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Our financial services social media strategy recommendations and best-practice case studies put you in the driving seat to accelerate your financial services’ ROI from digital marketingSocial media is sometimes perceived as less relevant in financial services compared to other channels such as search, display, and aggregators. There are well-rehearsed objections to investing more in social media in financial services. However, we will see by the examples in this section that creative options are possible within the constraints of compliance.
Companies are recognizing that social media provides a wealth of value, enabling differentiation through human communication. They are driving value by integrating this with their CRM systems, tracking ROI, and ensuring compliance. To drive such value, organizations expect solutions to help them track ROI, integrate with CRM solutions, provide compliance, and offer best-in-class publishing tools. To address this, we have covered a number of trends and innovations in the financial services industry which, alongside social media trends featured in this blog, help marketers and managers an integrated marketing strategy for their financial services businesses.
Financial services social media for the affluent millennial audienceThe rise and rise of affluent millennials has led to a trend of lower-funnel-focused programs where FS companies deploying a wide range of successful marketing tactics, as part of a full-funnel strategy to acquire new clients create a specialized program for investments that specifically targets the highest-value and most profitable customers.
Reflecting on their choice to use LinkedIn to achieve this one company Digital Advertising Manager said “LinkedIn provides us with the opportunity to target these potential prospects with self-identifying information through profile targeting, we can target these prospects based on post-secondary affiliations, their job functions, and also their job titles.”
Financial services marketing strategyBelow, we’ve put together our social media strategy recommendations for financial services marketers based on the current trends and innovations in the sector. Social media is a huge part of your business’s online presence, that’s why we’ve broken it down, channel by channel.
Moreover, Smart Insights offers financial services marketing strategy across all aspects of the marketing mix, plus strategy and planning for marketing leaders. You can download our free financial services marketing trends 2023 report to discover 8 further industry trends which we recommend considering as part of your integrated marketing strategy. Find out more.
Financial Services marketing trends 2023
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Instagram SoFi uses Instagram A cautionary tale – Influencer marketing on InstagramThere is a wide variety of different influencers that you could engage with, so focus your engagement on certain types of people that you feel will best communicate your message to your target audience. According to Onalytica, there are four key measures of influence that you should analyze to find the key influencers in your market.
While these elements are important you need to consider the message they will be sending in the wider context of your audience.
An example of where this balance was deemed to be “not in the best interests of the public” was an Instagram influencer campaign conducted by Klarna, the Swedish firm which allows staggered payments for products with no fees or interest and has proved popular among millennials.
The company ran a social media campaign on Facebook-owned Instagram in April and May of 2023 using four influencers to encourage people to use Klarna to shop to “boost their mood”.
While it was acknowledged that “treating oneself can elevate mood” the regulator felt that the promotion of deferred payments was not compatible with the intended message. As a result of this campaign and similar ones, the Financial Conduct Authority is looking at operators in the “buy now, pay later” sector as part of a wider inquiry into the unsecured credit market.
LinkedInLinkedIn remains the central social channel for financial services organizations, now reaching 590+ million professionals. 98% of the Forbes Fortune 500 list are using LinkedIn, with content amplification and connecting with prospective clients continuing to be the top reasons for use. FinTech companies, who have typically invested in Facebook as their primary channel, are investing more in LinkedIn with FS organizations increasingly using their CEO or senior leadership figures to amplify their content through personal insights and thought leadership articles.
FacebookOwing to financial services organizations being rich in customer data, we are seeing an increase in the uptake of custom and lookalike audience modeling on Facebook. Mobile video is popular, including brand discovery via the Explore tab and the use of Facebook Groups, with encouragement from the use of AI. Messenger can also be used for one-to-one communication and branded Facebook Groups relating to personal finance and career topics.
YouTube Snapchat TwitterTwitter is commonly used by financial services organizations for amplifying content, monitoring brand mentions and customer complaints, and locating buyer-buyer-ready signals. All of the Fortune 500 insurance companies, commercial banks, and financial data service companies have a presence on Twitter.
Financial services social media videosFinancial Services marketing trends 2023
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Consumer privacy laws: GDPR and ePrivacyYou will be aware that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2023/679) came into force in all 28 countries in Europe in 2023. It is a regulation agreed by the European Union, which seeks to improve transparency and the effectiveness of data protection activities. The legislation highlights the importance of obtaining consent from new and existing customers, who subscribe to mailing lists and have their data stored in CRM and other systems.
