Social Media Journey: So what have we learnt?
by Yolanda Ocon
The importance of having a social media marketing strategy has only grown over the years. With over 4.62 billion people across the world using social media platforms (smart insights, 2022) it would be silly to not include social media in your digital marketing strategy.
The fact that you can share your content across different platforms with the possibility of reaching a whole new audience can be very exciting and at the same time daunting. A few questions might arise in the process. Which platform should we use? What type of content should we create? There is also the tendency of wanting to copy another company’s strategy in a specific platform; the thinking of “They are killing it on Youtube, we should do the same”
At this point I would suggest you stop, take a step back and think about what will be the best for your brand and your team. Think about what your goals are and set up realistic expectations.
Talking from experience when starting our journey at School of Wok, as a small and new company back in 2012, we wanted to be seen everywhere! What ended up happening was that we were diluting the quality of our content and our message. Bear in mind that at that time, our office team was formed of four people that had to multitask between customer service, marketing, sales, the occasional teaching and assisting, you name it! So for us to think that we were able to also manage 4 different social media platforms was a bit optimistic/insane from our part.
Over the years we learned to focus on quality over quantity, and decided to put our efforts on the two platforms we thought were going to resonate more with our audience, namely Youtube and Instagram. Along the way our team and expertise grew and we also found amazing partners that helped the process like our friends from Rose and Penguin back in 2019.
Five years later our hard work paid off and we now have over 440k subscribers across both platforms giving the School of Wok brand worldwide recognition, as well as opening the door to valuable partnerships with the likes of AIA group and Neff, things we could only dreamed of 10 years ago. This also inspired us to start Curious Crab productions. As a result of all those years of creating content, we wanted to be able to help other brands in their journey.
This success case study is a good example of how focusing on the right channels will bring you positive results. But how does this translate into your brand’s strategy you might ask?
Be realistic with what you can achieve: We thought we could do it all, but in reality things always take longer than you think. If you want to create impactful video or photo content, take your time to think about the message you want to send and how you want to say it. Do not fall for the trap of just churning out content for the sake of it.
Think about your goals: What is it that you want to get out of Social Media? Are you looking to make direct sales, or thinking about the long game of creating brand awareness? Having a clear goal in mind will help you set up your KPIs and success will be easier to measure.
Think about the resources you have within your team: If you are starting out, it is likely that you will have a small team. Looking for help outside your organization is a good way to start. Finding the right partners to work with will add so much value to what you do, as they will bring a fresh pair of eyes to the problem you are trying to solve.