Supporting Zoflora’s Heavyweight Campaign Launch
Zeus PR was thrilled to support our long-standing client Zoflora, the UK’s leading disinfectant brand in launching to the media ‘We’re All One Big Beautiful Home’, a heavy-weight, feel good campaign, which premiered on 30th May, airing with primetime 60 second slots across ITV, and commencing with a Britain’s Got Talent ad break.
The creative and strategy for this fully integrated, emotively-charged campaign, was developed and produced by Quiet Storm in response to insight showing the rise in the priority of home hygiene, as we strike to keep our environments safe for our loved ones.
Zeus PR has supported the integrated campaign with a hard-working media relations programme, as well as community outreach activity, supporting those groups adversely affected. To date, 22,564 bottles of Zoflora have been given to deserving groups and individuals, including NHS staff members, The Hygiene Bank and food banks.
Alongside everyday household cleaning, many have adopted curious new routines of disinfecting the things we touch regularly or bring into our homes from outside, such as keys, food packaging, door handles and light switches. The campaign celebrates our common cleaning habits and the sense of support, community and togetherness brought about by the recent pandemic. The creative also highlights some of the comedic everyday situations experienced when our homes quickly became a primary location for work, education and online socialising.
Sarah Fozzard, Head of Home Hygiene at Zoflora explains: “We are excited to showcase how Zoflora is helping to keep Britain protected, connected and uplifted as we all go through these unprecedented times. The nation is in love with cleaning, and Zoflora can offer users a hygienic and welcoming space for all of us, where we can feel safe and comfortable. This is Britain now, one big beautiful home at its best, pulling together and helping each other.
“We are keen to harness our brand equity and much-loved heritage to recognise and celebrate this coming together - for us all to feel proud of how we are protecting and inspiring each other, finding joy in the little things and each other’s company. We are also celebrating those that are keeping us going in this period, including healthcare workers, farmers, delivery drivers and our own production team in Huddersfield who have worked tirelessly to keep our products in good supply.”
Sarah continues “Using actual content supplied by real people in everyday homes and workplaces, we will show an authentic view into Britain today, demonstrating Zoflora’s important role in keeping homes protected and energised with our beautiful fragrances.”
Behavioural planning agency Total Media, brought the creative direction to life, using behavioural insight to reach Zoflora’s target audiences with TV, radio and publisher activity. By launching with longer length TVC and content led formats – handpicked for maximum impact - the agency will initially educate the audience, positioning Zoflora as a helpful and supportive brand that is there for customers during the current crisis.
Digital targeted the core audiences, reaching them at times when their mood is elevated via sentiment targeting, reinforcing the positive association with Zoflora at this time. Total Media is supporting Zoflora with programmatic activity to drive reach amongst audiences and beyond, imperative for driving awareness of the messaging, and will combine this with Spotify and Teads activity, enabling the brand to build on the frequency of TV and radio ads in contextually relevant and positive environments.
Brand communications agency, Mosquito launched Zoflora’s new web platform to coincide with the creative campaign launch. The site will provide the destination for viewers of the creative touchpoints to discover the beautifully fragrant world of Zoflora, whilst bringing e-commerce to Zoflora's web presence for the first time, enabling an omnichannel experience from activation to purchase.
Mosquito will also drive campaign messaging across the brand's effervescent social media channels and hugely successful influencer programme, to reach new audiences while continuing to build and engage Zoflora's loyal online community. Fans can expect record-breaking social content which will build on the theme of community connection, coupled with Zoflora's launch across new social channels, including TikTok.
With almost 100 years of home hygiene experience, Zoflora is the UK’s favourite disinfectant, keeping the family safe from harmful bacteria and viruses, whilst eliminating odours and bringing beautiful, long lasting fragrance to homes.
Zoflora has an extremely loyal customer following with over 4 million households buying the brand. It is available in 3 pack sizes and comes over 20 fragrance varieties, including popular seasonal limited editions.
