Throughout the many fantastic presentations at DMX Dublin, there was a recurring theme that was cropping up time and time again. Whilst it is one thing to pour your heart and soul into creating some truly stunning content, your efforts can count for little if nobody sees it.
Everybody needs that little bit of luck. Unfortunately, luck doesn't just fall into your lap. If you want your content to be seen, be shared and be successful, you need to stack the odds in your favour and make your own luck.
And as we found out at the DMX conference, the rules are the same for brands big and small - from relatively young fashion retailers through to worldwide energy drinks brands. When you stack the odds in your favour, you reap the rewards.
Make it easy for people to engage.
If you want people to engage with your brand, you have to make it easy for them to do so.
Red Bull learnt this as part of their ‘Flugtag’ events (an event that we’re particularly fond of here at Stickyeyes). These are huge events, attracting tens of thousands of people, but there were significant challenges for Red Bull to overcoming in ensuring that these events received the social buzz that they deserve.
Organisers found that internet connectivity was a big problem at many of these events. The Flugtag typically takes place in park venues and, with more than 80,000 crammed into the event, mobile data signals tend to be patchy at best - as anyone who has tried to call their parents at a festival will understand. As a result, visitors found it difficult to share their experiences of the event through social media.
The brand overcame this challenge by ensuring that WiFi was available throughout the venue. Whilst enabling a huge outdoor venue with internet connectivity is not a necessarily easy task, for Red Bull it is a worthwhile investment.
Red Bull also found that signposting people to their social media channels was absolutely crucial, and thought in some considerable detail about the times that people tend to look at their phones during big events. Typically, these were during breaks in the event and in queues. With that in mind, Red Bull strategically placed the event hashtag at toilet queues and other places where crowds are likely to get bored and look to their phones. The result was a huge increase in engagement with the official event hashtag.
Remind them to share.
Subtle nods towards your social channels can have huge impacts on social engagement, and Funky Christmas Jumpers had some clever ways to ensure that their customers shared their experiences of the company and of its products.
When customers receive a jumper, they find a swing tag on the inside with a hashtag. When they cut the tag, they have a hard, visual reminder to take a snap of their jumper and share it online. For a retailer in a highly visual fashion sector, this proved to be incredibly powerful.
It's subtle, it's cheap and it's immensely effective - this is 'making your own luck' in action.
Don’t be afraid of paid.
There is a common fear in SMM (social media marketing) that if engagement isn't "earned" organically, a campaign has failed. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, paid media is a huge tool in your armoury.
To get great content seen, you have to put it in front of the right people. Whether you do this by incentivising social media influences, such as influential YouTube vloggers or though paid social ads is largely irrelevant. They are both ways of increasing your message's reach and improving your chances of getting lucky.
If you missed Heather’s presentation at DMX Digital, you can recap the slides here. Alternatively, to talk to us about our social media approach, please get in touch.
