Social data: how to keep campaigns engaging, targeted and relevant

Agency teams that work in silos across their respective channels are out of touch with the way today’s consumers operate as shoppers increasingly look for tailored, personalised interactions from brands. So what needs to change? Colin Grieves from Experian’s Alchemy Social takes a look…

With consumer behaviour changing in the light of technological advances and social trends, brands have had to adjust advertising models to remain current and keep up with their increasingly dynamic audiences.

It has long been the case that agency teams work in silos across their respective channels – with the mobile team looking after mobile campaigns, the print team looking after print and so on. Of course they will have been working to the same wider campaign theme, but the channels will have been largely independent from each other.

This model simply doesn’t fit with today’s consumer, who is increasingly looking for tailored, personalised interactions from brands. More and more these consumers are sharing information about their likes and interests with brands – then expecting them to use this information to make future campaigns more relevant for them and their peers.

The brands that have invested time in attracting the right Facebook fans now need to make the most of them. They also need to listen to what they have to say. The right brand advocates on social platforms such as Facebook can, and should, become your best advertising executives – they decide what content works for them, share with their networks and influence the perception of your brand online.

Organic content, effectively created by brand advocates on social media, is a window into the world of the consumer and gives advertisers direct insight into what works. Brands with a presence on such platforms need to understand what their online influencers are liking and sharing and make sure this intelligence is shared across other platforms.

For example, a travel agent could use Facebook analytics tools to draw insight around which of their social activities have been the most influential among their followers; i.e., the content that has received the most shares, comments and likes. This information can be incredibly useful, enabling a brand to:

• Share the insight with wider advertising teams – which can, for example, help ensure that a print campaign focuses on the destination with the most social buzz
• Inform upcoming Facebook advertising campaigns – with the specific holiday or destination used to generate the most interest and traffic

With Experian data revealing that 13 minutes of every hour online in the UK is spent on social media sites, it is clear that the social channel must be properly addressed by brands. Companies must knock down the walls between advertising teams and share the insight that social data can provide – only by doing so can campaigns be consistent, targeted and engaging.