The iconic brand has been on a growth trajectory for over a decade, driven by exciting fragrance launches and engaging consumer campaigns. The latest industry figures from Kantar Worldpanel*, reveals it has achieved 50.8% market share by value, and growth of 24% vs last year - consolidating its position as the UK’s number one liquid disinfectant brand* with growth continuing to soar.
Independent retailer data** shows that not only is Zoflora growing exponentially, it is also the main driver of growth within the antiseptic and disinfectant category (+60%**) and a significant footfall driver, with the brand gaining considerably younger shoppers than the category average, as well as attracting shoppers from more affluent categories.
Visit Zoflora.co.uk for further details on the product and brand history.
References
* Source: Kantar Worldpanel 52 22/03/2020
** Zoflora Customer data 2018
What a Year! Our 2019 Key Highlights…
Well, another year has flown by extremely quickly here at Planet Zeus – a whirlwind of product launches, events, news placement and digital content provision with busy schedules of social campaign planning and influencer outreach.
Here is a flavour of what we have been up to…
We absolutely love shouting about our client’s latest products and services from food & drink and cleaning products to wellness brands, luxury high-end interiors, fashion companies and online travel agencies, and have relished in the national media response we achieved for each and every one.
We started off the year with a majorly successful press and influencer launch with Englana, and their brand ambassador and former supermodel Jodie Kidd at The Ivy in Soho.
For Horlicks, we ran highly successful campaigns launching their New, Improved Horlicks Chocolate, and Horlicks Pods – Original and Chocolate, simply delicious and full of malty goodness that always go down a treat at Team Zeus!
And for Drink me Chai, we loved spreading the word of how you can create indulgent, barista-style beverages at home with the introduction of Drink me Chai’s deliciously aromatic, Spiced Chai Latte and Superblends. Again, the national newspapers, lifestyle mags and lovely high netting influencers loved receiving their samples and were all extremely complimentary in their product reviews.
Building on our travel PR portfolio, we have had major success for our client Teletext Holidays for whom we generated a whopping 229 items of national print and digital media coverage, with an impressive combined campaign reach of 141,130,642 - including 119 write ups in the two largest circulation tabloids The Sun /Sun on Sunday / Daily Mirror / Sunday Mirror.
And for our home and interiors clients; high-end home fragrance brand - madebyzen, premium German glazing manufacturer – Weru UK, and luxury bathroom and tile specialist - Real Stone & Tile, we amassed significant national lifestyle magazine, national newspaper and trade media coverage week in week out.
We also were thrilled to be appointed by two health and wellbeing brands. We are now the retained PR agency for iconic lubricant brand KY Jelly, for which we have been very busy working closely with the wider team, to generate significant exposure across the back end of 2019 and beyond into 2020. After supporting the brand previously, Zeus has also been reappointed by pioneering JL Aesthetics and have since secured press interest for their latest developments.
The year also saw the agency become the PR partner of the prestigious Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards. The glittering occasion took place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole back in October and was an extraordinary celebration of female achievement.
Not to forget our very important education clients – leading colleges and schools located across the UK, for whom we very much enjoyed sharing news in 2019 of their very frequent successes. Big shout outs to DLD College London, Abbey College Manchester, Beech Hall School, Falcon’s School for Girls, Falcon’s Prep School for Boys and Portland Place School.
Zeus PR Award Winning For Zoflora
It was a big night for team Zeus at the Drum Marketing Awards last week, as we celebrated with our partner agencies Mosquito Digital and Network Design, after our client Zoflora was highly-commended as ‘Emerging Brand of the Year’!
Following a successful collaborative approach, Zoflora was recognised for its significant growth and strong brand presence. The iconic household brand has energised and empowered consumers, bringing younger users in and developing a new trend for cleaning.
Zoflora has consolidated its position as the UK’s number one liquid disinfectant brand, benefitting from a very substantial 22% like for like annual growth! The national brand we all know and love now commands 41% marketing share of both sales and volume of the growing £40.6m UK liquid disinfectant market.
