0:00
Olivia Messina
Hello everyone and welcome to our webinar, how to demonstrate Social Media's impact on the bottom line. I am your host today. I'm Olivia Messina, the social media and community manager here at Oktopost. I handle all of our social, so our corporate and our advocacy. And I'm joined by Alex Taylor Noble. So, Alex, I'll hand it over to you for a brief introduction.
0:24
Alex Noble
Yeah. Hey everyone, Good morning or good afternoon. I'm Alex Noble and I'm head of Social media at the bank of London. For those of you who don't know what the bank of London is, we're a startup bank. We were founded in November 21st and we've just got our UK banking license, which is super exciting. But effectively what we are is a purpose built clearing transaction and agency bank. Why this is so relevant today, this conversation is because I'm currently in the process of building out a strategy, a content strategy and process and really trying to understand how that strategy can then be transferred into, into sort of proving ROI within the social space. So I've done it before in previous roles, but since we're sort of a startup, it's back to the drawing board and kind of blank canvas on which to build. So it's a super relevant conversation for myself today as well. So thanks for having me, Olivia.
1:17
Olivia Messina
Yeah, of course. And that's what makes social so exciting. Right, all right, let's get into the good stuff. So odds are, if you are tuning into this webinar at some point in your career, you have had to explain to someone that social media isn't just for the intern and you're not just scrolling Twitter all day. We're not just doing social media for the sake of social. And historically, social media was typically thrown at the youngest person at the organization or at the intern. And it was kind of seen as a nice to have and not an integral part of the business. And if you fast forward to today, the narrative around social media has totally shifted. There is absolutely no arguing that social media is a mainstream business tool and at this point, a professional skill set. And when it comes to social media managers and the work they're doing, the social posts that you see in your feed are a very small fraction of the work of, of social media marketers. You know, they're managing multiple networks, they're finding and creating great content, writing catchy headlines, creating community, engaging with prospects and customers. But the real challenge then becomes setting KPIs and communicating success and better yet, demonstrating how all of those activities are impacting revenue and that is why I brought Alex on here today and we are really looking to tackle some of these challenges. And my goal here is for everyone to leave with a few new tactics and ways of thinking about breaking down those social silos and getting buy in and how we should really be approaching goal setting and measurement. And of course, I can't let you leave without a few tips and strategies to get you there. So I think for a lot of social media professionals they are still begging for a seat at the table and for most of us, social media is still sitting in a silo and social media managers could actually even be siloing themselves and not even really know it. So, Alex, I wanted to kick off with the foundation. If we are looking to get that buy in from leadership and stakeholders, how should we approach it? Should we create a strategy and go that way or should we take the education route and try to get their buy in on the value aspect? How should we kind of go about getting our foot in the door?
3:58
Alex Noble
Yeah. So I think before I kick off there, I think just going back to your point, I definitely think social is a more sort of respected and seen as a really key part of any business in this day and age. I think it is critical. It's often a first touch point with an audience and you touched on a word there, education. I think often we need to educate in order to bring people up to speed within businesses on the actual impact it can have. One key way of showing that is obviously showing the return of investment. But usually you're either you have colleagues who are experts in social media because everyone knows how to post on Instagram and that's all you do, or they have no interest because they don't see the value. So often you're kind of sat between a rock and a hard place. So I think just before we go on to talk about sort of approach, the final thing I'll say in this is just because it's now respected and seen as a, as a key part of a business, don't expect everyone to care about the intricacies just because I think sometimes, you know, once it's now accepted that social is a key, a key business driver, people start to go into real, in depth explanations of what the data means and what an impression is and et cetera, et cetera. And your senior leadership team or whoever you're trying to get sign up from usually don't have time or care. They just care about outcomes effectively or so I've experienced in the past. So I think the first thing to do is understand simply the approach to social media from your business perspective. So the purpose of your activity, why are you on the chosen platforms? Because fundamentally, if there isn't a reason for you to be there, then you're just wasting time and bandwidth and whether that's creative or copywriting, whatever that may be, to understand, you know, understand your audience, understand where you want to be, understand what you want to say on those platforms, what do you want to be known for? You know, build those content pillars, but don't build, build rigid content pillars that you know, you've seen everyone else use and think, okay, well we need to have an evp. We need to have, you know, with that employer brand, the E and I needs to be important. Understand what your audience wants and what more importantly your business actually wants to achieve and align that purpose of why you're on social next to your core business objectives. And if you haven't been told them yet, then look internally and start to actually try to understand, you know, from key internal stakeholders in the business what they want to tell their audiences. If from a people perspective, how do you promote your new EVP offering or from a sales perspective, what key questions are you being asked? You know, from, from prospects that you can then provide solutions to, from, for your content. It's about, you know, understanding your audience, understanding your business objectives and tying them together through that, that purpose of