Shockingly, it has been proven from a number of recent studies that adults spend around three hours OR MORE of their day on their mobile phone (!!!). While this figure is arguably concerning, if not downright upsetting, it means that social media platforms are rising in importance as a creative tool for marketing agencies.
Marketing companies are breaking into this intimate space that we have with our phones as an opportunity for advertising. As we all know, this can come as a very unwanted and intrusive invasion into our precious social media time. So, believe it or not, there are now specific agencies evolving in order to make social media advertising a smoother and more welcome experience. The ‘Facebook Creative Shop’ is a specialist in-house agency that designs and tests ads specifically for Facebook and Instagram to make sure they are especially effective. As it has been suggested that we process images 60,000 times quicker than any other form of communication, it is clear that the key to successful social media ads are well-planned creative visuals, and agencies such as the Facebook Creative Shop know what visuals drive results.
Facebook has been the go-to for marketers and advertisers to reach an audience through social media. However, in recent years Instagram has risen to arguably be a new favourite due to it’s versatility in content. The discovered reliance on visuals means that Instagram can catch attention through dreamy sunsets as well as relatable memes, and are overall thought to be becoming a snappier attention grabber than the social media OG that is Facebook.
An even newer kid on the marketing block is Snapchat... From a playful start as a photo and video sharing app, Snapchat has evolved into a major marketing app that can’t be ignored. Snapchat has continually been signing on more and more creative partners to maximise opportunities for marketing and advertisement and to justify it’s value to marketers.
Not only is social media an important format for advertising specific products or services, but also a way for a company to reach out to the general public to portray their personalities and for their brand to grow and develop. It puts companies in the position to be explored, shared and discussed as we go about our everyday lives, phone in hand. This is why it is so critical for marketers to jump on board this growing band wagon.
Here’s a little insight into what social media means to the different sides of our team:
Fi, from client and social side:
Social media is a great way to lift the lid on the culture of your business in a way that your other comms channels can’t. It allows potential employees to really engage with the heart and soul of your operation - not just give factual info about the nuts and bolts of the company - meaning that they’ll be a much better fit for the business if and when they decide to apply for a role.
Susanne, creative and design side:
By creating an engaging visual you can increase impressions - stimulating web traffic and brand attraction. Social media definitely is a great creative tool if used in the right way!
Ian, creative flocker:
Because we can now reach increasingly precise audience segments we need to refocus our creative from generic attraction statements to concentrate on discrete, authentic “what’s in it for me” messages for specific, highly-targeted audiences. This presents a fantastic opportunity for agencies who love to tell stories but perhaps a greater challenge for recruiters in terms of both budgets and the time & resources required to collate the brief. But being able to really bring opportunities to life through social media, especially through video, engaging media such as Facebook Canvas, or even digital versions of the good old-fashioned job brochure, promoted via PPC or organically (or ideally both), gives employers incredible opportunities to find - and nurture - truly engaged candidates cost-effectively.