A key PR highlight contributing towards the much-coveted acknowledgement was Zoflora’s inaugural presence at Crufts 2018. To generate press interest from the national media and to maximise Zoflora’s exposure, the Zeus team enlisted ex-EastEnders actress Jacqueline Jossa to attend the stand on press day. Through managing a high-impact press photocall and instigating a hardworking media relations campaign, impressive coverage was achieved with a total combined print and digital media reach of 104,992,211. The press campaign featured in eight national publications including the Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Mirror, with the brand’s key messages achieving significant reach into a wider audience.
We also enlisted Jacqueline to share her Zoflora experience on her social media feeds, including a video to her Instagram followers which featured in the national press.
During the high-profile Drum Marketing Awards ceremony, Zoflora was additionally recognised as a finalist in the category ‘FMCG Brand of the Year’.
Throughout the four years working with Zoflora we have celebrated numerous successes and achievements, supporting the brand with a hardworking PR campaign delivering significant exposure and consumer engagement.
Visit our news page to read more about our recent exciting projects with Zoflora!
How to Make the Most Out of your Business Instagram Account
In today’s modern society, social media has become a prominent part of everyday life. In 2018 the average user was said to have spent 45 minutes a day checking their social media feeds! Because of this, it’s essential that business owners are utilising social media sites, and all their available functions to promote their products or services. Instagram was once called the top platform for engagement by Forbes, and the site now has over one billion monthly active users, so now is definitely the time to log back into your account and get to grip with the site’s full potential!
In this guide we will focus on four key areas, providing you with top tips to ensure you are making the most out your business account.
Posts
It may seem like an obvious one but regular, consistent posts are key to keeping your followers interested and engaged. Everyone creates their own routine, whether that’s posting content every day, every other day or even once a week its completely down to you. However, it's important to stick to this routine once you’ve found it, this enables your followers to know what to expect and when to expect it.
Another way of relaying a reliable, consistent impression could be to maintain a theme within the content you post. Not only does this make your feed look aesthetically pleasing, but it also creates a sense of professionalism as it shows thought is behind each post. One way of sustaining a particular theme could be to ensure your posts feature certain colours or shades, or even simply sticking to the same edit style.
Hashtags
In this guide, we believe hashtags deserve their own heading, as they play a crucial role in driving traffic to your posts. By ensuring that relevant hashtags are included in all uploaded posts, those searching the hashtags will be able to access your feed. This can prove beneficial as those searching your chosen hashtags usually have similar feeds and interests and therefore are more likely to be suited to your business and eager to engage.
Instagram Stories
Launched in August 2016, Instagram Stories are a useful way of keeping your followers up to date on any news or work you may be doing. They provide users with the ability to share content that they may not want to permanently appear on their feed. An Instagram story can be up to fifteen seconds long, an image, a video or even a boomerang. Instagram Stories allow for a brief snapshot into life behind the scenes, this could give followers the impression that they are partly involved in the business, allowing a loyal fan base to form. This involvement can be enhanced with functions such as the ‘Poll’ tool or the ‘Ask Me a Question’ feature, where users are given the chance to have a say and to share their own opinions. The site also provides you with the option to save your stories onto your feed through the Highlight Reel, allowing users to reflect back on certain posts. These posts can then be organised into themed groups, for example, all Q&A related stories can be placed together, allowing your content to appear accessible for all.
Insights
Last but not least, when owning a business Instagram account, you are able to access the ‘Insights’, the analytical tools that allow you to monitor, and reflect upon your own statistics. For instance, you are able to check how many people a post is reaching, how many visits your profile is receiving, what days your followers are most active, as well as information about the demographic of your followers. These insights prove useful as you are able to adapt your content and schedule to reflect and suit the needs of your followers according to the data. For example, you may be inclined to change the days you are posting content, or adapt the language used to be more age appropriate. Consequently, this function allows you to become more aware of the reach and the potential reach of your content, enabling a more pro-active approach to hitting new levels of engagement.
In summary, here are some of the benefits that may occur when your Instagram account is used to its full potential…
- You are able to raise the awareness of your business, as information on the products or services you provide will be made available to a higher number of consumers.