social. And that also, you know, sort of comes under the idea of, you know, knowing who you want to be known to. Once you've kind of got that, then I think you've got the second part which is building the process. So how do you effectively communicate that purpose of your social media on your channels? And that comes under content strategy, you know, your channel identities, success management, your channels and distribution. Do you want to look into paid or is it more an advocacy based platform to begin with? And then the real value and the way that you can get seats at the table, I think is by combining those two and stripping them back massively. So then you've got your objectives in terms of your business, you've got the strategy which helps drive, drive these objectives via social media. And then you understand how you want to do things and what you want to achieve. And I think, you know, leaving out all the other really minute details, keep it simple, focus on the purpose, focus on outcomes. And I would genuinely say undersell and over deliver. You know, I think there's a lot of times when, you know, you're asked about KPIs and things like that and people will Just shoot for the stars because it looks good on paper. But there's nothing worse, you know, than doing that and then obviously not, not delivering the goods. Because if there's social skeptics, they'll be at you straight away saying, well, actually, see, we told you so. And there's nothing worse than hearing I told you so, especially when you know you're right. One other thing I would say as well is get buy in from key stakeholders internally as you're building this, building this strategy and this process. Because they're the experts within their fields, they understand what their specific audiences want. It's your job to then communicate and tell the story across your channels. And um, and I think just like employee advocacy works externally, it really, it can really work with building trust internally as well. So really, really find the right people to connect with internally. And yeah, for me, the key word is context. Once you've got purpose and what you've got, once you've got this process, how do you contextualize it for the, you know, your senior leadership team or your boss or whoever you need to communicate with in order to showcase that, you know, X, Y and Z are, you know, strategic mission priorities for the business? This is how we're going to help achieve that via social in terms of like, why we're on the channels and then this is how the process we're going to enact in order to achieve said outcomes that you're looking to put across. So I think it's context, internal buy in and really knowing your purpose and process.
9:12
Olivia Messina
Yeah, definitely. And I love the one thing you mentioned and I really want to speak to it here, and this is actually a piece of advice that I got early on, is when you are communicating up the chain to be very careful with the information and the metrics that you're sharing. Because us social media managers, we have a deep understanding of what everything means, the metrics, the engagement, things like that, because we're doing it and living it and breathing it every single day. But someone sitting in the sweet C suite might not exactly understand the same level as we do. So it's really important to be comfortable, cognizant of what you're sharing with them because they're going to say, okay, you have this many conversions, what does that mean? Like, what does that do for us? So it's really important to do that and just pay attention. And there's actually one thing that I remember you and I were chatting about this. For anyone who may not know, I have a podcast called behind the Post. Where I interview Other B2B social media managers and I was asking Alex about getting that buy in and what can you do if you're stuck? Like you need to build your case and you're finding it hard to earn the buy in. And you mentioned that education needs to be a super big part of it. And a lot of eyes need to be opened around how social media can benefit the business, but also your employees on a personal level. Not only on a business level, but a personal level too. And I think that it's really important. Give employee advocacy, for example, or if you are launching a new initiative or you need more resources or you want to launch something new and you need to like get their buy in and try to get them on board. You could take employee advocacy, for example. You would either need budget or more resources and you have to explain how that is going to help the business hit their goals. So you mentioned bringing up use cases and competitor analysis, which I think is brilliant. It's a really great way for us to build our case. So if you are looking to launch employee advocacy, if your competitors are utilizing employee employee advocacy and they're doing it really well, you can bring that to your team and say, look, they're doing this, they're thriving, they're getting really great engagement, their community is benefiting from it. So we also need to be doing that because our community could benefit from it too. But you could also flip it on its head and if they're doing it poorly, you can say, hey, look, you know, they're not doing this really well. There's a gap for us to kind of come in here and infiltrate and then we can be a thought leader in this space. So I think that's also a really great way to build your case if you are struggling to get that buy in from them. So that's a little tool in your toolkit that you can use.
11:57
Alex Noble
No, I think that's an excellent point. And I think sometimes it's much easier. You know, when people are busy, they don't really want to understand. I said the intricacies. But if you can showcase what a competitor is doing, right or wrong, it gives it much easier context to explain. You know, they're doing it or they're not. They're not doing it. I mean, I hate the excuse they're doing it, so should we. But I think at the same time, if they're doing it well or they're missing a trick, then absolutely, it's, it's a much easier way of communicating up and you know, and showcasing that because I think if you go into too much depth and you know, the last bullet point there you are siloing yourself potentially because you're showcasing that, you know, it can't really fit amongst the business because they don't understand it. Even though that's not true, I think it's, I think it's a slightly dangerous game to play, especially with everyone, especially in a startup when everyone's got no time whatsoever. Right.