But do you know the changes required by the EU ePrivacy law? In the UK, this will be covered by changes to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), originally enacted in 2003. We’re ‘flagging this up’ since this is due to be updated in 2023 with the UK having left the EU, but the situation and regulations are still relatively unclear as of the time of writing. One thing is for sure, it’s likely to have implications on your use of cookies, site personalization, and email marketing communications. To learn more about how Brexit affects your marketing and use of personal data, the UK Government website’s guidance pages are a good start.
Keep your financial services social media strategy consistentSocial media campaigns are most effective when each platform is working together consistently under a common theme, with the unique messaging and content types customized for each channel. Appreciating the strengths of each major social media platform assists financial marketers in establishing a focused and manageable social media strategy. A good example is TSB who has used social channels with a consistent tone of voice and frequent messaging promoting its brand position.
Our financial services trends report covers a great number of trends and innovations in the sector so you can implement an effective, integrated marketing strategy.
Financial Services marketing trends 2023
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How To Create A Social Media Strategy 8 Effective Steps (New)
What is Media Plan?
Digital marketing, conversion rate optimization, customer relationship management & others
Media planning is making a decision to choose the right way of putting your message across to the target audience. The message of introducing the new product to your existing customer and also targeting new prospective customers. This needs to be done correctly in order to make it extremely effective.
During the process of the media plan, a few questions need to be answered.
Who are the target audiences?
What types of media can reach out to how many target audiences?
Which media should be used to place the ad to reach out to the audiences effectively?
What should be the frequency of the ad placed in various ad vehicles?
What should be the budget for each ad vehicle?
Marketing has budget constraints for every organization. Advertising for promoting the goods and services of an organization is mandatory in any competitive market.
Try using local newspapers with limited reach. Local magazines, even in the local language, are perfect, cheaper, or no-cost social media to reach a less targeted audience to spread awareness.
Choosing the right media plan will help you effectively convey your message to your target audience through the right ad vehicle. A media plan is a process that is successful only if planned well.
Of course, social media planning needs many analyzes, objectives, and strategies to implement in order to get the right output. The motive needs to be achieved.
Marketing always aims to create a need for the product and service amongst the target audience through effective content. And that is not it. The content must be displayed and flashed through the correct ad vehicle within the given budget to maximize profits and avoid losses.
Process of building an effective media planLook at the process of building an effective media plan noted below:
To choose the correct media plan vehicle to promote a product and service, you need to make sure you do
1. Market AnalysesBefore entering the market with a new product or service, you research the market, the types of audience in the set or given market, their description, preferences, etc.
What is important is to know the market or analysis the market before you introduce a product or a service in that market. In short, you will analyze the market. Once you analyze the market, you will know how to create awareness amongst your target audiences.
2. Create an effective media objective.Your main objective will be to reach out and create awareness about tour products and services amongst your target audiences to increase your sales and profitability within a budget.
Remember that your media objective is very important as it is the goal of your media plan. Your goal should answer the following questions.
How many audiences should your media vehicle reach out to?
How and how much should the ad circulate to be effective enough to meet your promotion and sales expectations?
How much should you spend on what media vehicle?
Remember, your goals that your media objective need to be appropriate to attain the correct profitability by spending as less as you can. It is only about promoting correcting.
3. List down marketing issues.You might face hurdles in different business stages, from production to selling and servicing. Some hurdles might be huge, and some small. However, every problem has solutions, and not one may be more than one.
All you need to do is choose the correct solution and implement it. Like other stages, you will face issues or problems even in marketing. List all the issues you can encounter while promoting your product and services.
Look for solutions. You can solve these problems and hurdles in a number of ways. However, the motive is to get the most effective solution.
4. StrategizeThese media plan options include television, radio, newspaper, interactive media platform, magazines, and digital media. Choose the media bases on the set media objective; remember that is your goal. Your ad vehicle should be able to meet your social media planning goal.
You should be able to differentiate
Which option reaches the maximum target audience?
How many times will your target audience be able to view it?
5. Your media vehicle should be able to do the following
Reach out to<
You have a set number or a certain percentage of audiences you would want to focus on. Your media vehicle should be able to reach that number or that percentage of people. The reaching out can be reaching out to individuals or homes and families in a specified period of time.