- You become viewed as a reputable brand, as you are easy to contact and frequently posting content.
- The way you use your account will directly suit the needs of your target market, encouraging them to join your loyal fan base.
Zeus Goes Back to School
The Zeus PR team have had a busy few months out and about with our education clients, supporting their events and capturing those all-important press shots. We love being in the right place at the right time to gather the information and material we need to propel our client’s message into the limelight. Melissa, our account executive, recently attended the Abbey College Manchester awards ceremony at the prestigious Raddisson Blu Edwardian in central Manchester to assist with photography for the event, speak with attendees and collate information for the media. It’s not only big events that we assist or clients with, we regularly visit the schools to capture a range of different activities. Our account manager has been enjoying her time at Beech Hall School photographing their events such as Wellbeing Day, Musical Soiree and also Grandparents’ Day.
Always on hand to snap up photo opportunities, the Zeus team know what it takes to capture a great press shot. We’ve shared our top-tips below:
- Ensure the photo is relevant to the story and include any appropriate props. For
example, if a group of pupils have won an award capture an image of them holding a
trophy/certificate, rather than staff members.
- For group shots in particular, composition is key. Spacing and direction are equally
as important, get the group to be equally spaced and close together. ‘Get that close
you’re uncomfortable’ is a phrase we are often heard shouting.
- A cluttered background is a cluttered photo. Are there people walking around or
standing in the background? Are there any unsightly signs or displays? Does it look
messy? The people in the shot should be the focus of the image and not
overpowered by whatever is going on behind them.
- A lovely bright shot is more appealing to the press than one taken in a dark room.
Try to capture imagery outdoors or in rooms with lots of natural light.
- We’re not suggesting that you hold up huge signs advertising your business, product
or service, but some subtle advertising can work well. Small touches such as
wearing a branded uniform can discreetly raise awareness of the brand.
- It’s important that your photo is of a high quality. It might seem obvious but ensure
that the camera is held straight and still, and then remember to share the image in its
original file size.
If you would like to generate awareness of your school or college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch! We would love to hear from you.
Growing your Web Traffic with Digital PR
Many of our clients, especially the smaller, ambitious brands we work with, are increasingly turning to digital PR as a means of improving their Google ranking.
Quite simply put - Google loves organic high-quality backlinks from authentic and highly credible websites and online publications. This is great news for companies that don't have an endless budget for Google Adwords.
With the rapid growth of digital publications, and online influencers (bloggers), there are a multitude of high netting channels to target in your quest for ranking more highly than your competitors, and a whole host of ways you can achieve a presence on their sites.
Here are some examples of how we help clients secure valuable placement, and hence backlinks from the digital media sites and influencers:-
- Produce concise and well written news releases for issue to the relevant digital media - carefully crafted and written for the target demographic in mind. Business, lifestyle or special interest.... These are then sent with strong imagery to the editors or influencers
- Promotions - offering 'the chance to win' for a subscriber, or special offers with a backlink to your site for further information (or even better create a special landing page on your website for the specific promotion). Or set up a special voucher code
- Offer key bloggers an opportunity to review for free your product or service, in return for a write up and a link to your website
- Run a press event or blogger event - allowing for some 'theatre' that promotes an aspect of your business for attendees to film - we recently held an event for Turtle Wax, allowing attendees to get their cars very mucky on a Landrover off-road experience, which made for great filming opportunities!
- If you have an expertise in an area, whether an accountant's firm, car repair business, upholstering or veterinary practice, offer a complimentary advice feature in the form of a feature in return for a brand reference and link back to your website
- Enlist the support of a high profile celebrity, who has a huge social media following, to support your brand presence at an event, product launch or a corporate event.
We are always excited to speak to brands about how we can support their Google optimisation - please feel free to get in touch if you would like to arrange a meeting!
PR Terms you Need to Know
Are you embarking on a new career in public relations?
It is a busy, exciting and constantly evolving environment, so it’s important to keep up to date with new phrases and key terms that you will hear around the office.
