Social Media Archives | Page 3 of 10

In a world filled with endless scrolling and viral dances, TikTok has emerged as a powerful platform for brands to showcase their creativity, engage with their target audience, and leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just dipping your toes into the vast ocean of social media, this blog is your guide to harnessing the potential of TikTok as a brand.

Creating a sustainable, long-term growth strategy for TikTok requires careful planning and execution. Here are 8 key steps for brands to get started and establish a successful presence on TikTok:

Define Your Goals: Start by clearly defining your marketing objectives on TikTok. Determine whether you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or boost sales. Having well-defined goals will guide your strategy and help you measure success along the way.
Understand Your Audience: Take the time to understand your target audience on TikTok. What are their interests, preferences, and behaviors? Conduct thorough research to gain insights into the content they engage with, the hashtags they follow, and the trends they embrace. This knowledge will help you tailor your content and connect with your audience more effectively.
Create Compelling Content: TikTok is all about captivating and entertaining content. Develop a content strategy that aligns with your brand identity while embracing the platform’s unique style. Experiment with a mix of video formats, including tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, and challenges. Remember to infuse your content with authenticity, creativity, and a touch of humor to resonate with TikTok users.
Engage with the Community: TikTok thrives on community engagement. Actively participate in the TikTok ecosystem by engaging with users, responding to comments, and collaborating with influencers and other creators. By building relationships and fostering a sense of community, you can establish a loyal following and increase your brand’s visibility.
Leverage TikTok Features: Stay updated with TikTok’s latest features and trends to make the most of the platform. From TikTok Ads and branded effects to utilizing popular challenges and hashtags, explore opportunities to enhance your content and reach a wider audience. Experiment with different features and analyze their impact on your brand’s performance to optimize your strategy.
Analyze and Optimize: Regularly analyze your TikTok performance metrics using the platform’s built-in analytics or third-party tools. Monitor metrics like views, engagement, follower growth, and conversions to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy. Use these insights to refine your content, experiment with new approaches, and optimize your TikTok marketing efforts over time.
Collaborate with Influencers: Consider collaborating with TikTok influencers who align with your brand and target audience. Influencer partnerships can amplify your reach, enhance credibility, and generate user-generated content. Identify influencers who have a genuine connection with their followers and explore ways to collaborate on sponsored content or challenges that promote your brand organically.
Stay Agile and Adapt: TikTok is a dynamic platform with rapidly evolving trends and user behaviors. Stay agile and adaptable in your approach. Continuously monitor TikTok trends, engage with your audience, and adjust your strategy to stay relevant. Embrace experimentation and be open to trying new ideas to keep your TikTok presence fresh and engaging.

By following these steps, your brand can establish a strong foundation on TikTok and create a sustainable, long-term growth strategy. Remember, consistency, creativity, and genuine engagement are key to making a lasting impact on TikTok’s vibrant community.

To purchase or not to purchase? That is the question. An image of a sleek matte finished water bottle stares back at you from your online shopping cart. It promises to be better than the seven other water bottles you have crammed into your kitchen cabinets. It’s just arrived back in stock after going viral all over social media. Must be something to it…to purchase…or not to purchase…

In today’s world, social media has become one of the most powerful tools for businesses to promote their products and services. Influencer marketing has become a popular strategy for companies to reach a wider audience and encourage extended follower bases to buy their latest products. The influencing strategy relies on users’ trust in these aspirational individuals, often based on shared niche interests or opinions. However, there is a new trend emerging in the marketing world known as “deinfluencing”. As a response to the overconsumption propagated by influencers, deinfluencing emphasizes the growing cynicism towards sponsored content across social media. These content creators have paved the way for a new and effective marketing strategy that rebuilds trust and combats false advertising.

Deinfluencing started with content creators talking about the issues with the current influencer market promoting overconsumption. It soon evolved into other creators telling their followers what products they should and shouldn’t buy. This trend took off on TikTok, now with over 450 million views, as creators in the beauty and lifestyle niche started exposing products that are overhyped, and began providing better quality, often less expensive product options. Now, this trend has moved into more niches, anything from gaming to wedding planning, as consumers and creators start to reflect on how quick people are to purchase products based on fleeting trends.

