Social Media is a Battlefield

Social Media is a Battlefield – Followers Matter

Social Media is approximately 20 years old.  When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, our lives went mobile and social media feeds went crazy.  Everyone now had access to local happenings, friends, updated feeds, and weekend events taking place locally. People checked their feeds all day long–at work, home, gym.  People were online 24/7 so they could feel connected.

CMA began to explore the social media benefits to retailers in 2010—when we were still trying to figure out what that meant and how to prove to our clients their Return on Investment, or ROI.  Now, 12 years later, we are surrounded with platforms that provide exposure and metrics to our clients: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok, each different platform offering varying formats and content.

Some platforms are currently switching lanes and trying to be all things to everyone, which is causing a lot of blowbacks from users who want the platforms to stay in their own lanes and keep the feeds as is.  Users, by instinct, are fickle and jump around, but our clients don’t have the budget to be always on all platforms. Our agency focuses on Facebook and Instagram, but suddenly everyone wants to be on TikTok. 

But this isn’t enough anymore—clients want more meat. They want context for making future marketing decisions, so we added actionable metrics to our reporting a couple of years ago.  With vanity metrics we can be braggadocious, but those metrics don’t provide the science behind the social. Now we report how consumers are communicating with us because everyone is fighting for advertising dollars. As the platforms change, it’s always just enough to frustrate the marketing teams trying to get a step ahead of the algorithm.  We understand that it will continue to regularly shift, as that’s just how social media works.

The reports we provide our clients include Yelp, Google, Instagram, and Facebook.  They provide a complete view of the market. And we now report on followers, page likes, shares, impressions, views, time spent per post, comments (good & bad), generation of new followers, and results from event notifications and new store openings.  We are doing media math–my least favorite subject.  

CMA casts a wide net to attract new followers, widening the funnel to convert followers into buyers.  As we get a wider funnel of “true believers” we have more opportunity to dig deep in the psychographics – those who will fill out surveys and interact with us to provide them with a better experience at the shopping centers.

Our biggest thrill is achieving organic reach, which is almost impossible these days because platforms want money to be seen in the feeds. The best way to create organic reach is to provide content that others find interesting, truthful, unique, or funny so that visitors will share the content.  This is how you grow organically.  This is the most work with the biggest reward. These are your loyal followers who will give you the best input.

Social media management is a big commitment and takes enormous energy.  We spend hours each week responding to a variety of comments and questions our followers share with us.  It is work, but the reward is awesome as most of the time they tell us the good things we want to hear.  They talk, we listen and respond.  This is the way we grow your platforms. 

When have we ever had an opportunity to talk one-on-one with your customers no matter how close or far away the live?  This is truly a great opportunity to dig deep into the psychographics of our customers.

Source: New York Times, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook

Kim Kelley, Marketing Guru

Kim Kelley is the Principal at Creative Marketing Arts. With over 30 years in the Shopping Center industry, Kim offers creative ideas blended perfectly for REIT Advertising and Marketing. With an eye for perfection and creative flair, Kim offers all clients Out of the Box solutions.