I recently was on a webinar hosted by Born Social, and the topic of discussion was ‘A new age of influence and how do you effectively integrate social-first creators into your strategy‘. One of the main things that I took from it was how people are looking for more authenticity than ever before when it comes to not only their social media feeds but also in most of the media/marketing materials they consume.
With the continuous rise of TikTok, we have seen from Gen Zers that they are more interested in social media that reflects their true personalities and interests. They want to see the real person behind the persona, and they are not as interested in perfect social media feeds consisting of content that is carefully curated.
They are taking a step away from ‘Influencers’ and taking a step towards the new age of ‘Creators’.
We are seeing new brands hit the market that have been created by everyday people, and there is no filter or photoshop behind them. The brands have no polished photos and no perfect captions. The future of creator marketing is brands that have an authentic message and were created authentically, with the ones gaining the most traction being the ones that encourage the creator to be themselves.
The secret to many brands’ current success is in their extensive use of authentic marketing and content to attract customers and get them interested in their products. By creating content like this, businesses can show new buyers and regular clients what they can buy and how it would look on a real person. All you have to do is look at your TikTok feed to see how more and more brands are engaging with real people like never before because they are now seeing the value behind their real honest reviews, which is what your customer wants to see.
Take for example Kim Kardashians’ brand SKIMS, one big part of their marketing is their interaction with content creators – sending them products so that they can show them off, how it fits etc. in a video or picture on their social channels, helping them to get on the radar of someone that might not have considered their product before.
Not only does this technique get your product in front of your audience it also creates a domino effect with other creators that may want to receive some product as well, potentially going out and buying your product on their own, with the hopes the brand will notice them and want to work with them too!
So the main learning that I took from this, was that authenticity is the key to customer engagement and never before has it been so important to be yourself on social media.
Michelle
Michelle Harrison is a Senior Account Manager, part of the PR and Marketing team with Fuzion Communications, a full service brand communications agency that operates from offices in Dublin and Cork
Over a week ago a row broke out at the UK’s national broadcaster, the BBC, over a tweet by its senior football anchor and Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker. The one-time England record goal scorer is notable for never receiving a yellow card despite making over 650 appearances in his playing career. However, it was his performance on social media that saw him earn a red card from the top executives at the BBC and taken off air.
The controversy started on the back of a recent policy announcement by the current Conservative government in the UK. To tackle illegal migration into the country, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have launched a new policy campaign ‘Stop The Boats’. This new bill will see anyone who arrives in the UK illegally, swiftly returned back to their country of origin or a safe third country, such as Rwanda.
On the back of this announcement, Gary Lineker – technically a freelance employee at the BBC – retweeted a video from the Home Secretary’s own Twitter account where she was announcing the new bill and said “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.” Responding to another Twitter user who criticised his tweet, Linkeker followed up by stating: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”
It was this comparison of the UK Government’s new bill to Nazi Germany that sparked a national debate around impartiality within the BBC. According to the BBC’s editorial guidelines, staff are subject to such guidelines on social media – even on personal accounts. Those editorial guidelines outline that “audiences must be able to trust the BBC and be confident our editorial decisions are not influenced by outside interests, including political or commercial pressures.”
However, long before Gary Lineker, behaviour on social media became a problem for the BBC. It has dealt with long-standing issues over impartiality claims resulting from personnel right at the top of the broadcaster. In February 2021, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed long-time friend and advisor, Richard Sharp, as Chairman of the BBC – an appointment that is widely regarded as political in nature. Subsequently, it has come to light that Mr. Sharp failed to declare at the time of his appointment that only a few weeks prior he acted as an intermediary that saw Boris Johnson in receipt of an £800,000 loan. At a cross-party committee of MPs, Sharp was told to “consider the impact his omissions will have” on public trust in the BBC.
This is coupled with the appointment of Sir Robbie Gibb to the board of the BBC in April 2021. Gibb is a well-known Tory activist, having previously served as a Director of Communications under Theresa May during her time in 10 Downing Street. Former BBC Newsnight journalist, Emily Matlis, has criticised the current board of the BBC and role of Gibb within the organisation by stating, “Put this in the context of the BBC Board, where another active agent of the Conservative party – former Downing Street spin doctor, and former adviser to BBC rival GB News – now sits, acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality.”
