Webinar:
Tap into the success of social media as a business

Welcome and who So Buzzy are

I am Julie Fluyt, social media manager at So Buzzy, and this session is about tapping into the success of social media as a business.

So Buzzy is a marketing agency focused on social media, and our goal since 2013 has been to make companies stronger in and on social media. The team is eleven people plus two office dogs. Everyone has their own specialism, and together it works.

Our services cover social media marketing and management, influencer and ambassador marketing, online and social advertising, workshops and coaching, and community management. My own role sits mostly on the organic side, helping clients get stronger on their channels, with advertising colleagues covering the paid side so we can build the best of both worlds.

Clients include KBC, KBC Brussels, SOS Kinderdorpen and Carrefour, among others.

The evolution of social media

It is obvious in hindsight how different life looked before smartphones. Go to a concert now and we hold up a phone where we used to hold up a lighter. The phone took that job over.

And it did not stop at being a lighter. Listening to music, taking good photographs, looking something up: all of it now happens on one device.

Sometimes it goes a bit far. Every Monday my iPhone tells me how many hours I spent on it that week, and the number is occasionally more than I would like. Though as I always say, it is part of the job.

Belgian digital headlines

The most important figure from the 2022 Belgian digital data is that 82% of the Belgian population is an active social media user. Social and online media are genuinely part of life now, and a world without them is hard to picture.

Usage keeps climbing too. On average we spend five hours and forty-five minutes a day on the internet on our phones, which is a considerable share of waking life.

Which platforms people actually use

Asked which platforms they used most, attendees named Instagram, which matches the general pattern. For me personally it is Instagram and TikTok, and TikTok keeps growing.

But the Belgian data tells a slightly different story from the impression most people have. Many assume Facebook is past its peak. In fact Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp sit at the top of the most-used platforms in Belgium.

The number of active social media users also rose 10.7% year on year. That is not surprising given COVID: we wanted to see family and colleagues one way or another, and the way available was online. The continued growth is largely a consequence of that period.

The attention squeeze

Here is the structural problem with all this growth. Over time people add more friends and follow more pages, so there is continuously more content. But the amount of time available stays the same.

We cannot keep increasing the hours we spend scrolling, or at least we should not. Which means competition for the same finite attention keeps intensifying.

Is organic content still worth it?

Businesses often ask whether organic content is still a thing, or whether they should bother.

It is genuinely harder for pages to generate organic reach now. If I post something on my personal profile it will typically reach more people than the same post from a company page. That is deliberate on the platforms' part: they want companies to invest in paid social, because that is how they make money.

So some brands have shifted heavily into paid campaigns and started neglecting organic altogether. We still believe a combination of organic and paid is necessary, and that it is the way to get the best of both.

What each one is actually good for

Organic is what gives someone an overview. If I visit a company's Facebook page, the organic content tells me what services and products they offer and what I can expect from them as a customer. So organic works for brand awareness, for customer service, because if I have a question about a product I want to message the brand and be helped, and for building relationships.

Paid reaches a larger audience and targets the ideal customer. If a product is genuinely only relevant to women, you can exclude men so they do not receive something irrelevant. Advertising is also what drives leads and conversions.

Together, the combination lets you acquire new customers and followers, promote qualitative and relevant content, and research your target audience.

Trend 1, focus on your employees

Involving employees in your social media strategy keeps them engaged at work and extends your social reach.

The mechanic is straightforward. When So Buzzy runs a workshop and posts about it, I can share that post on my own profile, which reaches more people than the company profile can on its own.

Kate at KBC is an interesting variation. Kate is KBC's digital assistant, and she has her own LinkedIn profile. Customers can contact her with questions, and she interacts with KBC employees too, congratulating someone on a work anniversary for example. It is a genuinely engaging, interactive profile, and it goes well beyond a standard corporate account.

Employee notifications on LinkedIn. When your company page posts something, you can activate employee notifications so staff are actually told about it, which makes interacting or resharing to their own profile easy. Tools like Ambassify, which we use at So Buzzy, are very handy for keeping employees informed about what is happening in the company, including social updates they can share.

LinkedIn's employee-only experience. This newer feature lets you feature popular content from your own employees on the company LinkedIn page. It is an easy way to highlight what colleagues are posting, and it reads as more credible and authentic than company-authored content. A quick win worth switching on.

Trend 2, Instagram loves Reels

Reels are snackable and appealing. One short video can carry an entire message, and beyond being enjoyable to watch, Reels get priority in the Instagram algorithm. So using them is strategic as well as fun.

