Mobile marketing now accounts for 49% of total digital adverting, and this number is expected to hit 72% by 2019 (Emarketer.com, 2015). Businesses left, right and centre have embraced mobile marketing and its too late to ignore its potential.

Consumers now have their phone on them for the entire day, with 79% of people only being away from their mobile device for 2 hours a day, and 63% of people being away from their phone for only 1 hour a day. It’s the first thing they do when they wake up, and the last thing they do at night (Stadd, 2013). Businesses like John Lewis have reported 3/4 of their Christmas browsing came through mobile (Atherton, 2014) and almost all companies have adapted to the mobile trend, expecting high returns thanks to a device which enables constant access to the internet almost anywhere in the world.

The success of smartphones has much to do with the fact that it can effectively replace a desktop computer. It has all the same capabilities and is able to fit in a pocket. Thanks to this movement, more and more media is becoming mobile only, such as Snapchat, which receives 100 Million active monthly users (Rusli, 2015), or Facebook who claim that 87% of its monthly active users come through mobile (Facebook Newsroom, 2004).

Figures like this prove the importance of mobile, and analysts predict that these numbers will only increase. To keep up with mobile technology, brands need to keep up with consumer trends and habits, in order to understand exactly what the consumer wants. The next three points are some of the main, upcoming trends at the moment.

1. These changes have made consumers more spontaneous  (Veeqo, 2013), and no longer does the consumer need to use a computer to make a purchase. This is aided in part by the average attention span decreasing, and people wanting to do lots of things immediately and very quickly. Reading 140 characters news stories or watching 6 second videos through Twitter and Vine have become the standard and most enjoyable way to consume media, and brands have had to adapt to this.
2. Another problem for advertisers is the relatively new concept of second or even third screening. It has now become the norm for consumers to watch TV whilst using a smartphone at the same time. Obviously this reduces advertisement recall, and brands are having to fight for the attention of customers which has been spread across multiple platforms. Some advertisers are trying to combat this by displaying the same advertisements across platforms, and they are receiving positive results (Timmerman, 2015).
3. Advertisers also need to be aware of the possibilities of personalisation on mobile adverts. With easy access to the sophisticated capabilities of smartphones such as GPS, advertisers can now tailor adverts specific to your location or what you’ve recently done. This has some moral implications, and advertisers need to be aware of privacy, but where attention span has decreased customers are also wiser than ever and know when they are trying to be sold something. Because of this, targeting customers more specifically to offer them something they really want can be the only effective way to break through.

A sponsored post targeting people in Brighton

Like the introduction of any new technology, marketers have a lot of change on their hands. Some of this helps to make their job easier and others create obstacles, but in most situations difficulties can be morphed into advantages very easily, and overall new technologies help advertisers get their message across in new and exciting ways.

References

Veeqo, (2013). 8 Essential Facts About Mobile Commerce. [online] Available at: http://blog.veeqo.com/mobile-commerce/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Timmerman. H, (2015). Multi-screen Video Campaign Strategy Increases Brand Recall. [online] Available at: http://www.previewnetworks.com/blog/multiscreen-video-campaign-strategy-increases-brand-recall/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Facebook Newsroom, (2004). Company Info | Facebook Newsroom. [online] Available at: http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Rusli, D. (2015). Snapchat Is Said to Have More Than 100 Million Monthly Active Users. [online] WSJ. Available at: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/26/snapchat-said-to-have-more-than-100-million-monthly-active-users/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Atherton, J. (2014). John Lewis Christmas sales rise nearly 7%. [online] Metro. Available at: http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/02/internet-visitors-give-john-lewis-a-mobile-christmas-4246705/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Emarketer.com, (2015). Mobile Will Account for 72% of US Digital Ad Spend by 2019 – eMarketer. [online] Available at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Will-Account-72-of-US-Digital-Ad-Spend-by-2019/1012258 [Accessed 1 May 2015].