Frequency
You need to know how often the media vehicle flashes your ad, the average daily flashes, or a set period to expose it to your target audiences.
Averagely for a consumer to realize and take action, it takes more than 3 times. Hence considering and knowing the frequency is important.
Cost per thousand customers
The impact that it will create
Degree of selection
You aim to reach out to most of your prospective audience. Now this is true that anyone can be your next prospective customer. However, how many and who can be your most logical prospect, and up to what degree can you select to target your logical prospect audiences?
6. Implement your strategies 7. Evaluate the resultsAfter you reach the implementation stage, you must sit and wait for the results. These results can be in sales and profits, as mentioned earlier. However, is it meeting your expectations, was the effort enough, and were your analyses correct? You are aware of your media plan objectives and your media goals.
You need to understand if you successfully met your goals and objectives. Were your strategies successful? If this media plan of yours works out well, it will help you determine your other media plans.
8. Follow up and continue promotingPromoting a product and a service at its launch to introduce it to the public and then not promoting increased sales or publicizing it is incorrect.
You want to reach out to your target audiences in different ways, and discontinuing promotions of your goods and services wastes all the effort you put into understanding the market and promoting accordingly.
Ensure you are in touch with your customers and know them better as you deal with them. Knowing your audiences better will help you promote and expose yourself to your goods and services better than you promoted before.
Keep the follow-ups on and continue to promote your goods and services to get more exposure to gain better publicity and more business.
ConclusionKnowing the market and marketing accordingly is extremely important to be successful in your business. You can sell better only if your products and services are exposed to your target audiences better.
Target audiences can be your existing prospect or logical prospect customers.
Recommended ArticlesHere are some articles that will help you to get more detail about the Media Plan, so just go through the link
Why You Need A Holiday Social Media Advertising Strategy Right Now
The holidays are… sort of upon us?
In my family, the annual joke is that if my mother starts asking about the holidays one month earlier than last year, we’ll eventually be giving her our gift wish lists in January!
If your world is anything like mine, the holidays seem to come earlier and earlier every year.
No more than 12 hours past Halloween, we’re flooded with December holiday themes, nearly bypassing Thanksgiving entirely.
The days get shorter, service providers get busier, and every company with a retail item has something they want you to buy.
And while no one wants to be a Scrooge, it can be tough to think about building a holiday strategy this far out.
Especially because the global pandemic has shown us that each day can either drag on, or circumstances can change in an instant.
But that’s exactly why you should be putting together your strategy now instead of taking the “wait and see” approach.
You should be thinking about why you need to start earlier and what you can do to stand out.
And know the things to keep in mind as we move closer to the holiday season alongside a thick air of global uncertainty.
Here are a few ways this year is a little bit different.
Earlier Online & More Spread OutWe all have seen the numbers.
People are spending a lot more time on the Internet than usual these days.
After all, what else is there to do when you’re stuck at home on quarantine or you’re working and/or studying from home all day?
But more than that, people are understandably concerned about in-person touchpoints in their shopping experience.
This is driving more people to online purchases than ever before.
Suddenly, you’ve got a lot more lingering eyes on your shopping cart page than a year ago at this same time.
And people are finding themselves doing a lot more online shopping than usual.
You could say it’s due to a need for dopamine.
And the relatively new concept of “anxiety shopping” – anxiety over what the future holds and a need for present-moment comfort.
That is if you still needed validation for the new impulse buying habit you’ve picked up in the last six months.
People are also being encouraged to complete their holiday shopping earlier this year.
Brought about by concerns over COVID-related delays in shipping or supply chain issues.
All this compounded by the uncertainty over the future of the pandemic and whether jobs will stay secure.
This means that the shopping may start early and actually may be spread out throughout the holiday season, as changes materialize.
But the moral of the story is this: People are online and they’re buying so you need to get your brand in front of them.
And you need to do it now.
Tip: If you’ve been uncertain over whether or not to add a commerce function to your site, now is the time to make that happen.
People will be buying online.
And there is no way to guarantee that, two or three months from now, brick-and-mortar shops will even be able to stay open for in-person shopping (as we saw five months ago).
Salesforce research shows that 50% of all seasonal retail revenue is complete by December 3, meaning you can’t afford to delay.
If the first quarantine and decline of in-person shoppers caught you unawares, don’t let it happen again.
Invest in a commerce function on your website now, or at least start listing your products or services on Instagram, Pinterest, or another third-party shoppable site.
