Facebook have recently launched a new series of videos called ‘Social Skills’ which aims to provide social media managers with the insights and skills they need to maximise their promotional performance.
Each video interview includes real world insights into how businesses have utilised Facebook’s ad tools to boost their brands and there are some great pointers – even if you’re confident that you know Facebook’s systems, you’re likely to take away a couple of notes.
The third video in the series outlines key tips on how to learn from your audience and adapt your approach accordingly, with the social media team for Luxottica eyewear brand, Persol.
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The Persol team shares three key tips:
1. Paid and organic content balance each other
The team uses a combination of paid and organic content to maximise their reach and growth.
The aim of their approach on social has been to maximise audience engagement, which has seen it put more focus on “less institutional and more native” content. That ties into its paid approach, through which they will amplify selected messages to boost the brand’s presence.
“With organic, we want to engage the community and go in deep in the conversation with them. Then, we use paid media to amplify our strongest content, show the product upfront, and ultimately reach new audiences based on their interests.”
Persol notes that, in either instance, it’s critical to remain authentic to the value of your brand, in order to build your community.
2. Identify your community
Persol notes that understanding your brand community is also key, which extends to utilising influencer content and UGC in your approach. This can help strengthen brand bonds, which is crucial to maximising engagement around your messaging.
Persol also notes that each platform requires a different, dedicated approach:
“Demographically speaking, our Facebook audience is a slightly older audience, and they’ve been big fans of the product for a long time. We receive very specific and detailed questions, and prefer private messages. With Instagram, our audience is a bit younger, and they love to interact with the brand in the comments or in Stories.”
By focusing on the key elements of interest on each platform, you can better connect with your brand communities by providing the content they’re looking for in each app.
3. Listen to your community
Persol’s last point largely reinforces the previous – Persol advises that brands must listen to what their customers are saying, and adapt accordingly.
Persol aims to engage with customers as much as possible, in order to maximise community interaction and learn more about their preferences.
“That’s the beauty of social media – you don’t have to wait for people to come to you and tell you their stories, you can ask them. You can ask them with an open question in your story, or just telling them ‘which one do you prefer?’ That’s learning from your customers, that’s learning from your audience, and you can do it every day.”
But there’s also another element here – listening to your community provides more angles for valuable stories that can further align with community interests.
“What I love about this work is the ability to tell great stories to engage our readers.”
These are some good notes, which underline the fundamentals of effective brand marketing on social media. Listen to your community, learn what they want, what interests them and share their stories. Then amplify the most resonant elements with paid spend to boost reach and community.
Some good tips – and it’s worth tuning into Facebook’s Social Skills series to get more insight into how brands are actually seeing success online.
You can view the first two videos in the series here and here.
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