12:45
Olivia Messina
So yeah, and I think this was really the conversation when TikTok was really hitting the scene and people didn't know if TikTok really fit for their business. And then the conversation was, well, our competitors are there and they're reaching an audience there. So if our competitors are there and they're reaching customers, then we could potentially have customers on there too. So we need to be there and have a presence. But then you also get into the conversation of do we need to be on every single network? Can we, do we have the bandwidth to be on every single network or should we, you know, choose one or two and go all in or do them all kind of half baked? So then that's a whole nother argument that we could get into there.
13:26
Alex Noble
But definitely. And I think that goes back to your, your approach to social and your purpose. Right. So like why are you on the platform? So we're a b, we're, we're a bank and we're B2B. So in terms of like going onto TikTok, that's a pretty interesting foray for us which we might, might look into at some point. But first I guess we need to understand is our audience there in the first place, is there value in us ex. You know, I guess and the, you know, extending our bandwidth to the extent that we're also, you know, spread across four channels instead of three. But I definitely also respect those who take the risks, understand what their audience wants and, and at the end of the day it's, it's test and test and learn, isn't it, with social?
14:04
Olivia Messina
So, so, and yeah, definitely it all comes back to your audience. I feel like everything we're even talking about here today, we can't even be measuring anything if it isn't for our audience. So we're doing everything at the end of the day, like the audience is at the heart of everything you do, so you need to be showing up and providing them valuable content. But I want to shift speeds here for a second and talk about measurement and like I mentioned earlier, which I see people talking in the Chat about the podcast. So first, thank you so much. It's. It is called behind the Post. I saw a question on the name of it and there are loads of episodes and Alex had an episode, so feel free to go back and listen to his episode because he also provided a lot of value there. But I often ask my, my guest this question, and that is, how are you measuring success? And you could probably guess that every single person has a different answer. And this isn't surprising to me because there isn't one magic metric that you can look at and say, yes, we are being successful on social. There's so many different factors at play. And this is where I think a lot of people can start to get hung up, especially if you are communicating it up like we were just kind of talking about executives want to know what's in it for them. And you know, you could look at a post and you have a thousand likes, but what does that mean? Why should they care? And a lot of people put a lot of weight on follower count. So you could have 10,000 followers that are super engaged and are always commenting, but you could also have a hundred thousand followers, but maybe they're not as active and a lot of followers look great on paper, but if they're not, if the community isn't being active, like, is it actually better? So there's a lot of factors at play and there's so many different things we could look at. So, Alex, I'd love to know how you kind of approach measurement and goal setting and how we should be thinking about looking at what we're doing on social and how it's impacting revenue in the bottom line. Like, where should we, how should we be looking to tie the two together?
16:12
Alex Noble
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a great question and ultimately it's what we're judged on often, you know, whether, whether it's a post that goes viral or not, a lot of the time, especially within the B2B space, it'll be, okay, where's the value of that? You know, give us, give us the ROI of that. And so I think it goes back often to that initial purpose and making sure that you communicate up from the offset. What is the purpose of your social media activity, per platform, whatever, however you want to break that down. Because if that's not clearly communicated, I think the ROI chat can get a little bit messy. You know, I also think there is a lot of pressure put on the likes of performance marketing. And I think also the idea that return on investment also has to have like a monetary value to it. I don't believe in that at all. I think, you know, don't be afraid to remind people that not everything needs to translate into pounds of dollars. So those are like two things I think to remember from, from the start because I think you know, if you're, if your business objective for example is you know, grow market share and, and you know, I guess you know, build, build your brand further. Yeah, like this for example, you know, the awareness factor and building that trust and building that engagement and building that community within the, within the, the social space is, is super important because we all know that you know, the, the buyer's life cycle within, within B2B and you know, banking especially can be extremely long. It's not just like a, a quick transaction in 30 seconds when you click the link through something on social. So I think understanding that key objective and again communicating how your social strategy and your predicted outcomes are going to support the business growth in the long term, aligned with that objective is for me the most important thing because then you've got on paper or you've got signed off. Exactly you know why you're doing this activity and exactly your project, what you think your projective outcome is going to be. I also just think, and this is slightly more, you know, skewed towards marketing. I know social obviously offers sort of relief to a lot of different verticals in businesses, but the classic question of demand gen versus lead gen. So I think, you know, if we're talking about lead gen and you know demand gen is obviously just building that awareness of your brand, making sure that you know that people trust your, your brand. You know what the, the key is that when they want to buy, which usually isn't much of the time, but when they do, you're top of mind in comparison to just consistently being conveyor belt of leads, no matter their quality. I think that's a massive sort of gap that you know, I guess the whole thing is not all marketing roads should lead to leads. It, there needs to be more value put on the brand, the building the brand. Because you know, 5% of the time or 5% of your audience might be ready to buy, but 95, 95 probably won't be. So once you lost those 5% of leads, which is where you see these kind of actionable, actionable goals, whether that's through downloads of, of things like webinars or if it's white papers or whatever that may be, you know, the, the, the, the metrics like impressions and you know, within your Impressions, a really high engagement rate are great ways of showing that you're not only are you, you building brand awareness, you know, with the result potentially being follower growth or maybe you know, a more highly engaged private community or highly followed private community. But with that engagement rate, it's usually tend to show that you're also delivering the content that they want to, they want to consume. And I think that's fundamentally in the long term going to be really, really useful because when they get to that point where they're looking, you know that there they have that intent, then you know the brand that wins is the brand that's remembered and if you can consistently be there. And social should be a value exchange. Right. It shouldn't be an arrogant monologue, it should be looking to build that dialogue. And I think these, these so called vanity metrics in isolation, yeah, one impression might not mean a lot, but several impressions or several engagements from one person can, can definitely showcase intent. So, so yeah, I think ultimately there, there is a lot of emphasis on monetized metrics and conversion rates and things like that. But I think yes, they're super important but at the right time and I think if you're too focused on those, you lose the brand awareness and the building the brand section which builds that trust and ultimately delivers most of your demand and leads eventually when they're ready.
