The State of Social

Last month, Delucchi Plus sent Senior Content Strategist Drew Lawrence and Digital Strategist/Social Advertising Expert Isel Galvan to New York City for Social Media Week. Throughout that week, Drew and Isel attended countless workshop sessions and industry panels featuring some prominent industry leaders from around the country that discussed the state of social media. This series explores their key learnings. 

State of Social Part I

A Changing Landscape: Our New Reality

We’re constantly reminded of the jungle we’re in. The marketing industry is a landscape that changes every second; and for a digital-focused mind like mine – it feels like those shifts occur at an even faster pace.

During our first full day at Social Media Week New York, I attended a session called The New Reality of the Changing Marketing Landscape hosted by Jonathan Hall, president of a strategic global consultancy agency headquartered in the United Kingdom.

What we took away from this session really set the stage for the rest of the week. As marketers, we not only need to feel the ground shifting beneath us, but we need to be able to pinpoint the cause and develop a point of view on it in order to take action. Hall presented the following seven shifts – here are our thoughts:

THEN & NOW | From focusing on products to focusing on experiences

The value that your products may provide is no longer enough. Brands that are succeeding are creating content that translates into experiences across channels where their audiences live. Your product cannot be it – develop and grow a brand world and ensure that your audiences want to live in it.

Think: Red Bull is no longer just an energy drink, but is now a media empire and an action sports leader.

THEN & NOW | From talking to the talk to walking the walk

The marketing world is often seen as a platform for empty promises. That can no longer be the case. Talk is cheap, and our audiences know that. Brands must have a purpose beyond their own profits and be more conscious than ever about the role they play in people’s everyday lives. Marketing used to be about the transmission of a message with the only end goal being a purchase. Successful brands today know that when a customer buys their product, it’s just the first step of an ongoing relationship that goes way beyond transactions.

Think: Starbucks is not just about coffee. The brand continues to strengthen its values and culture through pursuing a mission of personal connections and communities.

THEN & NOW | From linear journeys to multiple touch points

Consumers are ever-changing and their attention spans keep shrinking. The olden days of a linear customer journey are totally over in today’s world of multiple touch points and never ending content. With all that content also came a change in behavior. Today, consumers now have a T-shaped attention span – meaning they scan broadly and quickly and dive deep only when they see something of interest.

Successful brands today are moving away from one-off campaigns and executing ongoing conversations across multiple channels. Rethink your approach.

Think: Chipotle is not just about delicious food. Its core message of food with integrity sparked their multi-channel ‘Scarecrow’ campaign – which resulted in short films, online games, songs, and rewards that were all communicated through various channels and touch points.

THEN & NOW | From single to multiple marketing roles

With the growing responsibility of multiple touch points in order to communicate with our audiences, marketers are now wearing more hats than ever. The ability to be adaptable to change and understand all aspects of the relationship building process is critical.

Think: Brand Mission Control Centers are growing in popularity not because of their novelty but because of necessity. War rooms to oversee a brand’s online performance – especially during peak times or events – keep brands on top of what’s important to audiences.

THEN & NOW | From being consistent to being disruptive

Delivering the same messages and experiences time and time again is no longer an option. Brands must be able to show us their ability to reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant and fresh. If they don’t, their competitors will. Regardless of the size of your business, maintain an entrepreneurial spirit. Stay aware and alert in order to quickly take advantage of opportunities.

Think: Airbnb took a static industry and turned it on its head.

THEN & NOW | From impersonal to hyper-targeted

Big Data is a term often thrown around in the industry, but its role in what we do and the importance that it holds is paramount. The T-shaped attention span mentioned earlier combined with the never-ending content consumers see per second makes personalized messaging key. Big Data gives us the information that we need in order to harness the power of delivering content our audiences care about – we can’t ignore that! 

Think: Not only does ESPN produce thousands of unique pieces of sports content every single day, but it takes it one step further and delivers it to fans in a way that’s personally relevant. They accomplish this with their SportsCenter Feed, which is a content app based on a user’s interests and online activity that also leverages social sharing capabilities.

THEN & NOW | From non-mobile to mobile everything

Brands that are still ignoring mobile are doomed. That may be a dramatic statement – but mobile is so intertwined in our lives today that brands that are not engaging with their audiences on those platforms are leaving money on the table.

How many times have you had an online experience on your mobile device that wasn’t mobile optimized? Personally, you can’t get me to X out of the browser fast enough. Brands need to start adopting a mobile-first mindset because that now mirrors people’s behavior and lifestyles. Ensure that your strategies for mobile are quick, relevant, and real-time.

Think: IKEA was and is still known for its printed catalog. However, seeing a need to adapt to the mobile – it launched a mobile app in 2014 that 6.2 million people downloaded – spending an average of eight minutes flipping through the catalog (three more minutes than what was spent flipping through the print version).