Traditional feed posts now perform considerably worse than they used to. Carousel posts, where you put several visuals in one post, still score well. But Reels get the highest engagement by a clear margin, so it is worth shifting more of your Instagram output to them and watching what happens.

Two practical notes. Later.com publishes the latest Reel trends and updates weekly, which is a good source of inspiration. And Instagram's Reel templates make it much easier to start if you are not sure how, since you can work within an existing structure and still get a strong result.

Trend 3, use of humour

A post with good humour has far more stopping power than a straightforward one, so it is worth experimenting with.

The caveat is your brand. Ask what kind of humour actually fits you, because it does not work for everyone. But where it fits, it is often worth taking the plunge.

Trend 4, keeping up with the community

Communities generate a sense of belonging and connection built on shared interests, goals and attitudes. The metric that matters here is engagement.

Three things make a community work:

A clear focus. Concentrate on your niche and on what your target audience actually wants to see. Ask who they are and what content they expect from you.

Managing expectations. Make it clear what people can expect on each channel, so they know what they get from you on Instagram versus Facebook. That means a distinct focus per channel.

Sparking conversations. Make it interactive and ask people questions. And critically, do something with the input you get back rather than just collecting it.

Trend 5, trends

Trends, particularly on TikTok, can be genuinely useful. People actively seek out trending content, so joining a trend is an efficient way to reach a wider audience. When the Little Mermaid trend was running, you could see brands hopping on it and finding original angles.

But a trend existing is not a reason to post about it. It has to fit your brand. Commenting on the Little Mermaid trend with no relevant link to what you do just looks random.

Trend 6, contextual campaigns

This one is on the advertising side. We all see a lot of ads on social, and plenty of them are not relevant to us, which is mostly just irritating.

Contextual campaigns make ads more personal by adapting automatically to weather, time and location. The ad changes with conditions, so it might be raining in Brussels while the sun is out in Antwerp, and the same product gets different copy in each place.

The point is a more appealing ad with a stronger call to action, which drives traffic that actually makes sense for your page.

Trend 7, niche micro-celebrities

The term is nimcel, for niche internet micro-celebrity, and it describes niche influencers: small but often highly dedicated audiences, representing a growing variant of the attention economy.

The example we used is a young man who is genuinely popular with a small audience because he covers pigeon racing on his own YouTube channel. Not a general-interest topic, but for the people who care about it, he matters a great deal.

What makes niche influencers effective:

• They post because they enjoy it, not primarily to earn money, which is often the case with macro influencers.
• They are more approachable and read as more authentic, because the passion is real and they want to share their experience.
• They are a strong option for brands targeting a specific audience.
• They choose collaborations thoughtfully rather than accepting every partnership offered.

Trend 8, social commerce

Social commerce is widely described as the future of online retail. Since COVID, consumers discover, purchase and find support on social media.

Our example is a TikTok live from a makeup brand launching a new collection. They test every product live, explaining what makes the collection distinctive, so viewers see how it actually works. Because people can ask questions in the comments and get answered, it becomes interactive and feels like a personalised customer experience. Viewers feel involved in the process.

One figure makes the scale clear: in 2021 the number of people who purchased products during a livestream event rose 76% globally.

Trend 9, is TikTok the new Google?

We all default to Google, but the behaviour is shifting. On a city trip to Lisbon this summer I wanted good brunch spots, so I searched "brunch places in Lisbon" on TikTok and got any number of top five and top ten videos. It is visually appealing, and you immediately see what the food looks like and whether the place feels welcoming.

The underlying reason is that today's consumers want to hear about genuine experiences from people like them. When I search that way, the useful video is not necessarily from a well-known TikToker. It might be a colleague saying a place is good, which makes it more authentic.

This is crucial for younger audiences. We believe people over companies, and the highly visual nature of the content appeals particularly to Generation Z.

Trend 10, augmented reality

AR offers people a more interactive, out-of-the-box experience.

The mechanic is social by nature. If I see a colleague using a good AR filter, I get curious and want to try it, which is why filters build brand awareness so effectively: people see them in friends' stories and want their own turn.

More companies are recognising the value of building their own filter, and the good ones go beyond simply seeing or trying on a product. The focus should be on creating a genuinely unique experience.

KLM is the example worth looking up. Their filter lets you type in your destination and then shows you what that destination looks like, wrapped in an aeroplane experience, complete with gates and cabin crew showing you around. It is considerably more imaginative than most brand filters. Search for KLM's "Try Before You Fly" AR filter to see it.

Closing

That covers the ten trends. If a question occurs to you later, get in touch and we will happily answer it.