Make sure you don’t miss out on major online sales and all your shopping revenue.
DYK?Recent studies show that the pandemic has changed our Internet behavior.
Desktop use is back on the rise, while mobile app use has suffered a bit of a dip.
If you’ve been taking great pains to fine-tune your mobile strategy, you don’t need to take the effort away from it (people are still using their phones).
But you do need to spend time to make sure your desktop experience is just as beautifully optimized for all the incoming traffic.
Why Spend Twice as Much for Just as ManyThis is one preparation that never changes; but this year, it might just be amplified.
Every year in September, we start preparing our clients for the upcoming holiday season.
Why?
There are more and more businesses spending money for the first time, and more of them spending more money than they did all year long.
What does that mean for you?
Greater competition for the same eyes.
Prepare for things to cost more – and expect to get poorer results overall, on average.
But that’s every year.
Here’s where this year is different:
First of all, we’re in an election year in the U.S.
While there is always more competition for eyes during this time of year, it’s compounded by the amount of competition that only comes out once every two to four years.
There are policy changes or ballot measures as well as publishers reporting breaking news stories or running election guides.
You’re competing with far more than just other businesses. You’re competing with the fabric of governing structures.
And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, or if I’ve mentioned it enough in this article, but we’re in a pandemic.
So don’t be surprised if you have to spend more than twice your normal ad budget to get the same results.
Tip: Get in touch with your deeply creative side for this holiday season strategy.
You’re competing with a lot of noise that makes people nervous, afraid, exhausted – or it makes them feel assaulted with demands to buy products or donate money.
Give your audience something fun and lighthearted.
People need more happiness to hold onto.
Be the brand that gives it to them!
Don’t Feel Like You Need to Push Sales Right NowAh, but you don’t need to offer sales right now – it’s about so much more than that.
Think about it:
What do people know about your brand?
Do they know your brand at all?
What better time to start telling them all about your fabulous brand with its fabulous products and services than right now, before your holiday sales kick-off.
Even if the concept of the marketing funnel is supposed to be dead or something, it still serves a purpose.
You know that you have to keep the funnel full by adding more people at the top, unless you want it to eventually be empty.
So, run your Instagram Reels.
Make engaging Facebook (and now LinkedIn) stories.
Experiment and A/B test with carousels and GIFs and videos – but just make sure you’re in the game.
You’re getting people interested in your brand and leaving breadcrumbs along the way for your big holiday reveal.
And also, any sales you make in the meantime is gravy.
Today, more than ever, people are buying from companies that share their values.
So don’t be afraid to talk about them!
People are more likely to buy from a brand that has a message they care about.
Whether it’s supporting a nonprofit for Giving Tuesday or letting people know about the care that goes into designing and manufacturing or selecting products for sale.
Be Ready to PivotAs a marketer, I know it’s en vogue to roll our eyes and groan about every new change delivered to us from the Advertising Platform Gods.
I get it.
I do.
It’s annoying.
But also, I get really tired of hearing the complaints, especially when they’re connected to stubbornness and a general refusal to make the changes necessary.
We’re marketers.
Pivoting, adjusting, and adapting is literally the job.
Right now, we’re in a constant global PR crisis of sorts.
There are fires and a pandemic, a general election, and justifiable civil unrest.
Every day is a new exercise in how our brand should respond to the current happenings, especially this year.
And then you should be prepared to completely scrap it at a moment’s notice.
We have zero idea what the last quarter of the year holds for us.
The business owners and marketers I’ve seen thrive this year have had one thing in common:
They pivoted early, often, and were ready to make changes at a moment’s notice.
They gave themselves a moment to grieve their previous plans, and then they got to work.
Conversely, I saw a lot of businesses and marketers struggle because they sat around doing the “wait and see.”
They stayed frozen and indecisive, hoping and praying day after day that the winds would change course and blow in their favor.
Don’t wait for a virus or a civil movement, or a natural disaster to tell you what to do.
It’s your job to figure it out early and quickly, and adapt.
So make the plan.
Just be prepared to scrap it on a dime.
Tip: Build pivots into your plan.
It’s good common practice to have a plan in crisis for both internal and external communications.
And this is a great time to flex that muscle.
No, seriously, what could go wrong?
Then plan for each possible thing.