Understanding these terms is the first step to building your confidence as you attend interviews, or start your new role.
Key PR terms:
Advertorial – Copy that has been paid for its insertion, usually with images.
Boilerplate – A short description of the company at the end of a press release, it is there to describe the ‘who’ and ‘what’ within release
Byline – A byline credits the author of the feature as their name gets published, usually with the date under the title of the article that they or their PR agency has written on their behalf
B2B – This means business to business, where clients use PR to communicate with tools that focus on reaching business audiences via trade magazines, business news pages, business related exhibitions, business digital networks such as LinkedIn, corporate networking groups, etc
B2C – This means business to consumer, where clients raise awareness of their product or services via consumer channels such as national newspapers, lifestyle magazines (or special interest media if you are targeting a very specific demographic), broadcast channels, consumer exhibitions, or the popular social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc
Copy – The words that make up a feature or a news story
Editorial – Copy that generally is placed by the print or digital title free of charge as it offers something of value to its readership, so its deemed good news and feature content (the backbone of most PR agencies)
Exclusive – An item of news that is given to one publication before any other. It cannot be shared with other publications until it has been published by the first media outlet. ‘Exclusives’ can often be associated with celebrity news
Embargo – An embargo is a request that the information provided cannot be published until a specific date and time, due to the sensitive nature of the story. Of course some publications have been known to break an embargo in the past - so if a piece of news is highly sensitive, its always best to consider if this is the best route, or are you best releasing the news when its safe to do so
Forward Features – Forward feature lists are a schedule of topics that a publication will cover throughout the year. Knowing this information gives you a head start; you can inform a magazine editor about a story or client which is relevant to their upcoming articles
Long Leads / Short Leads – Publications are often categorised as to whether they are 'long lead' or 'short lead'. This refers to how far in advance they work - so Long Lead publications such as monthly magazines can typically work 4-6 months in advance, where as with the the weekly magazines 5-8 weeks is more the norm.
Owned Media – Content created by your client or their PR agency, this includes company blogs, company website and social media posts
Photocall – A photo opportunity styled to attract press interest at a specific venue, time and date. Issued in advance to news and photodesks with further information on what is being publicised
Page proof – This is the edited version of how the piece will appear. If you are running a magazine promotion for instance your would normally expect to see a page proof once it has been laid out by the editorial team. This allows you to make any changes prior to the publication going to to print or being published online
Press Cuttings – Media coverage that has been placed by PR professionals – this can be across a wide variety of publications, from local to national publications
Press Pack – A pack which includes press releases, photos, videos and fact sheets about a client, service or product, these are often sent out by PR professionals to journalists at events and exhibitions or before a product launches
Press Release – This is a news story distributed to a range of media, which can include anything from the announcement of a new product on the market to a record-breaking company turnover
Trade Media or 'Verticals' – This relates to the sector press in any given industry so the food industry for example have their own set of business related print and digital press - such as The Grocer, Grocery Trader, etc
This is just the beginning of the many key terms used by PR professionals every day, and it will help you understand the inner workings of the industry.
Top-Tips for Securing Strong Education Coverage
Carefully targeted education PR and marketing can greatly help to raise awareness, driving pupil recruitment in an ever-competitive market place. With many state schools producing results equally as good as independent schools, the choice of education provider between private and state is no longer as black and white. Similarly, the competition is heating up between state schools, offering parents increased choice. It now all comes down to who shouts the loudest.
Promoting a school or colleges key achievements whilst relaying the core values, is an integral part of the media relations work that we do. It is these USPs that we build into campaigns to generate engagement across a number of platforms including local press, glossy lifestyle magazines, blogs, social media and broadcast. Whether you want to strengthen your reputation, demonstrate your expertise or expand into a new market, it can come at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising.
We have put together some top-tips for securing strong editorial coverage in the education sector.
