5 Reasons Brands CANNOT Approach Social Media Like TV or Radio
Viewers and listeners on TV and Radio have more control over how they consume content than ever before, but they still do NOT have as much control as they do on social media and they will punish you there if you don’t bring the goods with your content. I like the idea of this being the post-advertising age, and obviously by virtue of the M10 Social brand I’m biased towards that truth. But it’s not the whole truth - traditional advertising is obviously still alive and well, and I have clients like Super Car Wash for example who make good use of it on local TV and radio. I wanted to share a recent example (at the end) that got me thinking about this topic and the reasons why what has worked (and still does) on traditional media does NOT on social media. Here are 5!
5 Reasons Brands CANNOT Approach Social Media Like TV or Radio
People still watch a lot of LIVE TV, because it’s…..LIVE. Ballgames and award shows for example are broadcasted live and many fans who are fully invested in the team that is playing or are really interested in the event or show will want to be there watching when it happens. When you’re glued to the TV (or the radio) for a game you’ll be captive for some commercials that you don’t like. Even if you get up for a snack or change the channel at the breaks you’ll still see ads you are NOT interested in, and you won’t be able to dislike, mute, hide or block that brand for the future like you can on social media.
People still watch a lot of TV at the time of the scheduled broadcast so they can be in on the social conversation. The social element of chatting and posting online with related hashtags depending on the platform has kept many people in front of the TV at the designated time of the show. On social media no two users have the same “programming” in the newsfeed of the platform they are using at any given moment. Everyone (in a certain time zone and market at least) has the same programming on ABC on their TV. All the networks still have a LIVE schedule of content that is broadcasted at the same time for all. A miniscule amount of pre-recorded content is scheduled to stream at a certain designated time on social media platforms. I don’t know what the percentage is but it’s never close to the grand scale that The Bachelor airing on Monday evenings on ABC is. Once again - the end user can’t control it.
DVRing or recording the radio in your car isn’t a thing. You can escape a lot of advertising with satellite radio but even some satellite stations have ads and local terrestrial radio is still alive and well - maybe not like the golden age of radio but it’s still popular. Once again - no control for the listener. You can’t reach out and select a piece of content that you hear to hide it or block it on your favorite station. Seeing a pattern here yet?
End users have different expectations for social media - they don’t have the patience for bad content. They don’t need to. An end user knows when they launch TikTok, Instagram or Facebook (Meta…) etc. that they will be the ones scrolling at their own pace. Stopping on the stuff they want to see. Skipping the things they don’t. They are in control of more aspects of their experience and the content they consume there. They don’t ever feel the need to be stuck looking at something they aren’t interested in.
End users have better tools to shape the algorithm on social. TV has no “algorithm” in the sense that stations aren’t fed interactive real time data on the scale social media platforms are. On social it is the algorithm that controls the content. On TV & Radio it’s the programming schedule that controls the content. Granted ratings ultimately control it, and I’m no traditional marketing guy or TV / Radio ratings guru - heck I have never understood how Nielsen ratings work, but I know how the tools on social work, and users on social can interact with the content in real time at all times. They can constantly affect the algorithm in ways they can’t with traditional media. TikTok knows pretty quickly if people are liking, commenting on and sharing a piece of content or if they are hiding it and blocking it, and the algorithm will adjust the feed literally on the fly - showing it to a ton of people or none. Like the difference between steering the Titanic away from that iceberg (television) or zipping around the water in a speedboat (social media).
So in the end consumers are still subjected to some garbage content on ALL forms of media, but the low-risk ease of entry and the behavior patterns of people on social media represent a nice opportunity for brands (especially small ones), and that has been the case for a solid 10-15 years. Think about the personal injury attorneys or furniture stores that SHOVE their commercials down your throat on TV - or worse yet politicians in an election season. You can’t “hide” or “block” them on your TV channel. So viewers can try to ignore the content temporarily - they can flip the channel or fast forward if they’ve recorded a broadcast ahead of time, but they can’t mute, block, or hide the brand that bored and annoyed them on that channel. They don’t have to see your commercials on social or you at all, and if garbage is what you’re blasting at them you won’t build community. It has to be INTERESTING on social.
Here’s just one new example to illustrate the point.
Let’s go back to Super Car Wash and their Facebook page. Without going into ALL the details of our content strategy let’s just say we have a mix, and we focus on a community of people who love automobiles - the company is in the suburbs of the Motor City - Detroit! The story of the automobile is very much a part of and tied to the story of Detroit. This is a brand that cares for cars by keeping them clean! Now is it exciting to blast “Come to Super Car Wash for a car wash” over and over and over again? No - not on social media it’s not. And to be fair the commercials they run on TV and radio are animated and as fun as you can make ads about a car wash. They do a nice job with their marketing and it gets the job done there. But on social media you have an opportunity to appeal to people who love cars in ways that are about way more than just……getting a car wash. Now granted we do indeed promote Super Car Wash's services there - but it’s not the majority of our content. And the results tell us to keep it that way. Here’s a recent post just before the Christmas holiday with the mascot “Super Car” reminding people to buy an unlimited plan as a gift for the holiday. It got 11 reactions and no shares. We spent $20 to boost it to 2102 people over the course of three days.
Now here is one we posted that was not about Super Car Wash but it appealed to the Super Car Wash community just because it was a really interesting story about a car. It got 102 reactions and 10 shares. We spent $6 to boost it to 886 people over the course of two days. A gigantic difference. Of the 102 reactions they came from at least 30 new people we were able to follow up with using the “invite to like the page” button Facebook makes available to page admins.
Nice! Now we wouldn’t ONLY post interesting content that’s NOT about Super Car Wash. Nor would we ever recommend to spend the money to run a commercial on TV or radio about a story that was NOT about Super Car Wash. That would be extremely confusing. And the post we made about the gift deal for the holiday wasn’t a total flop by any means. It still reached people, a few gave it a little love and NO ONE hid it or unliked the page as a result. I bet that wouldn’t be the case if all we did on Facebook was SELL SELL SELL. People are willing to indulge a brand and find out what they have to offer if they provide value and (relevant & on-brand) entertainment more often than not. When you do that you build community. You accumulate folks who have an affinity towards your brand and you stay top-of-mind with them in a good way.
Are you picking up what I’m laying down here? Social Media still represents an opportunity as much as it ever has. Don’t blow it by approaching it the same way you’ve always approached advertising on traditional media!
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can also connect with Doug on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and/or M10 Social on Twitter or Facebook.
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