While it may sound like deinfluencing is the rejection of influencers and the influencer market, that is not the case. Deinfluencing is about asking content creators, brands, and consumers to rethink how they utilize the power of influence. Consumers have rightfully begun to question the authenticity of some influencers and their partnerships with brands. Does this product really work? Has this trusted individual even tried the product? Or is this influencer just being paid for a positive review? By attempting to build trust with consumers, “deinfluencers” are rebranding what it means to be an influencer by offering authentic reviews on products. Their candor helps consumers realize what they actually need and aims to reduce overconsumption based on microtrends.

@impactforgood_ Declutter your home & then learn to buy less. It will change your life #deinfluence #deinfluencing #deinfluencingmakeup #deinfluencingproducts #minimalism #minimalist #sustainabilitytiktok #imperfectsustainability #sustainablelifestyle #eco #ecofriendly ♬ original sound – Jess – Sustainability

This TikTok by user @impactforgood_ explains her take on deinfluencing. She explains how thrilled she is that the collective is realizing “overconsumption is getting out of control.” She moves on to say that she uses minimal products, just what is truly needed to take care of your skin for example. She has no problem showing off products she genuinely uses and doesn’t mind if people are influenced to buy them. What she doesn’t support is people buying the latest, trendiest product before they finish the similar product they currently own. Deinfluencing not only helps slow overconsumption but also stops people from overspending their hard-earned money. “The rule that saved me money is that I cannot buy new products unless I have used up all the rest.”

Deinfluencing not only encourages other influencers to rethink the products they are promoting, but it is also encouraging brands to be more transparent in their marketing efforts. Many brands are now faced with the risk of sending a content creator their product and them giving it an unfavorable review. However, on the flip side, if a trusted influencer gives their products a raving review, their followers will be more likely to purchase that product and also leave good reviews. This also holds brands more accountable to create quality products that will last. Because at the end of the day, any content creator has the ability to post a video about any product and give their opinion. If they already have a following that trusts them, they have influenced those consumers without the brand even being involved in the creator’s using their product.

In this TikTok, user @emtapiaaa, a Sephora employee, reveals the truth about popular items at Sephora. She also agrees with someone in the comments that different products work for different people. This shows that deinfluencing isn’t meant to stop people from buying products they love, but rather from overbuying products they don’t need.

This trend of deinfluencing has the potential to affect the way the marketing world functions. Over the years it has been about the latest trends, how fast and how cheap we can get products. Now there is a desire to focus on quality over quantity, with a promising shift in consumer behavior toward more ethical and sustainable consumption. Consumers are realizing they aren’t getting the biggest bang for their buck when they are purchasing dozens of cheap products that they end up only using a few times.

The deinfluencing trend has proven that consumers are ready to see a change in how influencers and brands are marketing products. In a saturated market where products have never been more easily accessible in such vast quantities, consumers are simply looking for products that work the best in their market.

Relevant marketing is crucial for your business’ success. Contact Bluetext if you are ready to enhance your go-to-market technique.

Earlier this year, Apple rolled out a feature that allows end users to limit the personalization of ads delivered across their devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod). At first you might be thinking: “Great! Fewer ads!”

But unfortunately, this feature doesn’t limit the actual number of ads you’ll be served. You may no longer see an ad for paper towels when you’re eerily low on coffee or paper towels, but you’ll see other, less relevant ads, in their place.

How Personalized Ads Work:

In Apple’s words, “Apple delivers advertising helps people discover apps, products, and services while respecting user privacy. To deliver personalized ads, Apple uses information about you to serve ads that are more relevant to you.”

Depending on the sites you browse, the content you interact with, the purchases you make through Amazon, the fitness app you use to track your runs, the flights you booked through Google – the list could go on forever – you will receive ads tailored to your user behavior. Personalized ads are a controversial subject — some may say it’s spooky, others may say it’s smart and helpful. No matter what side of the spectrum you’re on, it’s important to understand the privacy settings of your devices and what it means to users, advertisers and the mass population.

Impacts of the Opt-out on Advertisers:

Advertisers use this information all the time. In fact, it’s the very information we (advertisers) need to generate a successful campaign.

When campaign management teams go to set up campaigns in a platform, we have the capabilities to select from a list of personal identifiers. We can select from the general demos – Age, Gender, Location; and we can select from a wealth of In-Market, Affinity, or Contextual audience segments that have been identified through data sources. From a paid media placement perspective, it’s important to know where the ad spend dollars are going toward ensuring the right audience is being served.