If there is another quarantine and we have to move to ecommerce only, how will we adjust our language? Our retail partner strategy? Our own ecommerce strategy?
If there are more layoffs and fewer people can afford to make purchases, how will we change our messaging?
How will we respond with compassion, but also so that we can salvage our own business?
What happens if the Advertising Platform Gods change rules, regulations, or algorithms?
Force yourself to see the worst-case scenarios unfolding before your very eyes.
This holiday season will be fraught, no question.
Don’t stand by and wait to see if things work out the way you want them to so you can launch the strategy you normally do.
More Resources:
Social Media Marketing Audit Template
Social media marketing audit template Audit your social media marketing with our guided template, complete with worked example How will this social media audit template help me and my business?
Every successful marketing strategy starts with a detailed audit. After all, how are you supposed to improve if you don’t know how well you’re currently doing? This is especially true when formulating a social media strategy. The fast-paced nature of social platforms means that you constantly need to review your performance and optimize your posts if you want to become a thought leader in your industry.
Managing social media updates as part of content marketing activities takes time. You want to make sure you are focusing in the right places and getting the returns on your investment. That’s why our Word Doc social media audit template helps you review the effectiveness of your own social media activities, or for your clients. There’s also a full example report included using a fictitious company who are looking for more clients in their sector.
The template includes both blank pages and tables in a workbook format that you can complete, followed by a worked example.
Who is this social media audit template for? How is the audit structured?The audit template includes:
The main audit template, with blank tables for you to fill in
An example of how a fictitious company – Health Recruitment Ltd. – would complete the template when auditing their company’s social media
We recommend using the social media audit template to conduct top-level analysis that can be presented in a concise format. The example audit can be used to help gauge how you can use the template to apply to your business, and see how practically you can implement the audit and its findings in your marketing strategy.
The audit includes:
Opportunity: Review your channel performance, competitor benchmarking, governance etc.
Strategy: Define key objectives, structured around RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage)
Action: Determine what tactics you will use, integration with brand style/tone of voice, and plan social selling and listening actions
At the end of the blank template, we have also included:
An example of a completed audit by fictitious company: Health Recruitment Ltd
Latest updatesThis template has been updated in our RACE Growth Process OSA (Opportunity, Strategy, Action) framework to improve usability and integration with your marketing strategy. It has also been redesigned so that the template and example audit are all within one document for ease of use. An instructional page has also been written for the audit template to guide you through each section if you are only completing a top-level audit of your social profiles.
Resource Details
Author: Miriam Shaviv. Updates provided by Dr Dave Chaffey.
Format: A downloadable Word Doc
Related resources:
We recommend you use this audit alongside our example social media plan template as well as our Social Media Learning Path.
Techniques for measurement of ROI for social media are covered in our module on evaluating content marketing ROI.
About the authorMiriam Shaviv
Miriam Shaviv is Director of content at Brainstorm Digital who is active in creating and managing social media strategies for B2B and B2C clients. Connect to her LinkedIn.
The History Of Social Media
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines social media as:
“forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”
While services like YouTube and Facebook automatically come to mind, you can trace the origins of social media back to the late 1970s.
In this article, you will find a brief overview of the history of social media, from the early pioneers of electronic communication to the social networking platforms that dominate the internet today.
Bulletin Board SystemsRandy Suess and Ward Christensen introduced the Computerized Hobbyists Bulletin Board System in 1978.
While initially designed to help the inventors network with fellow members of a computer club in Chicago and generate content for their club’s newsletter, it eventually grew to support 300-600 users.
CBBS still exists today as a forum with posts dating back to 2000.
As modems increased speed, bulletin board systems became more popular with computer users. Using the telnet BBS Guide, you can travel back in time and see over 1,000 bulletin board systems.
For those looking for modernized versions of bulletin board systems, try Wikipedia’s list of internet forums.
Internet Relay Chat, Instant Messaging, And Chat RoomsAs an extension of BBS systems, Jarkko Oikarinen set up the first Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client and server in 1988. It would allow users to chat with each other in real time.
That would lay the groundwork for instant messaging services like mIRC and ICQ, which still exist today.
While ICQ has continued to update its interface to match the current times, mIRC has had the same website since 2008.
Celebrities like Michael Jackson used America Online chat rooms to host one of the first Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with over 25,000 participants.
AOL released a free, standalone version of its instant messenger service in 1997, which connected its users until it signed off for the last time in 2023.