A. Stadd, (2013). 79% Of People 18-44 Have Their Smartphones With Them 22 Hours A Day [STUDY]. [online] Available at: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/smartphones/480485 [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Companies can no longer avoid customer complaints and their silence go unnoticed. With social media, everything is public and ignoring a public complaint on social media, is the equivalent of refusing to serve a paying customer in front of the entire world. This post will look at the importance of  brands interacting with customers and other companies online and who does it most effectively.

A recent study by Conversocial (2011) found that customers were 88% less likely to buy from brands who they could see ignored their customers complaints on social media. This is a huge percentage of customers means social media management is not a wasted expense. Another study by the Internet Advertising Bureau  (IAB uk, 2015) found that 90% of customers would actually recommend a company to a friend after interacting with them on social media. The study also found that successful brand interaction could increase brand loyalty and more importantly, estimated that for ever £1 invested into social media, companies can expect returns of £3.34.

There are several brands that have embraced social media as a customer service method. The airline KLM is one of them. To improve service, they update their Facebook and Twitter cover photos every 5 minutes to show how long customers can expect to wait for a live response.

KLM’s Facebook cover photo showing how long to expect to wait for a reply

KLM’s Twitter cover photo showing how long to expect to wait for a reply

This  idea makes their social media seem more professional and legitamate, encouraging people to post questions increasing their satisfaction knowing they’ll  receive a reply. This is important as 50% of customers give brands only one week to reply to a question before they stop doing business with them (Dooley, 2012).

For brands like KLM social media is simply just another customer service channel, but unlike a call centre, requires significantly less costs to set up, with only costs for the staff, which can even be outsourced. However, using a public domain has positives and negatives. Brands can be quick to recommend private messages if there is a potentially sensitive issue.

Although it provides a great way to quickly and effectively respond to customers with easy reference to pictures and links, the biggest downside for the brand is that everything is public. This can be a blessing or a burden in that the entire online world can see all these public complaints made against you but can also see all of the positive compliments that customers have given. In fact, a study by RightNow (Dooley, 2012) revealed that 22% of customers who received responses on social media, posted positive complements (also publicly) about the brand. Below are a few examples of public praise and complaints.

It’s a well known fact that its more cost effective to retain existing customers than to make new ones, so much so that one study, by the chartered institute of marketing (2010), found that on average it was between 4-6 times harder to attract new customers than to retain current ones. Figures like this should really motivate any brand to give customers the best customer service possible, especially in a public form as it has been found  that 89% of customers begin doing business with a competitor after poor customer experience (Dooley, 2012).

With reports suggesting that 70% of companies ignore customers complaints on Twitter, (Baer, 2015) it’s important that brands only use social media if they are going to manage it. No presence at all is better than a half-hearted presence where customers are ignored. It’s very likely that social media is the future of customer service, in fact, 35.7% of people agree with this statement (Coversocial, 2011) which makes it really interesting that Apple, the largest brand in the world (worldBestglobalbrands.com, 2015) is not on any social networks. Some argue that this is because they want to stay away from the controversy and negativity that brands find themselves in after a slip up. This tweet from unhappy HMV employees below is a great example.

Brandwatch’s CEO Giles Palmer has similar thoughts when it comes to why Apple aren’t on social media. In an interview with the telegraph (Munford, 2013) he said:

“Apple’s non-relationship with social media comes down to not being able to control the environment. With its stores, Apple has created a retail utopia where everything is clean, minimal and extremely beautiful; they even have a patent on their glass staircases. Social media by contrast is ‘owned’ and run by the crowd. It’s uncontrolled and unpredictable and that’s why many of us love it. But Apple-land it is not, so they don’t play” 

– Giles Palmer, Brand Watch CEO

This is a good reason to explain their absence from social media, especially when you consider that most companies, whatever their size, use social media. Even organisations you wouldn’t associate with such informal styles of marketing such as Exxon Mobil or Goldman Sachs take to the online social world.

However, in 2013 Apple bought a twitter data analysis company, Topsy Labs for $200 million(Munford, 2013). Topsy Labs indexes tweets about brands to help companies find what people are saying about them. This might be Apples way of testing the water.