The more relevant the ad is to the end user, the stronger the campaign will perform. So if a user chooses to opt out of personalized ads through Apple, they no longer fall into the audience segments we have selected, and we lose the ability to target that person. Our audience pool may get smaller; however, the selected audience will at least remain relevant.

For us advertisers, there’s no need to panic, at least not yet. Ad blockers – and features to limit the amount of personalized ads shown to end users – have been around for years. According to a study that Innovid ran in 2020, 43% of consumers think it’s important that ads are personalized; 32% of consumers like personalized ads, and 30% of consumers even like brands more when the ads are personalized. 23% of consumers said they are more willing to share information with brands today than they were a few years ago.

Of course, internet behavior is constantly changing. We should look for reports and insights into this new feature over the next few months. Advertisers should also look at campaign performance pre and post Apple feature. Have you seen a dip in conversions, click-through rate, or costs per impression? Has activity across Apple devices dropped? The sooner you can look into this data, the quicker you’ll be able to pivot strategy, if needed.

We asked Bluetext’s campaign manager Georgia Putney her thoughts on these new features. “As not only an advertiser, but as an end user myself, I will not be turning off this feature. I would much rather prefer to see relevant ads over irrelevant, useless ads across my devices. And sure, maybe I do need an ad to remind me to stock up on paper towels every now and then.”

But Don’t forget…

As mentioned at the top of this blog, keep in mind that turning off the Personalized Ads setting on your device “may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you.” Personalized or not, ads won’t be going away anytime soon. So the choice is yours, more relevant and targeted, or more randomized. But the bottom line, is the free websites, and platforms are still reliant on advertising spend to operate and continue publishing content and features you enjoy.

Need support in setting up your digital marketing campaigns or optimizing performance around new features? Contact Bluetext to learn more about our campaign management services.

With the amount of time the average person spends on their phones, particularly scrolling social media, the use case for popular apps is ever-expanding. It is no surprise that many organizations are turning to social media for a multitude of reasons: to attract new business, employees, and consumers and grow brand awareness. Every day people turn to social media to connect with friends and family, pass the time, and find answers. In a recent Hootsuite social media webinar, it was revealed that consumers are turning to social media for recommendations over Google. So while your SEO strategy may be strong, traditional search engines aren’t where your marketing efforts should end. If users are searching for the best (fill in the blank) on social media first, it’s anyone’s game whose business will rise to results. Businesses across all verticals are taking note of this, and so should yours.

Here are some of the top social media considerations your business should look out for when developing your social media strategy:

1) Growth in Influencer Marketing

The pandemic accelerated the growth of influencer marketing in 2020, and this growth is predicted to continue well into 2023. It stands true that consumers like to hear a review by someone they trust. That is why more and more businesses are turning to influencer marketing to reach and communicate with their target audience. To make influencer marketing worthwhile, it is important to choose the right person to represent your brand. Reach out to creators that work with your specific niche, remembering that the number of followers is not everything. A micro-influencer with a small audience could have followers that are more invested than a more widely known influencer. Additionally, if influencers are outside of your marketing budget, it never hurts to send freebies to creators. If they really like your product or become interested in your brand, oftentimes influencers will promote it naturally on their own to remain authentic.

2) Measuring Social Media’s Direct ROI

CMOs are increasing their investment in social media, even when marketing budgets are decreasing. In a recent Hootsuite survey, it was found that 96% of the marketing respondents felt that social media had a direct return on investment. However, the kinds of things executives are looking for to measure social media’s success often differ from social media practitioners. Rather than just considering high impressions and engagement rates, investors use sales and revenue to measure success. As a result, business executives are starting to require direct measurements of how their social media is providing direct returns to the business. Some are starting to only count impressions that lead to a purchase to be factored in metrics. It is important for organizations to align goals among executives and social media strategists and clearly determine what exactly is considered a success.

3) Narrowing in on Relevant Social Media Channels

You might be surprised to find that your business does not need a presence on every social media platform. Instead, it is best to select two to three networks to focus your efforts on. Prioritize where your target audience frequently visits and also consider the reason why users are going to that social network. Most users go to LinkedIn for recruiting, company updates, searching for business partners, etc, while Tik Tok users are visiting the platform for entertainment/recreational purposes. Therefore for B2B organizations, it is better to invest resources into a social platform like LinkedIn rather than TikTok, which is largely consumer-oriented.

A relevant social media strategy is crucial for your business’ success. Contact Bluetext if you are ready to enhance your social media technique.