21:07
Olivia Messina
Yeah, I think that trust is so key because I often think about the brands on social that I love and if there is something that we have a problem and we need to find a platform or solution to kind of fix that. I always think about the brands that are top of mind and that I've like seen on social and like when you feel connected to a brand like they're, they're top of mind. So when you're posting more personal things or getting to know their team, you feel more connected to them. You know, people say people buy from people, but more importantly people buy from people they like. And, and that's when you also have employee advocacy. You get to know the people behind the logo and when you start to trust a person, you trust the brand they represent. So I think it's also getting into like the content and actually building that trust because once you've built that trust then you'll stay top of mind. And when you're delivering that more personalized, valuable content, then you will be remembered. So it's not only about like providing value, but it's also putting out content that is going to be long lasting and make an impact on that person. And then they'll keep coming back to you for more.
22:24
Alex Noble
Definitely. I think question for you because I've kind of, I guess experienced this in the past or seen it happen because metrics, you know, that aren't tied to monetary values when we're talking about return on investment and that as that phrase usually mean, obviously it can mean a lot of time, but it can also mean, you know, money usually especially when it comes to paid campaigns. And I saw a question there about splitting paid in an organic. And we could probably get to that in. In a bit. Do you tend to think that people or some. In some cases over. Over promise on things like impression numbers or engagement rates because it's not necessarily linked to a lead or linked to something that is providing the sales team with. With a prospect to then go and try and convert Because I've experienced that quite a lot. They feel almost like their brand metrics are inadequate so they try and oversell in order to. And ultimately underdeliver.
23:26
Olivia Messina
Yeah, I think that is honestly like where it really gets tricky because there's metrics that us as social media managers, we have to keep an eye on and there's things that we care about, but then it's also looking at what the wider business cares about and how we're using social to drive the business. So I think that's where it gets. Gets tricky because. And that's where I think a lot of other social media marketers get hung up is how do we kind of tie the two. Which you've spoken to which I think is really helpful. But I do think that that is challenging because there could also be a dip in engagements and impressions and you might not have necessarily changed anything in your strategy. It could just be a slower time. Like in the summer, people aren't on social as much and engagements might have dipped. And that's when it's important. If engagements have dipped, an executive could see that and be like, okay, we need to do something right now to fix the strategy. Let's try something new. Yeah, but that is just the reality of social media is there could be something else happening that week, that month, something going on in the world and people aren't on social as much. It could be something as simple as a football game or a baseball game. People aren't online or there's something going on in the world where they're not on social or, you know, something socially going on and people just are not posting on social. So I think that's where it gets tricky and that's where you ultimately need to go back to what your executives care to see and try to tie it up and try to not always be so reactive.
24:59
Alex Noble
And I, I completely agree and I think, I think when it's just something to remember when it comes to, to, you know, once you've got your objective and you understand it and you've chosen the metrics, you know that these metrics and these and, and as a result your KPIs like let's. They're not pie in the sky things. They're not things that you kind of just think right that, that sounds good. Use, use your historical data like understand what has performed well in the past and try and jump on the back of that. And if things haven't then, then, then try and try and amend it. I think, you know, and I'll put my neck on the line here and say no one really knows how a post is going to go when it goes live, until it goes live. I think you can understand what's performed well previously. But I think you know, each post, as long as you've got that core purpose that supports the reason why you're on that channel in the first place, it aligns to one of your pillars, it aligns to your strategy and as a result aligns to the way that you're trying to drive and support business mission priorities. I think you're doing the right thing. And if it doesn't perform well, then data insight action, take the data, understand why it went wrong and act and do something differently. But I agree, do it hopefully proactively instead of just sort of reacting to the failure of one one post.