In conclusion, it’s important that brands interact with customers as much as possible on Social Media. It’s not usually customers first choice when trying to contact brands (only 1% of people say social media is the first place they go to resolve problems (Baer, 2015)) but it’s probably the most important as its completely public. What happens on the internet is hard to hide, so even the smallest slip ups could be held against you for a long time. If a company, for whatever reason really can’t interact on social media, then it’s better to stay away all together, as found in this post, ignoring customer complaints seems to be much worse than not giving them an opportunity to ask.

References 

Baer, J. (2015). 70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter | Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy. [online] Convinceandconvert.com. Available at: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/70-of-companies-ignore-customer-complaints-on-twitter/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

Bestglobalbrands.com, (2015). 2014 – Best Global Brands – Interbrand. [online] Available at: http://www.bestglobalbrands.com/2014/ranking/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

The Chartered institute of Marketing, (2010). Cost of customer acquisition vs customer retention. Fact File. [online] Windsor and Maidenhead: The Chartered institute of Marketing. Available at: http://www.camfoundation.com/PDF/Cost-of-customer-acquisition-vs-customer-retention.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

Coversocial. (2011). Consumer Study: 88% less likely to buy from companies who ignore complaints in social media.. [online] Conversocial.com. Available at: http://www.conversocial.com/blog/consumer-study-88-less-likely-to-buy-from-companies-who-ignore-complaints-in-social-media#.VS4qsxPN8zE [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

Dooley, R. (2012). Why Ignoring Social Media Complaints Is a Huge Mistake. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2012/09/18/complaints/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

IAB uk, (2015). IAB research shows social media drives ROI for FMCG | IAB UK. [online] Available at: http://www.iabuk.net/about/press/archive/iab-research-shows-social-media-drives-roi-for-fmcg [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), pp.59-68.

Munford, M. (2013). Apple doesn’t really do social media, so why should other brands?. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/10542575/Apple-doesnt-really-do-social-media-so-why-should-other-brands.html [Accessed 15 Apr. 2015].

The internet has now been around for 26 years (Bailur, 2015) and in that time it has developed significantly. We’ve gone through Web 1.0, also known as static websites. You were able to receive information from these pages, but interaction was unheard of. Web 2.0 allowed you to post content through blogs – like this one – and social networks. Now we have Web 3.0 which takes user generated content and displays it as recommendations to other users. For example, product recommendations on Amazon are based on linking your previously purchases to what other people who also made that purchase also bought. The same principle works for Last.fm but with music instead of products.

With each generation comes a new look and feel. Originally websites were heavily text based but as time goes on images and adaptability have become more prominent. Users are no longer happy to consume pages of static text. Preferences have changed to content that lends itself to readability –  something that guides the eye lodically around the page, is intuitive and changes it’s layout for a smartphone, tablet or monitor etc.

Here are 7 things a modern website requires to look and feel great for a consumer.

Colour 

First are foremost is to find a colour pallet that works well with your brand. Psychologists have found many links between different colours and how they effect your mood and behaviour(Bonnardel, Piolat and Le Bigot, 2011). For example blue is often thought of as the colour of communication which is why it is found in most social network logos (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & MySpace). Stay away from dark negative colours such as brown or black for the main body of your website. Instead go for bright, fresh colours or white.

Simple colour scheme used by viljamis.com

Dynamic

The user no longer browses a website from just a desktop monitor. There are tablets, phones, laptops, and desktops – all varying in size. In 2013 Jason Sperling found that websites were viewed from an average of 232 screen sizes and 15 different resolutions (more than double what it was 4 years before) A good website is able to adapt to all of these, effortlessly and unnoticeably. This is called responsive design. The website does not necessarily have to be specifically built for a 5″ smart phone screen but it is able to shrink itself down whilst maintaining a good looking user interface. Click on the image below to see a short animation below recorded whilst visiting cartoonsmart.com. Here you can see the website completely change when you adjust the size of the browser.

Responsive website design (click on the image to see animation)

Another example of dynamic websites can be seen in navigation. More and more websites are doing this and it improves the user experience vastly. Take a look at the .gif below to see what I’m talking about. This time using mint.com as an example.