Now that the election is over (kind of), it is time to return to the real burning question on the minds of b2c, b2b and b2g brands: what in the Sam Hill is going on over at The Bird App?

Are they really handing out blue check marks like Halloween candy to anyone willing to fork over $8 a month for Twitter Blue? With Elon Musk at the helm, today’s reality may be old news by tomorrow, but marketers cannot ignore a swirl of new challenges for executives/leaders as well as their overall brand presence on Twitter.

First, with the cache of verification diluted, should it impact your time and financial investment with Twitter? Second, brand protection has become a serious issue – for now – as Twitter is playing catchup in cutting off accounts that are impersonating verified users. Finally, the unpredictable nature of the person running Twitter may lead to tweets, decisions and statements that create conflicts with values established by your brand, customers and organizational leaders. Out-of-sync values make for tough decisions for site advertisers.

Bottom line: at the end of the day for most eligible brands and individuals, it isn’t about the $96 a year for Twitter verification. It’s about how to handle all of these other emerging factors, and marketers should have a seat at the table in guiding these important decisions.

For now, marketers and decisions should consider the following:

Stay Attuned to Evolving Twitter Content Moderation Policies

Politics has seeped into every corner of social media strategy and execution. Almost immediately after Elon Musk assumed control of Twitter, content permissions changed dramatically in a way that not all brands will be comfortable with.

Ad giant IPG is recommending to clients to make the move of pausing Twitter advertising spending temporarily, and several brands have done just that. Conversations will be had on whether to extend brand action from halting ad spend to pausing account activity altogether. Brand marketers have little choice but to stay attuned to how Twitter content policies evolve to determine conflict with your own brand values. Some may also feel compelled make a public statement to customers and the public if developments on Twitter warrant. Lastly, any action taken must be viewed holistically to ensure consistency across other social networks when controversies arise.

Evaluate the Value of Verification

Twitter Blue Verification rollout is off to a rough start. Individuals are impersonating accounts and fooling people with tweets that appear to come from professional sports stars, celebrities, political leaders, global brands and everyone in between. In the Matrix-inspired words of Keanu Reeves, who tweeted on the ramifications of rampant impersonation, “whoa.”

This is clearly not sustainable; the burden falls to the Twitter content moderation team to play catchup. In the meantime, brand marketers and really anyone with verified accounts under the prior, stricter rules, will have to pay close attention as brand reputation on Twitter is at risk.

As American Express once coined, “membership has its privileges.” To date, Twitter verification has boosted tweet amplification and aided brand building – which is good – but less quantifiable is whether it actually helps to grow followers or ultimately, boost a bottom line. Now factor in all of these other potential negatives and the value proposition becomes murkier. With Twitter Blue changes, addition benefits floated by Musk include:

Priority in replies, mentions and search
The ability to post long video and audio
Reduced ad exposure compared to unverified users

For now at least, Blue checkmark verification is going to be available to almost anyone willing to pay the monthly fee. Though users can see who pays for verification and who doesn’t. Prioritizing revenue generation, on its surface, dilutes the value of the blue checkmark.

Be Prepared to Act Quickly and Decisively

Twitter isn’t the first company with an unpredictable and unconventional leader at the helm. Even within the social media category, polarizing founders and leaders are not hard to find. Anyone claiming to know what move Musk will make next or what his next tweet will contain, is full of it. Your line in the sand on what constitutes “too far” will be different than others, but when that line is crossed, brand decisions must be decisive. Whether the move is to end advertising, pause account activity or affirm your commitment to the site, customers and consumers want brand consistency. No waffling or bouncing back and forth without clearly established guardrails on, for example, what action would need to be taken to resume advertising or account activity.

Verified account impersonation is running rampant today, but glass half-full observers will point out that over time, Musk will get his bearings and address loopholes exposed during this transition period. Already Twitter Blue has been updated so that only users with an account created prior to November 9^th could access the feature. This should tamp down on some of the newly created impersonator accounts wreaking havoc on paid verification.

Twitter policies remain in flux, and are likely to change multiple times based on user feedback, concerns and other important factors like what Musk had for breakfast that morning. How long that takes, and how patient brands and brand leaders choose to be, is the question.

If you are interested in learning more about Bluetext social media strategy and execution capabilities, as well as our public relations and branding work visit click here.