Matlis described this as: “Tory cronyism at the heart of the BBC.”
The appointments of Sharp and Gibb to senior roles within the BBC strike right at the heart of the debate around BBC impartiality. The BBC cannot expect to be perceived as impartial when it is being run by individuals with clear direct links to a political party, nevermind the current Conservative government of the day. The continuance of such individuals in high ranking positions will only cause further debate and doubt over impartiality within the BBC. Would BBC executives have taken the same course of action if Lineker was tweeting his support of the UK Government’s illegal migration bill?
As for Lineker, he will return to his presenting duties this weekend to host live FA Cup action. His own position is stronger and BBC management’s weakened as they plan to launch an independent review of the organisation’s social media guidelines. Initial speculation has centred around less stringent rules for freelancers.
At Fuzion, we work with businesses and organisations on creating bespoke social media strategies where we detail how both the organisation and its employees should act on social media. This allows organisations to provide clear and concise advice to staff how they should behave when representing their employer online, especially on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Finding a balance between the employer and employee is crucial.
And in the event that does not work and the proverbial s*** hits the fan our Crisis Communications team can help!
In recent years, we have seen a shift away from traditional marketing and toward digital marketing. There are many new marketing techniques, with content marketing (CM) becoming one of the most important. CM is starting to replace traditional marketing, as customers become more and more aware of traditional advertising and expect new approaches from businesses to catch their attention and entice them to purchase.
According to the Content Marketing Institute: “CM is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Within the context of digital marketing, CM refers to the creation of entertaining and/or informative content that does not explicitly advertise a company’s products or services. When we talk about CM, we can refer to anything from a simple video, blog or article to larger content such as webinars. With this type of content, educational value is also important to consider.
Given that it is free, this information service differs from traditional information institutions or settings. This is because it occurs online and online content consumers expect information to be free – this is the internet’s central allure for many. When you walk into a store and choose a product to buy, the only information often available to us is located on the product/packaging or, if we’re lucky, an employee who can provide us with further information. However, these specifics may only include information such as the price, technical specifications and so on. What content marketing allows companies to do, is to provide additional information like how to use the product, where to use it, etc.
One company that provides entertaining content marketing to its customers is Footaslyum. The UK high-street retailer specialises in sports trainers and apparel for men, women and children. However, their target audience is young people, especially men, between 18 and 25. Footasylum targeted this audience by creating content with social media influencers ‘Chunkz’ and ‘Young Filly’ who are hugely popular figures among their core demographic.
The content marketing strategy was simple; a 10-15 min YouTube show starring Chunkz and Young Filly called ‘Does The Shoe Fit?’. The premise of the show is that the duo would go on a series of speed dates with attractive women that would often lead to humorous outcomes. However, while on these dates, the other show presenters can watch live and commentate on their co-hosts dating performance. Guests also formed a major part of the show as Chunkz and Young Filly would often be joined by other high profile influencers including former Love Island contestants.
Footasylum’s content marketing strategy was a major success with some episodes of the show racking up over 7 million views on YouTube. The online show went on for five seasons and while it came to end in late 2021, funny snippets still appear across social media feeds especially on TikTok, giving the content even further marketing longevity.
The success of ‘Does The Shoe Fit?’ is a lesson to brands and companies that audiences are tired of the hard sell. Nowadays, marketing should and can be about more than just your product or service. If content marketing is not currently part of your marketing strategy, then you are almost certainly missing out.
Since it first hit our television screens in 1975, the Late Late Toy Show has become an Irish Christmas tradition.
The live two and a half hour programme hosted by RTÉ personality Ryan Tubridy, sees children from across the country play and talk about the toys that they currently love. For families, the Late Late Toy Show has always signified the official start of the Christmas season, with many rushing to have the tree up for the night.