26:14
Olivia Messina
Definitely. That's why I also think it's important to zoom out and not fixate on the success and engagement of each individual post. Because every single post has its own. You're posting every single post for a different reason. So not every single post is going to get you leads, going to form community, going to provide value, going to attract new people to join your company. Every single post is doing a different thing. So that's why I think it's important to also zoom out. And we have an interesting question here, which I think we can speak to. What is the best way to communicate with executive leaders that social media's main goal is not to generate revenue via direct Legion? So I think this kind of goes back to what you were talking about with the 95.5rule. With only 5% of your target audience at this very moment is ready to make a purchasing decision or is even looking to make a purchase. So I think that's where you kind of have to hone in on that education, because without the education, they might not understand that the social strategy as a whole is keeping people top of mind. So when they are ready to purchase, they think of you because they go with the brand that they remember. So I think that's really important. But Alex, if you have anything to add there.
27:39
Alex Noble
Yes, I'm just. Which one is this? Sorry, is this Amy's question? Yeah, Amy, what's the best way to communicate? Yeah, I think I, I think fundamentally you hit the nail on the head in a sense of, you know, when, when we're talking about, you know, the, the idea of whether you're looking for investment or you're looking for someone to purchase something, the likelihood is you need to trust the person or the brand that you're, you're, you're looking to purchase from. There's so much data on online that showcases just, you know, from multiple sources probably as well as your own that showcases that, you know, the signals are intent. If they aren't there, the quote, even if you get the information, the quality of, the quality of lead is just going to be poor and they'll end up going back into your CRM and back, back into the, the mix and then probably get targeted again and it just doesn't work. I think that whole, that whole. Well, I think you hit it nail on the head. I think, you know, the brand that wins, brand that's remembered. I just think ultimately, you know, if you're looking to drive, you know, drive business forward and, you know, the key is winning, you know, new clients, which means you need to generate leads for your, for your sales team. I think you just need to be able to try and communicate the fact that this isn't an overnight win. You know, you, that you do have to build a reason. I mean, I think there's something that I, I read about recently and it's called, you know, the fact of ambient awareness. So the idea that, you know, your audience is getting cluttered with a ton of content the whole time, so everyone's trying to pitch the reason to be bought from or to be trusted. And I think you can really hone in and this kind of leads into the content strategy kind of thing. But if you can hone in on first focusing on what problems that you solve and then furthermore, the audience that know that and then know your brand and then further that focus on those who want to choose your solution over others. That segment of your audience is the people that you want to basically drive, drive through your CRM and provide to your salespeople because they're the ones that, you know, basically have ticked those three key boxes. So I think again, audience segment, segmentation is key. And you know, try social listening, try social monitoring to understand better what's motivating your audience.
30:10
Olivia Messina
Yeah.
30:10
Alex Noble
A lot of the time, you know, you'll get startups saying, well, why can't we just try and get a lead from these people straight away? They don't even know your business is.
30:19
Olivia Messina
Yeah.
30:20
Alex Noble
And, and you're just shooting from the rooftops and, and trying to scream out your voice instead of, instead of kind of doing it in a personal, personal way. So that's a good question.
30:34
Olivia Messina
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree there. And I think this is where you can never go wrong with going with a value driven strategy. So above all focusing on providing your target audience with valuable content, knowing down the line that they will eventually become a part of your marketing ecosystem. So down the line they'll eventually fill in a form, form, they'll come to a webinar, you'll get their information, then, then you can start doing all the other aspects of marketing. So I think it's really important to provide them value knowing down the line that they will make it into your funnel. But all the stuff that happens before and gaining their trust and built in community that you can't get them there without that. So it's really important to focus on providing that value and that comes from content, which I'm really excited to jump into. And content fuels everything that we do. So I would love to know. I. I'm super into like tactical tips and takeaways and I always want everyone to leave either my podcast or webinars with new tools they can add to their toolkit and start implementing into their strategy. So Alex, I would love to know a few of your top tips or just the way you approach content and strategy as a whole so that we can make sure that it's impacting the business.