LinkedIn is the social platform we all associate with business, and for a good reason, it was designed for professional networking. Whether it’s your personal career or your organization’s growth, LinkedIn is made to promote success. With more than 30 million companies on the platform, LinkedIn generates more leads for B2B companies than Facebook or Twitter. With 675 million users worldwide and 303 million monthly active users, it is also a great tool to enhance your company’s brand awareness.

Before embarking on your brand awareness journey it’s essential to know your audience, and particularly what kind of content may interest them. The largest percentage of LinkedIn users are 33- to 55-year-olds, demonstrating how those who dominate the social platform are more serious career-oriented adults rather than young adults/teenagers. Likewise, LinkedIn is the number one platform for CEOs, with 94% having a social media presence on the site. It is crucial that your business maximize its presence on the platform to take advantage of its many business opportunities.

3 Tips to Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement on LinkedIn

1) Build Out Your Company Page

Next to your company website, your company’s LinkedIn page is the most important digital representation of your business. This is your chance to showcase your business in a professional online setting. One of the most common mistakes businesses make on LinkedIn is treating it like a one-and-done task. After establishing your company page, make sure to frequently update your profile to reflect the most recent and relevant attributes of your business. From location to company bios and team members keeping the profile up to date gives prospective partners, customers, and even employees the most accurate snapshot of your business to date. You may want to consider investing in LinkedIn Premium, which allows you to open your network and grow your business even further. With this feature you can see who views your profile, giving insight into who is interested in your page. From here, it is recommended that you connect with viewers to allow for further interaction.

2) Get Active

LinkedIn rewards active profiles by making them appear higher in searches. What do we mean by active? This is any sort of platform engagement, not just publishing! Therefore, your organization’s account should be adding reactions to posts, such as likes and comments. When commenting you should be thoughtful and provide responses of substance that encourage further conversation. While you should establish your own organic content schedule & strategy, not all the responsibility falls on you to properly build out a company page. You can participate in relevant conversations but re-sharing other organizations’ content, such as blogs, relevant articles, and other thought leadership pieces. Next, you should follow other companies, especially those in your industry who could potentially become partners. Overall, it is beneficial to be active on the platform and engage with other pages to stimulate the same kind of interactive environment on your own business page.

3) Join Groups

There are over 1 million groups on LinkedIn, which are always open to new members. Join groups that are relevant to your business and industry to discover relevant and related content, but also increase the chances of your content being discovered by others. Doing so filters down your audience from millions of varying interests to a more targeted niche audience. Groups connect you with people that you have something in common with. Here you can promote your content, by sharing blog posts, giving you more of an opportunity to brand yourself as an industry and topical expert.

Interested in up-leveling your brand’s LinkedIn presence? Contact us to stay ahead of your competition and learn some additional tricks of the trade.

Happy ‘Get to Know Your Customers’ Day! If there’s anything social media marketers love, it’s creating “national holidays” around unique subjects (hope you have big plans for the upcoming National Hot Dog Day). But July 21st has been deemed one of the quarterly National Get to Know Your Customers Day, and Bluetext is here to help you make today and every day centered around customer engagement.

The “Get to Know Your Customers Day” is observed quarterly, on the third Thursday of January, April, July, and October. Why? Because every business should be continuously learning about their customer base to improve products and offerings around their evolving needs. While this holiday does sound silly, it s a gentle nudge to reach out to your customer base and get to know them better. It serves as a reminder to take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about current customers, strengthening your connection with them to maximize customer loyalty and grow your customer base.

There are a wide variety of ways to collect customer feedback and track preferences, especially with modern digital attribution tools.

Email Marketing

It’s no secret that getting subscribers’ attention is tough. Everybody’s inbox is flooded, we’re all multi-tasking and the distractions can feel limitless while reading emails. Therefore inviting subscribers to take an official survey can seem like an imposition and often be ignored. However, an in-line survey that keeps to following best practices can be more achievable and still generate informative results:

Keep it short: Create a clear distinction between “must-know” and “nice to know” questions. Simplicity and brevity is the recipe for customer engagement and responsiveness.
Be actionable: Don’t collect data unless you have a clear plan of how to use it.
Personalize and trigger customers’ emotions: Use the information you already know about your customers, such as their first name, to show investment and get to know them better.
Offer an incentive: Even the opportunity to receive a $10 Starbucks gift card for filling out a survey can be just the push a customer needs to take action and increase your form-fill rate.

