Social media marketing is no longer a new strategy, but brands are still figuring how best to leverage social media as platforms continue to change and evolve. According to leading researcher Andrew Stephen, most brands’ challenges with social media fall into two categories: paid advertising and engaging customers with content more broadly.
Stephen’s research is finding that customer engagement and brand awareness increases when brands position themselves in a more human manner. His team studied hundreds of ad campaigns to test whether they were effective on Facebook. Brands that acted more “social” and more “human” performed better.
In general, marketers must remember that content should fit the channel on which it is being published. Facebook ads that “fit in” with users’ news feeds (i.e., real-life, inherently social content like pet photos, funny videos, wedding pictures, etc.) will have more of a positive impact (and are less likely to have a negative impact) in terms of customer engagement such as likes and shares.