According to a new study by Yesmail, many social campaigns get lost in the clutter. While this might not sound like shocking news, the study shows that much of this is due to the strategy (or lack thereof) surrounding the release of the information and less about the content itself.
In the marketing industry, it’s important to consider the behavior of your audience when developing your campaign strategy; where they are and what they are doing when your message is available. The Yesmail study suggests that users are more engaged on social platforms earlier in the week. However, many brands are posting their social updates on Thursday and Friday. The message is at cross purpose with your audience.
Consider your dayparting strategy for a more traditional medium, broadcast TV. Primetime is where a majority of the audience is watching television so brands pay a premium to show their spots in that daypart. Conversely, negative news out of Washington, D.C., is typically released at the end of the business day on Friday, allowing the story to have a better chance at being lost in the noise. Do you want your message to be lost? Do you want your campaign to languish? No, of course not.
When developing your social campaign strategy it’s important to think about who your audience is and when they are consuming social media. As the study points out, Facebook users are more engaged on Tuesdays. For Youtube, Mondays, and on Twitter, between Tuesday and Thursday.
Go beyond all that, though. Who is your target audience? If you are targeting stay-at-home moms, try to release your social updates in the evening after they put the kids to bed and are relaxing with some ‘mom time.’ Instead of being buried at the bottom of their Twitter feeds, or lost in a sea of Facebook status updates, your message will appear at the top.
Targeting college students? Try releasing your message late afternoon or early evening to increase its chance of actually being seen as students reach out to friends to decide on their plans for that evening. Or say, for example, you are in the business of selling alcohol or an ‘open late’ restaurant, aim to push your campaign in the late evening. You have the opportunity to reach this demographic while they are actively making choices related to your brands.
The bottom line is that, for most brands, the timing of your social campaign has to be considered carefully. Figure out when your audience is engaged and provide them with your updates while they are making decisions within your category. Don’t simply push out social updates before going home on Friday.
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