Social Media Engagement

Be active on the social media platforms of best fit (each business is unique) and has the largest user base. Regular posts and invitations to engage, such as comments, polls, quizzes, votes, and direct messages are great ways to increase interaction with your customer base. The more you can engage with customers on a personal level, the better. Customers really do appreciate prompt and personal responses or shoutouts on social media platforms or through email. Of course, if the issue is about a specific product or a customer service issue, following up one-on-one is probably better. But when you respond personally, customers and prospects see that you care enough to take the time to engage with them. In a world where personal touch and emotions are growing more and more important in personal and business purchasing decisions, staying on top of your social game is key.

Create Customer Profiles with a CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) software platforms, such as SalesForce or HubSpot are great tools to help you learn more about your customers. There are many different CRM platforms, such as SalesForce, Marketo, and HubSpot, with a range of functions, from sales enablement or marketing.

At its most basic, a CRM helps you keep track of all your customer data, from names and contact information to sales history, communications, interactions, lead scoring, and so on. A CRM allows digital marketers to visualize the complete customer lifecycle at a glance. Setting up website tracking and multiple digital touchpoints can allow a marketer to lead score, or assign different values to unique digital interactions such as a resource download, form submission, page view, etc. This creates visibility into the customer’s behaviors and an indication of their wants and needs. From these lead scores, you can send the appropriate marketing materials or target with specific ads that speak to their preferences or phase in the decision-making process.

Implement a Chatbot

It may seem counterintuitive to implement AI in an attempt to get personal. But, did you know a MobileMarketer survey found that millennials prefer speaking with a chatbot rather than with a human employee when they are searching for information about a product? This is largely attributed to the desire for fast and precise answers. Additionally, many feel more comfortable asking questions to a chatbot as they have the certainty of not being judged when they believe their question might be slightly naive. Thus, implementing a chatbot into your website can generate more conversations with customers and be a powerful learning tool for your organization on their common pain points and queries.

Not only does it encourage customer interaction, but it also makes users feel heard and attended to on your website. A chat allows them quick access to information, which shows respect for their time, and allows 24/7 access to online support. Not all companies have the luxury of a full support portal and personnel, so especially for those who don’t, a chatbot closes that gap to ensure customers still feel supported.

Chatbots have dual benefits in improving lead generation, qualification, and nurturing. Chatbots can ask questions throughout the buyer’s journey and provide information that may persuade the user and create a lead. Chatbots can then provide potential and current customer information to the sales team, who can engage with the leads based on their interests or questions.

At the end of the day, getting to know your customers should be a priority every day, not just once a quarter. There are endless possibilities and strategies to do so, but all lead to more accurate and actionable customer information which can be turned into actional improvements. Customers will inevitably leave companies that don’t evolve with their changing business environments, so staying engaged and attentive to their questions and needs is critical.

If you’re motivated to step up your customer knowledge and improve your engagement tactics, Bluetext can help. Our variety of services ranging from email marketing to marketing analytics can help fulfill the questions YOU may have about your customer base.

Picture this: the year is 2013, Twitter is exploding into the public conscious with more than 200 million active users, and Facebook has a vice-grip on people’s free time across the globe. Social media, once considered an afterthought in any brand marketing strategy, is now on center stage. A fresh frontier to engage with current and potential customers in a way that no form of advertising has done before. Any brand worth its salt hires swathes of fresh-faced analysts to form social strategy teams and capitalize on the opportunity social media marketing presents. But, as with any emerging space, the way forward is not yet clear, and many brands are hesitant to make a bold leap into the unknown. Social media strategies are conservative and in line with traditional marketing: infographics are reposted on Instagram, product launches are promoted on Twitter, and brand Facebook pages are little more than an index of ads that have already run elsewhere. Despite social media platforms’ more casual formats, brand language is still tightly controlled and diluted with formality. The marketing world might be entering a new era, but the big brands still aren’t ready to give up their old tricks.

Now flash forward to 2022: the official Wendy’s Twitter account is telling people to smuggle Frosty’s into children’s movies, Arby’s Instagram is promoting a collab with famous rappers, and Slim Jim is furiously pushing a movement called #LongBoiGang. As a rational and well-adjusted person, you might be asking yourself how we got here? The answer, my dear reader, is memes.

What is a Meme?

So what exactly is a meme? Richard Dawkins first coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene to refer to how ideas evolve and are shared across different cultures. Under this broad definition, everything from urban legends to famous sayings could be memes. But, as the Internet began to connect people worldwide, the free exchange of information accelerated like crazy. It opened the door for new methods of conveying ideas, specifically memes as we know them today.

