Last week, several of our team members had the pleasure of attending Social Media Week: The Creatorverse presented by AdWeek. This year’s event was focused on the importance of content creation and the value of brands leveraging content creators to build a stronger connection with their target audience. The media ecosystem is ever-changing, and it’s important that your brand adapt in order to remain successful. Here are some of our key takeaways from all the awesome speakers our team had the chance to listen to!
1. Influencer authenticity
Influencer content is most impactful when it’s organic and creators are afforded creative freedom when developing content for a brand. This doesn’t mean that advertisers should forego brand guidelines, but rather that advertisers should allow influencers to create content that feels more organic to their followers and isn’t as formal as their own traditional advertising. Let influencers tell their story.
Further, make sure you choose the right influencer for your campaign. Sometimes, having more followers isn’t always better. Micro-influencers have an equal ability to macro-influencers to go viral if the content is right and resonates organically with the target audience. It’s more important to focus on a content creator’s characteristics when evaluating a partnership rather than just on the number of followers. If possible, establish a long-term relationship with your chosen influencers to best connect with your audience.
2. Vary your content
As your brand builds content, it’s important that you pay attention to the trends and patterns of different social channels. Content that resonates with audiences on TikTok may not experience the same success on Meta platforms. The audience demographics and consumption habits vary from platform to platform, so you need to create diverse content that’s specific to each of these channels. By reading the comments that consumers leave on different social channels, brands can better understand what their audiences are looking for. Your brand can then put together assets that reference these conversations, which creates more affinity and makes the consumer feel heard.
The same tenets apply to the relationship between traditional media and social media. Just as your content shouldn’t be completely uniform across social channels, your brand shouldn’t use the same content on social media that it does on television or OOH. While you should maintain the same brand voice and follow guidelines, build assets that speak to the unique audiences of each type of media.
3. The future of content creation
Similar to the rest of the technology landscape, AI is starting to infiltrate the influencer marketing space. Eventually, it’s likely that the influencer space will reach a point where we can place an influencer anywhere using AI and even create completely fabricated influencers using AI. While this isn’t feasible yet, there are a number of other ways that brands can integrate AI into their content for their benefit. For example, consumers have the ability to test out different products or services using AI on their phone. Consumers can virtually try on clothes prior to buying, or brands can provide personalized ad experience using AI based on a consumer’s preferences. As AI continues to evolve in the marketing space, it’s important to integrate it into your marketing campaign to best connect with consumers.
Contact our team
By attending events like Social Media Week, our team is constantly striving to expand their knowledge and educate themselves to best serve our clients. As the social media space continues to evolve, we are committed to creating dynamic and relevant marketing plans so our clients can deliver for their target audiences. If you are looking to shift your marketing plan and integrate influencer marketing, our media team is here to help you optimize your campaigns.