Think about your Story
The press receives an influx of varying new pieces on a daily basis, with any one journalist receiving up to 1,00 emails a day so, it’s always important to make your story stand out. Focusing on unique initiatives and achievements works well, but these do not always come about so, when they don’t write about key events throughout the year. Whilst your small bake-sale may not be a top-priority for the weekly newspaper, tagging the story onto topical events such as Mother’s Day or Christmas can be successful.
Focus on key education topics too, other schools and colleges will be shouting about their GCSE or A-Level results and World Book Day costumes so ensure that you’re included in the media round-ups.
Personalised Press Targeting
When issuing a press release personalisation is key – address the journalist directly, build a working relationship with them.
Think about the publication which you are sending the press release to. It’s key to consider editorial lead times - if you’re issuing a Father’s Day fundraising story to a glossy, local lifestyle magazine that you know has quarterly issues, perhaps suggest to the editor that the story may be more suited to feature online.
Branching Out
Supporting schools around the country we know just how easy it is to travel and so, parents and pupils will do this for a quality education too.
We always recommend to our education clients to extend out of their target catchment area with localised press releases. If you are hosting an art competition or talent show don’t just shout about it in the school’s local press and national education titles, extend your reach to a new area and tell the winning pupils local press too.
Safeguarding
The welfare and safety of children in schools is paramount and understandably, parents may not want their children’s name, age or address featured in the press. An easy way to overcome any safeguarding issues is to use images with more than six pupils in the shot, this way the journalists will not need to name each individual child.
Additional Coverage
We like to get our clients talking! When it comes to current events such as result’s day and exam season, contact local TV and radio stations offering expert opinion on revision tips and next steps. These ideas can also be put forward for thought leadership pieces in national education publications.
If you need any help raising awareness of your school and college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch!
Maximising your Social Media Strategy
Social media is probably the most important tool in the modern era to grow your business and expand your reach. According to Pew Research Centre, with a global population of over 7 billion people, there are 3.03 billion active social media users. With the click of a button, you can instantly interact with thousands or even millions of people worldwide on behalf of your business.
Let’s consider 5 key ways in which social media can maximise your business.
Influencer marketing to help public relations
One particular way to enhance your company’s PR is to integrate influencer marketing. This is definitely one of the most influential tools a business can use when their main aim is to sell their product or service to the consumer.
Influencers can be anyone from a celebrity with a high amount of social media followers, a person who has a lot of sway in your particular industry or anyone relevant with a substantial number of followers that can capture the consumer’s imagination.
Small to averagely sized influencers, in terms of following and status will commonly accept the product or service free of charge, in exchange for an honest and hopefully positive review. Smaller sized influencers can potentially be more resourceful to use than a massive celebrity personality, as they can be quite enthusiastic and driven to also make a name for themselves in partnership with a brand.
However, particularly with emerging and established celebrities they will look to charge companies to post on their personal social media feeds. This can be quite a difficult option for a brand starting out with limited funding; however, for already largely recognised brands it can often benefit their company’s perceived status dependant on the reputation of the particular celebrity and their relevance to the target audience.
If your company can make a coup of an influencer, it can really kick-start a following on social media and be used to add fuel to the tank of your business’ journey.
There has however been some controversy about paid endorsements of social media tweets. An example most recently was when a hit soap banned their star actors from posting any type of endorsement from businesses.
Therefore, some key public figures may be off limits due to more commitments or sanctions, so it is important for a business to find the right name to align with. A common theme amongst celebrities is that they will be asked by a commission regulations board to Hashtag #spon for sponsor or #promo for promotion. In the age of the savvy consumer, this does not necessarily have the desired effects, as tweets look staged and manufactured just for a paid promotion, limiting the authenticity of the post.
Consumer protection company Trust In Advertising INC recently sent celebrity Kylie Jenner a legal letter, threatening to report the icon to the US Federal Trade Commission about “deceptive marketing techniques’’, after the star had discretely placed products on show in her pictures. Truth In Advertising told Jenner that any marketing posts must be marked with #spon or #promo.