Modern memes can be broadly defined as pieces of media that are copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by internet users. From a conflicted superhero to a distracted boyfriend, these images are retitled and reused by Internet users to comment on everything from personal events to pop culture moments. But it’s not just picture templates that can become memes: halftime shows, hashtags, and even celebrities can all be the inspiration behind Internet memes.

How Memes Can Benefit Your Brand

But even after being caught up on the history that made memes what they are today, you might still be asking yourself, what can they do for me? Here are four benefits that meme marketing can bring your business.

Expanding your Engagement – Internet users spend an estimated 145 minutes daily on social media. They’re online to scroll through their pics, jokes, and videos while tuning out everything else around them, meaning you have the chance to capture their undivided attention. Meme marketing also opens the door to even more potential impressions through functions like shares, retweets, and comments.
Keeping Consumer Attention – Social media users are highly resistant to traditional advertising on their favorite platforms, viewing unprompted commercials and ads as intrusions, not opportunities. But by sharing memes about your brand you can seamlessly slip into their content stream and cultivate more organic user interactions.
No Price Promotion – The most enticing aspect of meme marketing is that it doesn’t cost a thing. Although hiring social media professionals or paid influencers can do a world of good, anyone up to date on current trends can join the fun post.
Revealing your Relatability – One of the greatest struggles many companies have with managing their brands is appearing too outwardly corporate or robotic. Memes present a perfect opportunity for brands to communicate with consumers more casually and forge more personal connections in the process.

B2B Meme Marketing Inspiration

From forums like Reddit to social hubs like Twitter and Instagram, much of the content that keeps users returning to popular platforms are memes. If you want to meaningfully engage with consumers in these channels and build a social media strategy that isn’t stuck in the stone age, you’ll need to learn how to make memes. Here are a few examples of brands that succeeded in meme marketing to get your creative juices flowing!

HubSpot – Fan favorite movies and TV shows present a treasure trove of possibilities for memes that social media users can recognize and connect with.
RevGenius – Industry/category-specific memes can add a focused and personalized flair to your company’s social media presence.
Adobe Marketo – Some companies even integrate memes into their trade show/event promotion like this make-your-own meme booth that Adobe Marketo featured to pump up engagement both online and at the event.

Want to take your social media strategy to the next level? Bluetext can help optimize your social media program and ensure you get the most out of your marketing.

So you want to build hype for your campaign? Our campaign strategists at Bluetext have some tips for you. Assuming you’ve already started building out your campaign, you should have an idea of what your goals are. A common goal is to build awareness and excitement. When building excitement ahead of your launch, you want to bring an air of mystery. Balance announcing details of your campaign while leaving enough to the viewers’ imagination. Some effective teaser mediums include social media snackables, physical swag, email campaigns, or teaser trailers.

When Bluetext recently launched Phosphorus’ Thing Tamer, we decided to keep things mysterious. So, we began with the organic promotion of teaser videos to curate a collection of content for the dramatic launch of a full campaign without sacrificing ad spend. Once our audience’s interest was piqued by compelling graphics and intriguing headlines, we directed their attention to the campaign landing page. This landing page hinted at all things to come and encouraged users to sign up for exclusive notification of the launch. The landing page was designed to be as engaging as possible, with promotional movie posters, two different trailers of the Thing Tamer series, and on-scroll animation to introduce the personified things and interactive carousels to reveal campaign messaging and key stats. signed up for the email list, they received a thank you email that further teases at the Things to come.

The first trailer named the Beast Trailer worked to establish the problems Thing Tamer solves. Offices with countless enterprise IoT devices are at high risk of being exploited by unsuspecting sources. Each device has its own firmware and unique language making managing all of them a complicated process. Without giving too many details away, we put a spotlight on common problems enterprises face. This was followed up with the second trailer, which starts off by slowly revealing our hero, the Tamer, an IT version of Indiana Jones meets Crocodile Dundee. By shifting focus to our IT guy wearing the Tamer’s hat, users are able to envision themselves as the ones resolving their IoT devices’ vulnerabilities. The teaser strategy allowed for the campaign to slowly introduce the problem with an air of mystery, leaving them craving more for the full campaign to unveil the solution. Separating the story into digestible trailer videos keeps the target audience engaged for an extended period of time, building upon their interest and education with every touchpoint. Not only does it allow for multiple follow-ups and a nurture strategy, but the shortened length of each video also ensures that viewer attention does wane while watching a long-form video. Hitting the viewer with messages one at a time increases the likelihood of memory retention and builds upon Phosphorus’ brand association. At the end of the day, a successful message is one that users can connect with, and that’s just what we did.