This year more than 1.6 million viewers tuned in across the weekend to watch Tubridy’s portrayal of The Wizard of Oz’s Scarecrow, as well as Saoibh Lonergan, Lucy Hoban, Caillín Joe McDonald, Cuckoo’s Nest, Emmie O’Neill and Billy Brady and more make their Toy Show debut.
As it’s the most watched programme of the year, people tend to have strong opinions of the children’s show.
Starting with the man of the hour, love him or hate him, 2022 is Tubridy’s 14th successive year hosting the toy show. Over the past number of years, the toy show has seemed to reel away from live demonstrations of the toys, with the children almost accessories of the programme and Ryan being central to it. Not once this year was there a mention of how much the toys cost, where they could be purchased and who they would be perfect for – kind of taking away from the point of the programme.
There’s no question about the loyalty of the viewers with the Irish public raising over four million euro over the course of the weekend for the Toy Show charity appeal. Following its creation in 2020, the Toy Show appeal year on year raises huge sums of money for children’s charities around Ireland.
While the programme itself is undoubtedly entertaining, the live Twitter feed can’t be beaten. This year, even brands jumped on board with Ryanair and Aer Lingus competing for the likes as Aron Gibbons from Westport, Mayo gave a live flight demonstration on air. As you can see both brands took a very different approach, with Ryanair causing a few more laughs.
So, do you love it or hate it?
In a way this is an irrelevant question because however you feel about the show it attracts a huge audience and people love talking about it. I think the most important aspect of it from a marketing point of view is the consistency, and this consistency leads to nostalgia and it suddenly becomes something we all end up marking our calendar by.
Getting anyone to change their habits is a difficult thing to achieve, but once you do that it can result in a customer for life.
Creating a special event that you can recreate year after year (month after month, week after week or even day after day) to allow people to form a habit with you and your business mightn’t be the worst idea ever!
1975, RTE – “How about we do a Toy Show instead of our normal chat show?“
I wonder who said yes, let’s do it!
Every nostalgic thing we do, had to have a first time...
We are part of an international network of independent PR agencies that handle Crisis PR communications for clients across Europe, called the CCNE, or the Crisis Communications Network Europe.
This week a query came from one of the European clients of the group about Twitter, about the relevance of the platform and if we felt with all of the Elon Musk shenanigans that clients should consider moving away from it and onto something else.
While it was my favourite social media platform for such a long time it does break my heart a little (or a lot) to see how toxic it has become, but at the same time a very interesting question had been asked.
The client query had some very specific questions, which I will get to in a moment, but I did feel there were some broader questions that should be asked first, which we should all think about in business:
Is your target audience(s) using the platform?
If you go fishing you go where the fish are, after all!
If you believe that your audience is using the platform then that should be a big yes, but also consider how they are using it, why and when.
What about the relevant media?
What we find is that the media are normally very proactive on social media. It is a lively platform and one of the main reasons why journalists are active on Twitter is because of the powerful search function.
If there is a breaking story they can very quickly see what is being said and by who.
Everyone in business should identify the relevant journalists and publications/media outlets for their industry, follow them, understand them, observe their posts and hopefully connect and get to know them.
How many followers do you have?
It is so difficult to build up a following on any platform these days without significant advertising budget. If you do have a good following then clearly people using the platform find that you are relevant to them and it would be foolish not to take advantage of this.
Have you developed a strategy for Twitter as part of your overall social media strategy?
Each of the social media platforms can do quite a different job for you, so it is important to understand your overall objectives, the nature of your target audiences and then be clear about the role of Twitter as part of this.
For example, if you have a business or organisation that is mainly consumer facing then Facebook and Instagram would be your priority social media platforms. However, you may decide that Twitter could be very useful for interacting with industry stakeholders and media.
Could Twitter be part of the way you deliver Customer Service?
This week we were providing Twitter training to a government agency that deals with the general public. I was very surprised to learn about how many queries they would receive from the general public via their Twitter account.
They said that people were very surprised to get responses to queries so quickly – what a great way to improve the public image of your business/organisation!
Are you using Twitter for Posting, Interacting, Search and Competitor Tracking purposes?