In 1999, Tencent launched QQ, an instant messaging service.
This service still exists today, along with the social network Qzone (launched in 2023), boasting 574 million users.
The First Social NetworksIn 1997, the first social networking sites launched: Bolt and Six Degrees.
Dan Pelson designed Bolt as a platform for 15-20-year-olds to use for email, voice mail, voice chat, message boards, and instant messaging. 11 years later, Bolt announced in its forums that it would shut down.
Six Degrees founder Andrew Weinreich, sometimes referred to as the father of social networking, created his platform to help people connect with people they didn’t know (yet).
He also filed the first social networking patent for:
“A networking database containing a plurality of records for different individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the database by defined relationships.”
The platform still exists today, although it doesn’t look like it has changed since 2023.
The Birth Of Social BloggingA year later, in 1999, LiveJournal would enter the social blogging arena.
From Social Dating To Social GamingFriendster, launched in 2002, was described as:
“…an online community that connects people through networks of friends for dating or making new friends.”
From 2010 until its end in 2023, Friendster shifted focus from a network for connecting friends to a “…social gaming destination of choice.”
It allowed people to connect, play games, and share their progress.
The Rise Of Today’s Most Popular Social PlatformsIn the early 2000s, we saw the launch of several of the top social networks still popular today.
LinkedInLaunched in 2003, LinkedIn created a social networking space for professionals to strengthen their network connections for better career opportunities.
It allows people to connect with business acquaintances and college alums, find jobs, and recommend professional services.
Today, the network has over 830 million members worldwide.
MyspaceShortly after LinkedIn, Myspace would launch in August 2003.
It was a space for friends, where you could create customized profiles, highlight top favorite friends, meet your friend’s friends, publish blogs, share photos, post in forums, join groups, discover music, and play games.
In 2013, Myspace rebranded itself as a music portal to connect people with their favorite artists and is a music-focused social network.
Facebook2004 saw the launch of Facebook (first known as Thefacebook). Created by Mark Zuckerberg to connect with other Harvard students, Facebook’s popularity exploded. By the end of 2004, it had over 1 million users.
Since then, it has become the second largest social network, boasting 3 billion users worldwide.
As of 2023, the network had over 100 million accounts and still considers itself the “…best online photo management and sharing application in the world.”
RedditIn 2005, Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman launched Reddit as a place where users could share content, discuss topics of interest, and vote up the most popular stories.
TwitterIn 2006, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass launched Twitter.
The idea behind their network was simple: allowing users to send short messages of up to 140 characters to friends and acquaintances.
Now, Twitter’s user base of 436 million can send tweets with up to 280 characters with images and video.
TumblrThe community, now managed by CEO Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, has over 472 million users and 550 million blogs.
Sina WeiboLaunched in 2009, Sina Weibo is China’s answer to Twitter. The microblogging service currently has 582 million users.
PinterestBen Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra founded Pinterest in 2010.
Instagram2010 also saw the launch of Instagram by founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
The photo and video sharing service, acquired by Facebook in 2012, has grown to 1.4 billion users and expanded its features to include live video streaming and shoppable posts.
QuoraFormer Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever launched Quora in 2010.
The social question-and-answer network aimed to bring together people with questions and experts in specific fields to provide answers.
It is home to 300 million users, including former presidents and popular celebrities.
SnapchatIn 2011, Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy came up with Snapchat.
While initially considered a “terrible idea” by fellow students in a product design class, this network would eventually become one of the top social networks for teens and home to over 347 million users.
TelegramNikolai and Pavel Durov founded Telegram in 2013. The social app focuses on providing secure instant messaging and voice calls.
It currently has over 700 million users.
DiscordGaming enthusiasts Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy founded Discord as a voice, video, and text communication service in 2023.
Since its inception, it has expanded from focusing on the gaming community to giving spaces to any interested community looking for a place to belong.
Discord is now home to over 150 million users and 19 million servers with 4 billion discussions.
TikTokTikTok (or Douyin in China) launched internationally in 2023 after being acquired by ByteDance and merged with Musical.ly.
Known as the leading destination for short-form mobile video, it has over 1 billion users and is the most downloaded app worldwide.
ClubhousePaul Davison and Rohan Seth founded Clubhouse in 2023 as a social network for hosting voice chatrooms.