Similar to Thing Tamer’s landing page where visitors could engage with different elements to learn more, the recent The Batman movie had a fun way of building hype ahead of the movie’s premiere. Visitors who found the secret website through a hidden message on the official movie poster were able to talk with the Riddler and solve additional puzzles. Those who solved the puzzles were rewarded with exclusive clips and pictures from the yet-released movie. Once the movie was released, Warner Brothers went a step further and updated the page to reflect the domain being seized by the fictitious Gotham police department. Warner Brothers managed to engage with their target audience over the course of weeks, thanks to a clever Easter Egg hidden in their posters. Being given the opportunity to dive into the Gotham universe in this unique way allowed the audience to connect with the film and get hyped for the official movie release.

Phosphorus also engaged in a few organic social media promotional posts to promote its campaign launch. Social media serves as a great opportunity when trying to build awareness. That being said, Phosphorus didn’t want to spoil too much, so we kept the captions short and used the two trailers and social snackables for the LinkedIn promotions. Utilizing cross-channel promotions and various forms of media increases the likelihood of your users finding your content and engaging with it. Again, at the end of the day, how can you build excitement if your campaign isn’t known? Agencies like us here at Bluetext have the expertise to guide you through the optimal campaign launch.

No two campaigns will be the same, and while the Phosphorus campaign succeeded based on its goals, your success isn’t a guarantee. At the end of the day, your best bet is to engage with a trusted campaign-focused agency to build hype for your campaign launch. Once you’ve launched, we work with you to drive paid marketing and PR efforts, ultimately driving users to engage with your business. Want to learn more about how Bluetext can help your campaign? Get in touch with us here. To learn more about our Thing Tamer campaign, check out the full breadth of our work here.

How can you bring in lucrative contracts for your business? B2B social media marketing can be an underutilized, yet incredibly useful channel, given that 62% of CEOs are present on at least one social platform. B2B social media marketing is the use of social channels to market products and services to business clients. All social channels can be used for B2B marketing, but the strategy for each will differ. It’s essential to know the strengths and demographics of various social platforms to effectively reach the targeted decision-makers. Let’s look at some of the top social media channels used for B2B marketing.

3 Social Media Channels Great for B2B Marketing

LinkedIn is far more than a recruitment platform; it is a great tool to attract talent, but also can go to great lengths to promote your business. More than 30 million companies use LinkedIn, with the most common age group on the site being middle-aged working professionals (36- to 55-year-olds). Serving as the most popular platform for corporate CEOs, LinkedIn can get your business in front of CXOs and other decision-makers to initiate those B2-B relationships. LinkedIn organic and paid media options are viable opportunities positively showcase your company’s achievements and drive traffic to your website. Your organization can demonstrate thought leadership as an industry leader through blog and news posts on trending topics. Not only can you update followers on company progress, but you can also present the employees who make up your organization when there is strategic value in doing so. This conveys company culture, which is a great indication of whether you might be the right potential business partner. LinkedIn also provides plenty of data to better optimize your social campaign and ensure you’re reaching the right decision-makers.

Twitter
Twitter also can be an effective platform for connecting with customers and developing influence. Through short messages, Twitter can be used to portray your brand’s voice. With Twitter, your business can quickly get out a message to an audience and engage with users in real-time. Twitter has 166 million monetizable daily active users, which are logged accounts that are able to show ads. Unlike LinkedIn, Twitter is predominantly used by millennials, meaning it is great for targeting entrepreneurs and younger professionals who are involved in start-ups.

YouTube

With 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors, YouTube is one of the best social media platforms for driving traffic back to your company’s website. Video, as a medium, is a great way to tell your brand’s story and mission. With YouTube, your business can create educational content to display your business’s unique value proposition. People searching for advice and how-to-videos will land on your page, increasing brand awareness and subject matter expertise. Ensure your video is optimized for google search results by placing relevant keywords in the title.

Even for organizations intimately familiar with social channels, there is a science to building B2B social media marketing programs with the optimal mix of channels, content, and timing. Contact Bluetext to help your organization drive B2B marketing results on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media channels.