Responsive horizontal navigation design (click on the image to see animation)

As you can see, no matter where you are on the web page the horizontal navigation along the top of the page follows you. This makes it really easy for a viewer to find their way around.

Easy navigation

While discussing navigation, there is one rule to always follow when designing sitemaps. It’s called the three click rule (Porter, 2015) and suggests that every important web page should be no further than three clicks from your home page. This rule is something that most web designers have taken as gospel since almost as long as the internet, because following a maze of URLs does not create good user experience.

Multimedia – images and video

Including photos and videos on your websites is essential . As the old saying goes “A picture speaks a thousand words”, and when a user wants to get information as quickly as possible, more understanding comes from a picture than a block of text. For example, it’s easier to find the stuffed crust on the Pizza Hut website by looking for it’s picture rather than reading a long list of all the different options.

Other multimedia can also be engaging for the user, a Youtube video on your homepage explaining what you do or recent updates has worked well for headspace.com. It’s homage video works  like a elevator pitch to keep your attention. This is perfect in a time where attention spans are shorter and people don’t have time to read a elaborate ‘about us’ page.

Although pictures and videos are very important,  they shouldn’t clutter your page. And don’t autoplay music or videos (Punkchip, 2009) as these can quickly send users away, ‘playable’ content should be by choice.

Keep it simple

The number one rule for all media content is ‘keep it simple’ and as briefly discussed above – try to avoid clutter. If it doesn’t add value keep it out – remove the unnecessary noise. More and more ‘one page websites’ are emerging. All the information is included on the home page and displayed cleanly. There are no links or navigation just a scroll bar that takes you through all the content. A good example of a ‘one page’ site is google keep.

There are  many more things that can contribute to an aesthetic pleasing website but the above are musts. And above all – content is still king. Without interesting, relevant content users will not use a website regardless of  great design. Follow the steps outlined above and partner them with interesting content to create great user experience.

References 

Sperling ,J. (2013). The Big Argument for Responsive Design | Viget. [online] Available at: http://viget.com/advance/the-big-argument-for-responsive-design [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Bailur, S. (2015). History of the Web. [online] World Wide Web Foundation. Available at: http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Porter, J. (2015). Testing the Three-Click Rule . [online] Available at: http://www.uie.com/articles/three_click_rule/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Punkchip. (2010)  Autoplay is bad for all users | Punkchip. [online] Available at: http://www.punkchip.com/autoplay-is-bad-for-all-users/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Viral marketing is described by Ho and Dempsey (2010) as recommending entertaining content, news or information in the new online environment. Typically, viral marketing is carried out by brands trying to increase brand recognition. There is no set formula to successful viral content, only being able to engage the largest audience possible and make it as easy as possible to share. The internet and social networking has made both of these things easier than ever.

Viral videos are usually considered the the most popular form of viral media as it’s so easy to share a link to YouTube or other video site. Video doesn’t necessarily have language barriers and can stimulate more of our senses through sound as well as images. But YouTube was not home to the first ever viral videos. Believe it or not, in 1995, 10 years before YouTube was born, Matt Stone and Trey Parker passed out a few copies of an animation on VHS that they had created at home. Again, thanks to technology the video was copied and passed around friends. This video was soon picked up by Comedy Central and became the pilot episode for what is now South Park (Leonard, 2015).

When Youtube came around, sharing videos became much easier and short, funny home videos which creators never expected to take of ended up with millions of hits. Soon, marketers started to realise viral videos are, what has now been described as, the most cost-effective method of promotion(Kirtiş and Karahan, 2011). Brands such as Old Spice (whose ‘the man your man could smell like advert’ currently sits at over 50 Million views) created some of the first and most popular viral adverts.

After these success stories, companies started to invest more and more in viral marketing, in 2010 there was a 180% increase in viral adverising from 2009 (neild, 2015) and viral advertising spend is forecast to reach $5 Billion in 2017 (Larsen, 2015). Proving that, although the media space might be free, the creative work that makes for a great viral campaign isn’t.