While it began as invitation only, it is now open to the public and available for Apple and Android users. As of February 2023, it had 10 million weekly active users.
Honorable MentionsUnfortunately, not all social networks found long-term success. In this section, you will find some notable names in social media history that came, made their mark and faded into the sunset.
Orkut Google+Another social product from Google, Google+, launched in 2011. Although it was integrated with Google’s other products, including YouTube, and boasted over 500 million “identity” users, it would eventually shut down in 2023.
VineIn 2012, Colin Kroll, Rus Yusupov, and Dominik Hofmann launched a unique social video network, Vine. It allowed users to share short, looping videos. Twitter acquired the platform in 2013 but ultimately shut it down in 2023.
PeriscopeLive-streaming video service Periscope launched in 2023 after being acquired by Twitter. Twitter ultimately incorporated live streaming into its network, shuttering Periscope as a standalone app in 2023.
More resources:
Featured Image: RoBird/Shutterstock
Segmentation Techniques For Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing gives new options for segmentation
Since the 1950s, when the practice of market segmentation began, it has been the cornerstone of any marketing strategy.
Accurately define your market segments and then the follow on activities of targeting and positioning are much more effective.
The answer has to be a resounding “No!”, but the way brands categorise consumers is changing.
Towards ‘socialgraphics’Therefore, the basic approach of demographic segmentation, and pigeonholing people into presumed and fixed characteristics, is less relevant today. Grouping people into segments solely by geography, age, gender, profession and income and assuming they’ll never change is not a great way to relate to your online audiences.
Therefore, consumer categorisation emphasis is moving towards the previously less popular technique of psychographic segmentation. Put simply, psychographics is about classifying people by their attitude and behaviour.
Using monitoring tools it’s possible to gain deep insight into users’ sentiments about a product or service, whether positive, negative or neutral. You can also track consumers’ interests, opinions and interests.
This form of social network psychographic segmentation is becoming known as socialgraphics.
Go where your segments meetUsing social networks, brands are able to locate their traditional market segments ‘hanging out’ online and engage with them. Self-segmenting groups form around areas of common interest, such as hobbies, sport, health, jobs etc. These are very fertile forums for brands to promote themselves to their exact target segments, conveniently congregating in one place.
These communities of interest are being intentionally fostered by social network platforms, who charge brands to participate in them; for example, Google+ Circles and LinkedIn Groups. But it’s often forgotten that there are scores of other online communities brands can and should join in with in the right way.
But social spaces are places where users go to be informed, educated, supported and entertained – not to be sold to. When brands enter social networks they are participating in people’s social spaces and must earn the right to be there.
‘Pull in’ your target market segmentsSome socially savvy organisations are using a strategy I have termed segmentation pull. This approach involves setting up your own hosted online community and ‘pulling’ in your market segments.
For example;
Britmums – Another good example of segmentation pull, Britmums host an online community of mothers, attracting a 3,000 strong blogger community. Each blogger averages 4,000 page views per month, creating an aggregated audience of 12 million. Mums are an ideal segment for many brands.
Nurture blogger influencersAbout 10% of social network users generate 90% of the content. These users are referred to as ‘Creators’ or ‘E-Influencers’ – in fact, they are typically active bloggers. These highly influential people could be classified as a new market segment.
Your brand will also have negative influencers, known as ‘detractors’ or ‘trolls’. These influencers will vehemently give brands a bad press and their words are contagious like no others.
There are many examples of ‘trolls’ damaging a brand’s reputation. So, treat these people with kid gloves; and make no corporate or official response to their posts.
Creators and detractors are arguably both new market segments, albeit ones that come and go.
But, then again, that’s how people behave and it’s this behaviour that marketers can now tap into.
Is ‘conversation marketing’ the panacea?One-to-one marketing is only really practical if you have a relatively small number of high-value customers. Yes, marketers need to and can influence their few influencers, but it is not practical to try to have individual online conversations with your whole customer base (as is preached by some self-professed social media gurus).
However, conversation marketing is still possible if you go back to the principles of customer segmentation.
You can have group conversations with communities of interest once you have found where they hang out or pulled them into your own online community.
In conclusionSegmentation strategies are here to stay and are, in fact, becoming increasingly important. So, ensure your social media marketing team is fully trained on this concept and work hand-in-hand with your customer insight or market segmentation teams.
With thanks to Permeative Blog and Vecindad Gráphica for use of the images.
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