Be sure to have social media incorporated into your press releases
This is probably one of the most simple but effective methods for increasing your brand’s reach to the consumer. Are you a business that publishes a standard press release and waits for the media to make contact? When delivering news or making a statement via a press release on the company’s website, it is a necessity to have your social media linked in so that the press release can be shared and distributed by media outlets and users. Even better, using social media itself to publish press releases is a great way to make sure your posts can be shared immediately by the masses.
Responding to negative press
Social media is a breeding ground for the consumer to voice their opinions, both good and bad. When a consumer or stakeholder has a complaint about your business on social media, it is within your best interest to respond to the issue and try to resolve any problems before they escalate. Sometimes a user may not directly mention your business profile to voice their concern, so it would be beneficial to have a member of the team using the search tool on each particular social media platform to vet and respond to all negative press.
In order to keep the negative publicised messages about your business to a minimum, it would be highly recommended to ask the user with the problem to send you a direct message, in order to resolve the matter discreetly, and most importantly, ‘offline’. This would hopefully stop more than one negative message being posted in the public eye at once.
Use social media campaigns to increase brand awareness
A social media campaign can gain you massive recognition if you target a vast enough market. If we look at an example from charity ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Research who started the #IceBucketChallenge campaign. In order to increase awareness of the disease and raise money, people would throw a bucket of ice-cold water over themselves and then donate to the cause. With celebrities like Justin Bieber participating, the campaign was a massive success and raised over $100m dollars, as well as receiving 1.3 million mentions on social media in just 24 hours after Bieber completed the challenge. With the right campaign and target audience, the outcome can be phenomenal.
Interact with journalists on social media
Journalists have great power and a massive say in how a business is perceived in the public eye. By interacting and keeping journalists on your side will, in turn, allow your business to thrive. Journalists have the authority to publish both good and bad stories on your brand, so it is essential to open up honest dialogue with the media. If any social media posts created by your brand are relevant to a news outlet or journalist, you should tag their profile handle, so they can retweet or share the post with their followers. A key tip when building an online relationship with the press would be to keep the conversation genuine, informal and not robotic-like. It is essential to go above and beyond your professional side when trying to form strong humane bonds with the media. By making positive relations with the press can only benefit how your business is viewed upon.
Good luck and get social!
Social Media Evolvement: What Will 2018 Bring?
As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to start looking forward to 2018 and how social media will continue to evolve.
Social media is a fast-moving platform, that is ever changing and developing. Just this year, Twitter doubled its 140-character limit to 280, whilst Facebook created the ability to upload stories to your profile.
With some of the most popular social media channels making significant changes to their platforms, what else can we expect from 2018?
Video
Even though it has been around for a while, video content on Facebook and Twitter continues to rise in popularity. One element that is expected in 2018 is the use of subtitles, which will encourage users to watch anytime, anywhere, even in a public place. It is important to develop video content which can be viewed this way to engage a wider audience.
Short-Lived Content
In today’s society, time is short and speed is key when trying to get messages across using social media. This year, we have seen Facebook and Instagram following in Snapchats footsteps and introduced video stories which allow short video clips to be viewed for a limited period of time.
Instagram stories are popular amongst young people and will continue to increase in popularity in 2018 as other audiences start using the social media site. This means if you want to start connecting with Instagram users, your brand must invest time in creating stories.
Influencer Marketing
Using social media influencers is big business and it has exploded in recent years and looks like it will continue in 2018. However, the key trend for next year will be moving towards authenticity, rather than working with the ‘biggest’ influencers or celebrities. It will be far more beneficial working with influencers that want to endorse your product than someone with a larger following who has no interest. This is because the audience can distinguish when a celebrity is being genuine with the product.
Rethinking Twitter
Twitter has failed to grow followers significantly this year, with Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn acquiring more year on year. Twitter is the slowest of all the major platforms, despite making key changes such as increasing its character limit. In 2018, Twitter needs to make big changes to stay relevant and interesting to users.
Following these social media trends will ensure audience engagement with your brand.
We look forward to seeing any new editions to the social media world for the new year. If you need any help with your business’ social media pages, just get in touch!