engagement Campaigns
Engagement campaigns are often used to get feedback or learn more from your current audience. This might include the use of polls or encouraging comments to boost your engagement and spread your brand further. Plus, likes, shares and reposts are always a positive too!
What traps should you be avoiding?
We’ve all heard about the infamous brand mishaps that have cost them far more embarrassment than it was worth. But, here are some simple things that you can bear in mind from the start and hopefully you won’t get caught with your pants down!
- Lack of alignment with broader marketing goals.
Your campaign should really fall within your brand pillars and shouldn’t be confusing your audience. There are so many examples of brands just hopping on trends for the sake of it. Don’t let this be you. It’s boring.
- Poor timing
Bad timing can cause more problems than you might think. To avoid it, simply keep somewhat up to date in current affairs, and give your campaign a final screening before going live.
- Brand inconsistency
It’s worth ensuring that your campaign aligns with you and your audience, as you certainly don’t want someone missing who the ad or campaign was actually for!
- Forgetting mobile optimisation
It sounds obvious, but try and remember that your mobile audience will be seeing things differently to how you do on your desktop or iPad. Make sure you test each view so that there are no weird or unfortunate word cut-offs that leave you feeling embarrassed – like when ‘button becomes ‘butt’ and suddenly you’re asking someone to tap your…
Awkies.
- Ignoring comments or community feedback
Gaining comments and engagement is a great way to see what people think about your campaign. Take the time to answer them and bear the comments in mind for future learnings. At the end of the day, someone else might have the same question and be looking for the answer!
Summary
To end, a well-planned social media campaign isn’t just about getting content out there. It’s more about sending the right message, to the right people, and at the right time, all of which will work to initiate action, if you keep your focus in the right place.
Don’t be afraid to try something new and be a little different. There’s a sea of new content every day, so don’t get lost in the noise of that!