We know that amidst the mass of social media activity across multiple channels, it can be hard for brands to diagnose what works for their business on social media and what doesn't.
Luckily our recent study into the role of social media in driving business growth sheds some light on this topic. Here we delve into our findings into the types of social media content brands should be sharing to grow their presence and ultimately impact their bottom line.
Our study identified five distinct categories of content that brands post. They are:
Brand narrative
Posts that reflect your organisation’s personality, without fitting into any of the other categories.
Competition
Posts that require engagement, such as liking, commenting, tagging and/or sharing the post, to go into the draw to win a prize.
Corporate SocialResponsibility/Sponsorship
If your business directly sponsors an event, group of people and/or individuals, it fall into this category. CSR posts include educational or awareness posts around social issues that may affect the wider community, such as Daffodil Day, Pink Shirt Day etc.
Cultural
Posts that reference a cultural moment (for example, Maori Language Week, Mother’s Day and Diwali), or that tap into a cultural trend.
Product
Promotional posts advertising your products and services, or promoting your business.
The short answer is Cultural Moments.
Our study has found that Cultural posts generate 7 times more engagement than other types of content. This is important because the higher the level of engagement with a brand's content, the more ROI the brand will see on their social media spend – for more on this, see our article on reach vs. engagement.
Cultural Moments also see a higher shares-to-like ratio versus other types of content, and they also receive more positive sentiment compared to other types of content.
There's a couple of things that brands can be doing in order to improve the performance of their social media activity and ultimately benefit their ROI and bottom line.
Firstly, focus on sharing a range of content covering all five of our content categories in order to achieve reach and speak to different audiences. Secondly, find the optimal post volume for your business that maximises engagement (we recommend 8 to 12 posts per week).
Then it's about finding the intersection between cultural relevance and your business on social media. Are there cultural trends relevant to your category that your business can tap into? Are there global or national cultural moments that your business can play a meaningful part in? Unlocking these opportunities will ensure your organisation stays relevant in your customer's lives.
In Australia, a big cultural event of 2022 was the elections. Zero Co, a company championing the circular economy and reducing single-use plastic, ran an epic social media campaign to proclaim that your #1 vote should be for the planet. Through this messaging, they made their audience feel like part of something bigger, and reinforced the importance of bonding together to protect the earth above all.
In New Zealand, Air New Zealand excels at creating cultural moments on their Facebook page. In July 2022, they celebrated the Māori new year, Matariki, with a series of posts featuring a waka (Māori canoe) floating amongst the stars. For Christmas 2021, they ran a campaign called A Magical Delivery, which features Santa Claus unable to deliver Christmas presents across New Zealand so he calls on his trusty Air New Zealand friends to ensure Aotearoa gets the Christmas it deserves – with a pinch of magic.
1. Zavy have identified 5 categories of social media content
2. Cultural Moments content was found to generate 7 times more engagement than other types of content.
3. Organisations must find the intersection between cultural relevance and their business.
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