31:51
Alex Noble
Sure. Again, this is something I'm building out at the moment on the bank of London's channels. We're not there yet, but we have our strategy and process in place, so hopefully we will be soon. In terms of what I've done in the past and things that have been successful, I think I like the idea of an E cubed approach. So you either want to educate, you want to engage, or you want to entertain or if you can do all three, then even better. And no one goes on social media and wants to Be bored. No one wants to go and not engage with a personality, with something that feels human, with something that feels like it's speaking to them. I think a lot of corporates out there are very, very bad at speaking with an arrogant monologue. And no one wants to engage with a major bank who just talks about a piece of research they did and commissioned and these are the findings. And it just feels very, very dull and quite forced. So I think wherever Hillary, the third one was, just engage. So I'm just answering a question in the comments. They're trying to multitask. I think ultimately brands win when they make it about their community, not themselves. So think about and understand and do your research and commission an agency if you have to, to do some research and insights surrounding, you know, what motivates your audience, where do they live digitally and really what problems are they there? Are they, are they asking about either or they, are they complaining about, should I say? Because if we look, when we look internally, I'm trying to work with the product team, for example, now looking at like, what are our frequently asked questions when they're dealing with prospects and what, you know, sort of problems exist that we can raise awareness for and then push solutions to through storytelling. I think people love the kind of human element of, of, of a story. They love the idea of, you know, a brand showing a human face like we did with Felipe there in the slide. And effectively they want, they want insights, they want to, you know, a value exchange where there's a reason to follow you, apart from hearing that you've got, I mean, yeah, that company announcement we had there was quite unique because we got, you know, and it was amazing to build an employer brand and build our brand awareness and showcase the kind of human side. But if our feed was just filled with that, no one would want to follow us because it's just very self indulgent. Whereas most what we try to do is build awareness for the problems that we provide solutions to, but also curate content from the industry and give our own contextual commentary surrounding what it means for our relevant audience, ideally those that are prospects of existing customers. And I think finally, for me, another key point is, and I kind of alluded to it at the start, don't try and build your generic content pillars first and then try and pigeonhole content pieces into those, I think, understand, as I said, your audiences. So, you know, you might have four core business objectives and it links back to these objectives for your business in the first place. We might want to grow market share. We Might want to grow our team. We might want to, you know, build awareness for, you know, a fundraising round, whatever that may be. And then think about ways and reasons and the purpose of your activity on each channel and where you can infiltrate each specific audience and build content that relate, that relates to that story that you're looking to sell. You know, it's something around your values when you're looking to acquire new talent, build things with your people in front of, in front, in front of it.
35:29
Olivia Messina
Yeah.
35:30
Alex Noble
Not looking like robots and saying, you know, we love company X because, you know, X, Y, Z. Like let them tell that their own story and, and have a bit of trust in, in your own content instead of hiding behind kind of that corporate brand.
35:45
Olivia Messina
Yeah, I, I love that you mentioned that the brands that win don't only talk about themselves, they focus on their community and providing value. There's, and this is, I feel so strongly about this because I think we can look at a lot of B2C companies do this really well and also content creators and like B2B influencers on LinkedIn as well. They're not just talking about themselves all day long because who wants to follow that? You said self indulge and that's spot on. Like if someone was just posting about themselves all day long and not providing value or giving any insight or things like that, it does feel, feel self indulgent. And I think it's the same thing when it comes to brand on social. Like you wouldn't go into a room of people and walk up to someone and immediately pitch your product. You would get to know them first. You would ask them what they do, where they live. The same on social. You don't go online and talk about your product and all its features and things like that. So that's why it's really important to show up as a human. Even if you are on your brand page, still talk like a human, not like a robot, because no one is going to find that engaging. And I know for me, if I'm scrolling on my LinkedIn feed, oftentimes a lot of brand pages really don't come up for me anymore. I've noticed, I don't know if you've noticed that too. I've seen a lot of people already talking about that too. But if I do see something that feels very promotional or corporate or kind of like robot talk with a lot of jargon, I kind of just scroll past it because I'm looking for something that's going to provide value and insight into the my current role so that's where it goes back to looking at pain points and creating content around those pain points. And that's where you can kind of get into the storytelling. You know, look at the pain point as like the challenge and tell the story of how your brand can help them and start to resolve some of those pain points.
37:34
Alex Noble
Definitely. And I also just think that, you know, the classic Simon Sinek saying, you know, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And I think you often, you know, within storytelling, get so caught up in the stuff that you want, the stories you want to tell instead of that your audience wants to hear. You know, they don't, they don't really care about your recent fundraise. Well, in fact, that's a lie. Prospects might not, but investors really might. So it's really trying to diversify your content and hit those people who you want to hit. Because, you know, you can't speak to only one audience on social if you've got multiple that you're looking to hit. It's just about kind of being, having that proactive strategy, understanding your channel identity so that, you know, it's not basically a copy and paste per channel and just regurgitate everywhere. But then I think the real power is, you know, you can spend all the money you want and try to hit relevant audiences as a brand or as a corporate brand, but the more you involve your people, the more that you add the authentic storytelling, contextual commentary that they can share with their networks, the better because it also massively improves your, improves your reach to a relevant audience. I think, you know, we're, we're trying to do that at the moment and try and import champions to begin with. So those who have shown an interest because you don't want to flog a dead horse, you know, you don't want to force someone who's got no interest in getting on social to try and try and get active. I think it's much, much more rewarding when you get, you know, you find those kind of brand champions and really push your content through them and get people who want to write, you know, those who want to write blogs or speaking on webinars or whatever, you know, empower them to speak, speak on, on what they're talking about and add value and then reshare from your company, your company account. Because again, it was way more authentic than just another push, another push, another push from your corporate idea.