Viral Marketing Done right

ALS ice bucket challenge

The ALS Ice bucket challenge is one of the most notable viral phenomenons and involves posting a video of yourself throwing a bucket of icy water over your head and donating money for Motor Neurone Disease, and then inviting your friends to do the same. The campaign result was 2 million Youtube uploads, 4.48 million mentions on Twitter and quadrupling the amount of donations received by the ALS charity (Ridley, 2015 & Sipress, 2015). The campaign coupled donating with ‘daring’ your friends to promote sharing. Since the campaign ALS is now a household name, and $100 million has been raised for the charity (Jarvis, 2014).

#kony2012

In 2012 the online world was sharing the below movie to promote a charity protesting the african warlord Joseph Kony. It was the fastest growing viral movie of all time and in 6 days received 100 million hits (Invisible Children, 2015). Shortly after the videos release, a national phone survey in america found that 58% of young adults had at the very least heard of the video (Rainie, et.al., 2012). It’s fair to say that the initial video was a huge success putting the charity behind it (invisible children) in the spotlight for the first time. It seems that charities like Invisible children or  ALS have a much easier time getting campaigns to go viral than consumer brands. This is because people are happy to share something they are passionate about, know is a non-profit organisation and by sharing something as meaningful as charity, users are able to show what they care about to their friends and family.

Gangnam Style

Gangnam style is the most popular video on Youtube ever and with over 2 billion views it has a billion more views than it’s closest rival. The video blew a relatively unknown South Korean musician (PSY) into the Western World mainstream thanks to the ridiculous video and catchy music. But how did he do it? The popularity was no accident. The record label behind the video (YG Entertainment) spent years setting up offices in America and building an organic audience so that when the video was ready there was a platform to share it with (The drum, 2015). When the video was posted it was slow to take off in the Western World until blogs and news websites like Gizmodo and Gawker picked up on it. This promoted readers and celebrities to start sharing the video to their followers which created a sudden increase in traffic and so pushed the video to the top of Youtube Trends allowing it to reach everyone.

3 tips for successful viral marketing

1. Evoke emotion

The first thing your viral campaign needs to do is evoke emotion. This can be any emotion, as long as people feel passionate about it. Humour was used by brands like Old Spice and PSY; compassion is something that most charities use; and even provoking controversy and creating arguments is something that works well for many as it gives people a motive to fight their corner and share something to argue what they believe in. For example, GoDaddy’s advert below mimics Budweiser Superbowl ad but instead shows a puppy farm receiving up raw from animal rights activities. Like it or not the advert received a lot of attention in the press along with the GoDaddy brand.

2. Get people to share

Motivating the customer to share a video is what makes it Viral. This is no easy feat but there are a few things you can do. Ho and Dempsey (2010) suggest that to get people to share something, you need to include them and make them feel like a group. The #Kony2012 video discussed previously is a great example of this as throughout the video the audience is always reffered to as “we” and “us”. Furthermore, Ho and Dempsey go on to say that posting videos allows the audience to express their personalities and how they are different. Posting a link to the Kony video or ice bucket challenges shows your network that you care.

3. All about brand

It’s easy to forget, when trying to make something go viral, that the focus is on the brand. You need to convey the right message and explain what your brand do. The old spice commercial did this excellently and another great example is the Dollar Shave Club Youtube ad which went viral fairly recently (below). Although the whole video is made in jest, it is still able to explain what the brand does and how they differ. Really great marketing.

Viral marketing shouldn’t be underestimated. Although many marketers think of it as ‘free marketing’ it takes a lot of preparation to get it right and even then, sometimes they just fail. The truth is, no one can really tell you why things go viral. Im sure no one would have guessed that the internet would be full of funny cat pictures or that Rick Astley’s ‘Never gonna give you up’ would have such a great come back. But as time goes on brands are going to become more and more desperate to go viral as that’s where their audience is, and at the end of the day, thats what marketers want. Brands go where their audience is, and as that is online, viral marketing will become more and more prominent in marketing plans.