While a business may use Twitter predominantly to push out messages there could be a huge role for:
Interacting with customers/clients
Jumping into conversations when the subject matter is relevant
Using the powerful search function to track industry topics and relevant trends
Tracking competitor activity
Could you interact strategically with Partners, Customers, Prospects and Stakeholders?
By carefully following other Twitter users in the above categories you can interact with their posts, mention them in yours and use the platform to strategically build the right relationships.
Is there a cause you are championing?
There are times when you need to put a spotlight on an issue, get people’s attention and yes, call out organisations or individuals when it is needed.
Whether you are lobbying about an issue or using the platform to get the right attention, Twitter can be an incredibly powerful tool.
Being honest, there are times when it can be the only way to really get the right attention for an issue!
So while considering the relevance of Twitter with the backdrop of Elon Musk and all of the potential changes the above questions should be answered first.
If there is a case for using Twitter because of that, then go for it and we will see in time how it evolves.
As I mentioned there were some specific questions and how I responded to them:
How is Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter received in your respective countries?
In Ireland we are very unhappy mainly because of his treatment of employees and we are also very wary of him allowing crazy, nasty content (even more than now!!) back on the increasingly toxic platform.
Have you already had similar requests?
I would say people have been pulling away from Twitter because of the increasing toxic content on there generally as well as a general nervousness about posting anything on there.
Any recommendations that you are making to clients?
We are not making strong recommendations, but we are talking about its diminished influence and pushing people back to LinkedIn for B2B scenarios and Facebook/Instagram for B2C.
However, it does quite a different job that the others cannot do.
Are you in fundamental exchange with customers about alternative platforms (eg. Mastodon) and do you already have insights?
There is some very quiet talk about Mastodon but this is really just with avid social media users and we are not seeing the relevance of it.
We have opened accounts on it just to see how it works and will keep an eye on it as it develops.
So, to summarise I would say even though it is far from the enjoyable and supportive platform that it once was, it still has many uses and these can be very powerful.
As for the toxicity, I would advise staying away from this as much as possible. The trolls are there in abundance and be careful not to get drawn in by them.
From a business point of view it is so important that you operate any of your social media accounts professionally, From a personal point of view, try to be positive, upbeat and nice!
As I write that last statement I need to look at my own use of Twitter and yes, it does get very nasty and yes I do join in – shame on you Greg!!
Happy tweeting folks and lets hope Elon learns quickly, that if he wants to protect his investment and keep users and advertisers, he needs to keep it clean.
Greg
Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Irelandthat offers social media training and consultancy to clients.
It’s been one month since we last ran to the couch at 9pm to hear, for the last time this summer, “Previously… on Love Island”.
For eight weeks of summer, Love Island almost has a chokehold over the nation. Those out for a Sunday drink calling it a night at 8.30pm, those holidaying abroad praying that their wifi is strong enough for Virgin Media player.
An average of 204,000 viewers tuned in across Ireland each night to see how the contestants were getting on, and who they were getting with. For those eight weeks, the reality TV show basically took over our social lives and had us hooked to our screens.
Each season, while romances, friendships and tensions build inside the villa, we watch the contestants’ social media followings build on the outside, particularly on Instagram. The rise to fame is fast, as fast fashion brands scramble to secure their newest brand ambassadors, fighting for the ‘best’ with their top competitors.
Take Molly-Mae Hague – the most successful contestant ever on the show. Molly-Mae was slowly breaking her way into the world of influencer marketing before ever appearing on or being associated with Love Island, regularly posting on Instagram and sharing to her YouTube channel. She entered the Spanish villa with approximately 170,000 followers. Coming not in first, but in second place on series 5 of the show, there were countless fast fashion brands lining up left, right and centre to sign her up.
She was the first UK influencer that Starbucks had ever paid to post content for them. She exited the villa, to sign a deal with fast-fashion retailer, PrettyLittleThing (PLT), as a brand ambassador. Fast forward three years, she is now their Creative Director – she now has a whopping 6.4 Million Instagram followers, making her the most successful Love Island contestant to date.
