Viewership figures for some of the world’s most-watched television events such as the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl have failed to impress in 2017. No records were broken, despite millions of dollars being spent to ensure blockbuster ratings.
Not so surprisingly though, online activity regarding the likes of the Oscars went viral on social media during the time of the broadcast, and indeed beyond.
What does this mean?
Well, people aren’t necessarily switching on their televisions (if they still have one) sure, but the content of the programmes (and the events of the world, for example during an election) is still being talked about on a huge scale, mainly via social media.
The logical conclusion to make this – marketers should turn their focus to social media and other online channels, not television.
This isn’t such a big leap for us here at GW, given we have never promoted our services on the TV to begin with. We have also hired a dedicated social media executive late last year, which has helped improve our online presence greatly.
That’s also not to dismiss the value in promoting ones’ business offering via traditional mediums such as television and newspaper. It works for some, but really, it is an avenue for big business with endless cash flow.
For SMEs in particular, it is definitely worth trying your hand a little more seriously at social. You may be surprised how far your pennies stretch.
£4,000 vs £20
A half-page ad in a regional newspaper could cost you up to £4,000 and there is no statistical way to determine how many people your ad reached.
Four grand in Facebook adverts, on the other hand, has you sitting on a small fortune. You could run a highly successful advertising campaign for more than one year, reaching tens of millions of users, with this budget – and track the results with precision.
Indeed, just £20 a month could bring you worthwhile results, that is, if your content is great.
And, in the end, that’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it? Great content. Clickable content. Relevant content. Clicks to your website. Phone calls to your business. Conversions. Profit.
The medium is the message, right?
Not anymore. The medium – whether it’s a glossy magazine or a Twitter feed – is whatever people are using at the time.
What’s really important is the message.
So, people may not be watching television on a box so much anymore, but they certainly still love moving picture. Video is one of the most engaged-with forms of content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and, of course, YouTube, and so on.
Soaring engagement
Recently, for example, GW experimented with a series of teaser videos across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as part of a wider campaign to be revealed shortly. The videos – merely 10 to 20 seconds long and featuring bright, colourful flashes of “something exciting to come” – saw our engagement levels across social platforms more than quadruple.
How much did we pay for them? Practically nothing.
Traditional platforms such as TV teach us what users have traditionally responded well to. It is up to us now to make the content people love work on the medium they are now using – social media.
I’d love to hear examples of how my property colleagues are doing just that. Feel free to tweet me @EmmaMariaCoffey or comment on one of our Goldsmith Williams Solicitors company pages.