39:25
Olivia Messina
Yeah, it's their unique experiences and stories that drive your brand at the end of the day. And yeah, I totally agree. I did a post on the Oktopost LinkedIn last week asking when was the last time you had a conversation with a brand on social? And majority of the people either said maybe a few months ago or I think it was like 50% said never. Which is so true. You don't have conversation, you have conversations with people. And usually most of the times if you comment on a brand account, you might not get a reply back. So we don't have conversations with brands on social, we have conversations with people. And even if a brand is replying back to you, there's a person on the other end of it. So I think just focus on that people first and authentic approach and you can never go wrong there.
40:16
Alex Noble
Yeah, one call out I'd say is. And you know, it's just, you know, for example, from a retail bank perspective, like, look at Manzo's feedback. Monzo get their audience to a T. You know, that they, they are the ones who understand that sometimes on a Monday morning or whatever, someone just wants a bit of a laugh and you know, you know, doing, doing the most human post talking about office instances that are so relatable, you know, again, relatability is a huge aspect when it comes to engaging content. They're asking you, how do you know that someone went to Glastonbury? Well, they've already told you. Like a post that simple got so much engagement and people were tagging each other in it being like, this is so you. This is so you. You did this at the printer last week and it's just, it's so human. Yeah, it's nothing to do with their business, but it makes people laugh and it makes people engage and sometimes there doesn't need to be a purpose in terms of how you can, can, you know, align one post with how you're driving business growth? Well, you are, because you're just generating building brand equity and brand love and that in itself makes you remembered above all all else. So, yeah, just a little call out there. I'll probably get in trouble.
41:24
Olivia Messina
Oh, no, no. I think those posts are important because that is what builds that trust. I think about the brands that I love and they're the ones that I relate to and can make me laugh and show up more authentically. So I love that and I wanted to save. We're almost out of time here, but I wanted to spend a little bit of time on the Q A and I saw a question come through that I thought was really interesting. Also from Amy. Would love to hear insights on how that trust can be measured as well. I find it difficult to tie metrics to brand sentiment and community goals without going down the expensive third party survey route. So in my mind, when it comes to things that you can look at in your metrics that you already have access to, I and Alex, feel free to chime in here. I think it would be important to look at your impressions and engagements and make sure that they are growing over time and then zooming in on that engagement rate to make sure that the people that are seeing your content, they're engaging with it and over time making sure they're both growing together. So as more people are seeing your content, you want to make sure those people are also engaging with your content and tracking that that is growing over time. And I think that's probably a good indicator of trust because they are seeing your content and engaging with your content. But Alex, I'd love to know your thoughts here if you have something different in mind.
42:43
Alex Noble
No, I, I tend to agree with you. I think sometimes the brands that do things really well and again, it's quite tricky to initiate this, but these closed off communities I believe are becoming a bigger trend. The idea that you're, you're inviting people to come offline in terms of the generic feed and actually online into a space where like minded people with similar problems can actually, you know, engage in their own value exchange with your brand. Being seen as a facilitator. I think that in itself, saying what we just talked about and the idea that, you know, people would rather engage with people, I think, I think the, the concept of, of you know, almost you not having to get involved but building a community, community around, you know, and, and I guess choosing specific subject matter is a really good way of doing it and just by the engagement that that happens within that community and the growth of it over time, I. E. More people requesting to be involved and you know, etc. Etc. The more word of mouth or however, the more you can probably, you know, assume that people are going to be built, you know, that's going to be building trust surrounding your brand. And so that's just another little tactic to potentially to, to initiate. But yeah, you're so right. You know, if you're, if you're, if your engagement rate stays high, then you're usually doing something right with your, with your followership. And I think that's where you know, grow, grow that quality of followership. You know, don't try and suddenly build a hundred thousand followers for the sake of it. Because yeah, there's not reaching the right people. I think start that organic advocacy and bring people into that. That community.
44:23
Olivia Messina
Yeah.
44:24
Alex Noble
And you know, one impression and you know, if you do get their information into the. Your CRM, you know, kind of one engagement in isolation. Yeah. Might not mean much, but six or seven surrounding a specific post or a specific subject matter can signal intent. And I think that's where you can then start to bring your sales guys into. Into approaching them and social selling. But that's a whole nother. That's for another day.
44:46
Olivia Messina
Yeah, that's a whole nother webinar we can dive into. I quickly wanted to mention I have some questions coming in. This is recorded and it will be sent out to everyone and everyone will have a copy of the slide deck as well. We also got a very interesting question. Our brand has two main audiences, sales and finance. What is the best way to approach how to speak to two very different audiences on social without isolating the other? So Alex, I don't know if you want to maybe take a crack at this one. I kind of have some thoughts, but I'll hand it over to you.