References

The Drum. (2015). Case Study: How Gangnam Style went viral with a strategic marketing campaign from YG Entertainment. [online] The Drum. Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/10/30/case-study-how-gangnam-style-went-viral-campaign-yg-entertainment [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Ho, J. and Dempsey, M. (2010). Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content. Journal of Business Research, 63(9-10), pp.1000-1006.

Invisible Children, (2015). KONY 2012 | Invisible Children. [online] Available at: http://invisiblechildren.com/kony-2012/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Jarvis, L. (2014). Buckets Of Money For ALS Research. Chemical & engineering news, 92(36), p.19.

Kirtiş, A. and Karahan, F. (2011). To Be or Not to Be in Social Media Arena as the Most Cost-Efficient Marketing Strategy after the Global Recession. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, pp.260-268.

Larsen, K. (2015). Going Mobile is the New Viral Video Marketing Strategy. [online] Vertical Rail Creative. Available at: http://www.verticalrailcreative.com/viral-mobile-video/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Leonard, D.  (2015). How Trey Parker and Matt Stone made South Park a success – October 30, 2006 . [online] Available at: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391792/index.htm [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Neild, B. (2015). How viral ads have exploded into the mainstream. [online] Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/06/17/viral.marketing/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Rainie, L., Hitlin, P., Jurkowitz, M., Dimock, M. and Neidorf, S. (2012). The Viral Kony 2012 Video. [online] Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/03/15/the-viral-kony-2012-video/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Ridley, L. (2015). It’s Official. We’ve Not Seen A Craze As Big As This Since The Harlem Shake…. [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/27/ice-bucket-challenge-als-most-popular-icebucketchallenge_n_5722394.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Sipress, S. (2015). ALS Ice Bucket Challenge – The 5 Keys to Its Huge Viral Results. [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sipress/als-ice-bucket-challenge-_b_5725676.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].

Most brands are now active on Facebook. It allows them to post photos, videos, updates and general information about the company. But with more and more ‘must have’ social networks, companies are trying to stay up-to-date and have accounts on all types of social networks. But is it necessary? What are the benefits of opening more than one social network if 71% of the online population are on Facebook? (Duggan et.al, 2015).

Facebook is clearly the market dominator, but there are plenty of other social networking services which offer users ways to connect and communicate –  Snapchat, Instagram, Pintrest and Youtube, just to name a few. These services each offer something slightly different with connecting people as the central concept. Instagram is for sharing beautiful photos, Snapchat for secret/private messages and Youtube for videos. However Facebook already does most of this in some form, so why  bother having more than one account?

Companies need to go where their audience are. They might be on Facebook, but cross platform advertising helps to embed an idea deeply into the minds of consumers. In fact, a study commissioned by Google and carried out by Nielsen (2011) found that the benefits of cross platform advertising are significant. There was a 25% rise in the number of customers who could remember an ad which had been displayed on multiple platforms rather than just one.

However, advertising isn’t the only reason to engage with customers on multiple networks. Just like the real friends, you want to be linked with your customer on as many different networks as possible. As found in a previous blog post, the majority of consumers are now on more than one social network meaning so should businesses. This will allow them to be displayed on as many newsfeeds as possible, helping to make the brand more prominent.

In the 21st Century customers are getting their information from more and more places (Zverina, 2013) including social networks. The consumer may think that they want to go to one place and find everything they need, but with their attention spans decreasing (Weatherhead, 2014) it’s likely they’ll have close one website and open two others before paying attention to your post. Being on more websites that they open can only increase your chances of being noticed.

There are two ways that you can manage multiple accounts and both have strong arguments for and against. They are: Cross posting, posting the same content on both sites; and fresh posting, posting tailored made content for each site. It’s hard to give a definitive answer as to which is better, but below is an explanation and benefits of each.

Cross posting

Offering something new on each network can seem ideal, but it’s not always possible due to the costs involved. If you can, stay away from the ‘automatically post this to twitter/Facebook’ buttons and if you do use that make sure you don’t make the obvious mistake below where brands addressed Twitter users as Facebook users.