Fast forward to this year. Gemma Owen, daughter of famous English football player, Michael Owen – remember that goal in the 1998 World Cup? Well, Gemma has now almost surpassed her fathers fame, at least with this generation. Gemma entered the villa with 79.5k followers and has now hit the 2 Million mark. Following in the footsteps of Molly-Mae, she has just last week signed an ambassador deal with PrettyLittleThing.
Ekin-Su, the queen of this summer’s Love Island who did a 180 on the show and won the nations hearts, has quickly jumped to a whopping 3 Million followers, proving she is most deserving of that title. She has signed (supposedly) the biggest deal in Love Island history, with fast-fashion brand, Oh Polly, worth £1 Million.
It has to be questioned whether Love Island has become the gate-way to fashion deals, as opposed to a path to ‘finding love’?
Molly-Mae has previously admitted on her YouTube channel that she went on Love Island as a career move and did not think she’d find love, only to meet Tommy (queue the “awwww”). But was this a one-off?
Can Ekin-Su and Gemma maintain their Love Island romances? Deep down, do they really care once they have their brand deals? It is early days for them but time will tell – if love fails, they have fame and fast-fashion…
And as for brands, they all love a good influencer!
Mary
Mary O’Mahony is an Account Manager with Fuzion Communications, a full service PR, Marketing and Graphic Design agency operating from offices in Dublin and Cork.
Love them or hate them, influencers prove time and time again that they can be of huge benefit to businesses of all types. From global brands, national titles, charities, community organisations and local small businesses.
Influencer marketing is a tactic that we use frequently at Fuzion. The results we get for clients are very strong, and can range from improving brand awareness, reaching very specific audiences, driving traffic to a website and increasing sales.
This relatively new form of marketing can be an extremely cost effective way to reach target audiences. For example, we support a lot of our clients with product drops to a targeted list of influencers whose content and following are in line with the brand in question. The cost incurred to the business is the design and content of the packs and courier charges, while the return on investment is significantly high with influencers typically showing their audience(followers) the gift they have received and tagging the brands account in their posts.
A recent example of a successful product drop for Fuzion was our work with Hi-Spirits brand, Southern Comfort and their festival themed pack, which was packed full of all the essentials for any festival and included a sampling of their new ready to drink flavoured cans, a branded mini speaker and portable charger and this came packaged in a very handy, attractive cooler bag. We are sure that there was lots of envy at Electric Picnic this year against those lucky few who had these goodies!
This campaign was hugely effective in raising awareness about Southern Comfort’s new product to its target audience, while at the same time creating excitement about the brand.
It is important to note that engaging with the right influencers is just one of the tactics that we would use as part of a marketing and PR campaign for clients, carefully combined and coordinated with other tactics, all designed to work together to reach their target audiences, and as we say at Fuzion, to #WinHappy!
Recently an app has caught the attention of people across the world, becoming one of Instagram’s biggest rivals amongst Gen Z’s, Zillennials and even Millennials now.
The app, BeReal sends a notification to its users once a day, each day at a different time, urging its users to capture whatever they are doing at that moment.
“Time to BeReal”
Users are then encouraged to take a photo within 2 minutes of when they receive the notification. An image is captured on both the front facing camera and on the main camera, depicting you and whatever you’re looking at. Once you’re happy with the images they are uploaded to the feed with the option to add a caption. After the 2 minute notification, any photos that are posted, are described as ‘Late’. You also cannot see what your friends have posted until you have posted.
What makes the app different from any other platform, is that you cannot edit, photoshop or filter the photos before posting. Everyone that contributes to the app is showing their day to day lives in real time.
As a Zillenial who grew up with Instagram and Snapchat, editing and filtering an image before posting it, would go without a thought, so you can imagine my shock at the lack of options when I tested out BeReal. However, within the first week, I had noticed benefits to the app.
Typically on Sundays, I will scroll through my Instagram feed, envious of those away on a weekend trip, out on hikes, or at bottomless brunches, but when that notification hit for BeReal,
I noticed the majority of my friends having a lazy day, some hungover, some in their pyjamas at 4pm, being a couch potato. I was weirdly comforted by it as I no longer felt guilty for also having a day of doing nothing. Followed by the Monday where everyone posted their workday, each sitting at their desks on a gorgeous, sunny day. I wasn’t missing out on anything, or feeling the pressure to be living an exciting life, like what we see on social media.