45:25
Alex Noble
Yeah. I think fundamentally it goes back to that concept of understanding your audience and the audience segmentation. Whether that's through the likes of social listening and monitoring and understanding what those specific sort of. I hate the word Personas but communities are kind of looking to talk about then through the, through. Through. Through analyzing and monitoring that you can kind of get an understanding of. Right. Well, that group wants to speak about X and Y, whereas that group wants to speak about, you know, A and B. And building that, building the content strategy for each. That is bespoke and kind of tailor made to. To each audience. And again looking internally if, if you're looking, you know, if there's sort of teams that focus on what audience and teams that focus on another understand, you know, what they. They're wanting to talk about in order to kind of reach that audience and garner engagement. I think often we're quite that there's an expectation for us to assume we need to know about how to talk to everyone. But. But I think we are allowed to have allies on the inside or be it through. Through tools in order to kind of understand that key subject matter. I think you should usually have a brand tone. So I think fundamentally doesn't really where they change the way you speak to them. But the, the bottom line is use, use your employees. The ones who, the ones who you know are targeted more towards sales. The ones who are targeted more towards finance. Get them to say your messages because you'll be hitting a more relevant network. The likelihood is through their, their own networks than you are just spreading it across your your whole channels. So garner content and engaging content ideas from internal build it, share it in your channels, but get your employees to share it as well, those people who helped you build it because they'll be able to give much better context and commentary around it. It's my answer. But Olivia, you might have.
47:19
Olivia Messina
Yeah, no, I think that is, that is great advice because you could try to find common ground to post on your brand page. I think it is okay to post about different verticals and different things, but I think if you have employees that are salespeople or in that finance sector and they're dedicated to that sector, have them share the content and it's more authentic coming from them anyways. So that's great advice. All right, I saw a comment come in about for B2B. How often do you post? And I'm assuming you're talking about LinkedIn here. So I think it ultimately depends on your audience. I know times we have posted once per day, but I think this is where it's important to kind of do what works best for you. And I kind of like to think about not putting a number on the activity, like a number of posts you should be posting, but think about the engagement or your goals in the end. So what can you do to get to reach your goals? And I kind of have an analogy here of if you're going to the gym and you have say a weight loss goal, for example, if you could do half the number of workouts and still hit your goal, wouldn't you do that? You know, the same thing kind of goes for social. If you can hit your goal with maybe cutting your posts in half and just focus on providing value and relevant content, I would do that because at the end of the day there is a lot of content out there and you don't want to be flooding your audience with loads of content. So if you can reach your goals and maybe do it more efficiently, I think that's a good way to go. But there's a lot of stuff coming out about the LinkedIn algorithm. And we actually had LinkedIn on a webinar a few months back and the member from LinkedIn said one to two times max on LinkedIn a day. But this is also where I say if you're posting three times a day and it's working for you, keep doing it. So definitely test and keep testing and measuring. I think is A good way to approach that. But Alex, I'd love to hear what you think.
49:26
Alex Noble
Yeah, well, I just think it's like that classic conversation of what's the best time to post on social. Like, if you're, if, if it's the best time to post on social, then surely everyone is posting at that time and they'll. And then your content gets diluted. So maybe the best times to post are more regular or irregular than they say. And 10 minutes before or after the best times, it's, it's. Your audiences are super, are, you know, are different. There is the, There is a thing about the algorithm. I think it definitely, you know, there's a whole breakdown which actually I was saying I've got a graphic, I think Oktopost actually made it, surrounding the, the algorithm which we can share afterwards. But it definitely prefers. Prefers into interpersonal engagement as opposed to brands and again, showcasing the power of your employees getting involved. But I. Sorry to take the wheel, but I just saw someone. A few people talk about paid and I think, although we probably don't have enough time to delve into the, you know, the intricacies of paid social, it's another great way of hitting, you know, a unique audience with a unique voice with a new, unique subject matter. You know, if you have the budget to do so, then you can really, obviously speak to that, you know, a really segmented and bespoke audience where, you know, the, you know, no one else should be. You don't have the fear of anyone else isolating anyone else because it is built purposely for, for them. And obviously the LinkedIn especially has an amazing targeting range where you can really drill down into the, into the depths of your audiences and tell so many different stories, whether it's ABM or whether it's, you know, segregated by, you know, industry or audience group or whatever. But I think, you know, fundamentally what we're saying is paid's great, but, you know, potentially using your employees is free and it's going to be a relevant work and it's going to feel more human. So, yeah, either or, but I just wanted to raise that one.
51:22
Olivia Messina
Yeah, of course. Well, that is all the time we have for questions. If anyone does want to continue the conversation, feel free to reach out to Alex and I on LinkedIn and I'm sure both of us would be happy to continue the conversation there. Thank you so much, Alex, for joining us here today and breaking everything down. Everyone is giving great feedback in the chat, so I think everyone has found this very valuable. So thank you so much. For breaking everything down for us. Yeah, this has been great.
51:53
Alex Noble
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Hopefully it was. Hopefully it was useful. It's great to chat about it because you just, you know, I'm doing it right now myself, so it's. It's good to. Good to have a refresh.
52:05
Olivia Messina
Awesome. Well, thank you, everyone, also for joining us and taking the time out of your day. Thank you. Everyone will receive a copy of the recording and the slide deck, and we will see you in our next webinar.