To avoid this, simply re-write posts or make sure you don’t include any platform specifics. It looks lazy and your customers wont like it. Look out for hashtags or @replies on networks that don’t support those functions. Using tools like www.buffer.com, helps to post the same thing across all your social media accounts, but it allows you to change them slightly each time.

Regardless of how many subscribers you have to your social media page, it’s near impossible that they will all see a post, even if they want to. So if you have something really import to post, you could start by posting it on your Facebook and then on Twitter and Google+ (re-uploading images if necessary) and then Instagram (as an image or screenshot, with a link in the description).

There are, however, several benefits to directly re-posting rather than just posting the same thing again. Firstly, it can really help promote under achieving pages. For example, if your brand has a Instagram page with only 400 likes but an Facebook with 10,000, posting a link to a new Instagram picture will not only update all your followers but will also provide a link to your Instagram account, which many followers may not know existed.

Fresh posting

Fresh posting is generally considered ‘the proper way of doing it’ and if you look around you are never too far from bloggers complaining about cross posting (McGee, 2015). It’s a bit childish and the cross-posters don’t put up much of a fight but these bloggers have a point. Everything in marketing needs to add value, and if the customer doesn’t get any benefit from doing something, whats the point? It looks very lazy when you see an update on twitter and then five minutes later see the exact same thing on Facebook.

By adding value, the customer has a reason to follow your activity on more than one network, which helps to implement your brand into their newsfeed. Without offering unique content, why would they bother to follow you on anything but one website and then what happens when they miss your post?

GoPro are great at offering something unique on each network. Take a look at these screenshots from Facebook and Instagram below. They understand that Instagram doesn’t facilitate the same media as Facebook (e.g. 15 seconds video maximum). They use networks as they should be used: Instagram as a way of sharing photos (also make use of the filters feature) and Facebook as a way of sharing information and collaborating with their customers. Using individual networks differently from one another has allowed Instagram to become the 4th most popular brand on Instagram. (Totems List, 2015)

GoPro Facebook page

GoPro Instagram page

Another great example, this time of a cross platform campaign, was done by JuiceBurst UK. For Valentines day they asked their users to post heart shaped fruit on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #juiceburstingwithlove and then vote on the best picture on Facebook. This campaign method meant that customers were voting entering on Instagram and Twitter (along with following their accounts on these pages) and then following on Facebook in anticipation for the results. What was really well done was that throughout the campaign, Juice burst posted updates of what was happening on other social networks. For example, on Twitter they were posting some of the best from Instagram and Facebook was posting the best from both in an effort to get users engaged with the other accounts. Below are some images of these accounts during the period.

JuiceBurst Facebook page

@Juiceburstuk instagram page

@juiceburst Twitter page

Overall, the importance is in a balance. Initially you need to give your customers a reason to like you on more than one social network, but you also want to make sure that customers see all the most important posts. Try not to copy posts word for word without adding anything and just be aware that your audience on each network are probably made up of the same people.

References

Duggan, M., et.al, (2015). Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms. [online] Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015].

McGee, M, (2015). It’s 2014. Stop Cross-Posting Between Social Networks. : Small Business Search Marketing. [online] Available at: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/cross-posting-social-networks/6921/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Neilsen. (2011). Number of Ethnic TV Households Grows: Asian TV Households up Nearly 10 Percent | Nielsen . [online] Nielsen.com. Available at: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2011/nearly-75-of-consumers-remember-an-ad-when-viewed-across-media-platforms.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Totems List, (2015). TOTEMS List | Most Popular Brands on Instagram. [online] Available at: http://list.totems.co/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Zverina, J. (2013). U.S. Media Consumption to Rise to 15.5 Hours a Day – Per Person – by 2015. [online] Available at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/u.s._media_consumption_to_rise_to_15.5_hours_a_day_per_person_by_2015 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Weatherhead, R. (2014). Say it quick, say it well – the attention span of a modern internet consumer. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/mar/19/attention-span-internet-consumer [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].