There’s no room for influencers, or opportunities to make careers out of the platform. It is such a simple concept that is breaking down the strive for perfection that social media has curated over the years. BeReal is a breath of fresh air that promotes realness in the social media sphere. Something that I assume many young people have not experienced before.
KPI’s, engagement rates, follower numbers… all of these metrics are so important when we work on our client social media reports every month but how important is this information really?
There is so much information out there for us to consume, especially in relation to our own social media statistics, but I always think it’s so important for us to keep track of where our audience actually are.
IPSOS MRBI release a Social Networking Tracker report twice a year after surveying users in Ireland about their social media activity. It’s fascinating to read the most recent report and see these stats on account ownership and daily usage and it can also help inform where to put your marketing spend.
As we can see from the infographic above, Facebook is still the king of social media networks in Ireland. Something I hear quite often is “Facebook is dead, Instagram is the best platform to be on”, etc. Looking at, and understanding these reports shows us that even though Instagram may be catching up with Facebook, it still is quite a relevant platform and cannot be forgotten or ignored. And lest we forget, they’re all under the umbrella of Meta so they’re basically the same thing now… Especially where your advertising budget is concerned!
An important one to look at here, is the increase and decrease of followers on the various platforms. TikTok is the only platform with a significant increase (+6%) while all the others lost followers and Instagram held steady. TikTok continues to grow this year and is definitely one for businesses to consider, if they can create strong, relevant video content. It is not a platform where you can just post an image and hope for the best, so time and energy needs to be spent coming up with creative ideas to engage an audience.
In terms of daily usage, it’s interesting to note that while Instagram (63%), TikTok (58%) and Facebook (55%) are all quite high, so are both Twitter (42%) and Reddit (41%). I think this goes to show that while the visual content can be quite engaging on the other three platforms, Twitter and Reddit still have quite a loyal audience who react to news and written content.
LinkedIn, while reporting numbers behind Facebook and Instagram, actually dominates the B2B space, and if that is the space that you operate in, then it becomes the most important platform for you!
My main takeaway from this, is that when you are considering which platform to be active on, think about who your target audience(s) are and the type of content that you need to produce to connect with them. If video is not your thing, then maybe TikTok is not a good idea, but if you have amazing pictures and great videos and even blogs then you can share those on the likes of Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and maybe even Twitter.
At Fuzion when we work with our clients on their social media activity, we spend a lot of time in the beginning getting their social media strategy right: Who are your audiences, what do you want to convey to them, what social media platforms are a priority and what role does each of them have. It is only then that we start to think about content, frequency of posting, the need for budgets to promote posts and simple things like the roles and responsibilities around this.
As part of this work, it always helps to spend some time figuring out who you think your target audiences are and comparing those to the insights available on the various platforms, to see who is actually following and engaging with you. Through your insights you will also be able to see the content that they engage with most and this can help inform your future social posting.
If you’re looking for some help with any of this, please don’t hesitate to give us a quick call or email and we can put you on the right path!
I sat down with Alma Brosnan (Head of Social Media with Fuzion) recently for an episode of the Win Happy podcast to discuss some of the latest trends with social media and digital marketing and the different things that anyone in business should be looking out for this year.
We had a really great conversation, and whether you are someone operating in a B2B (Business to consumer or community) or a B2B (Business to Business) sector the conversation is well worth a listen.
While things keep on changing and evolving and you always need to be alert to these changes, the one thing that never changes is that vital never ending job you need to do to have a successful business or organisation:
You need to keep on telling your story to your target audiences, wherever they are and whether they are looking or listening it is your job to reach them.
So, absolutely …watch those trends, know and understand where and how to reach your audience today and tomorrow but always:
Know your story and what is special about it
Know your target audience(s) and how your story resonates with them
Make sure that when your audience come looking that you convey that story quickly and accurately
Have a plan that proactively tells your story all of the time
And as I say on the Win Happy podcast….Thanks for listening!
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