Historically, advertising and marketing has been based on broadcasting ads and information as widely as possible, but is that still the most effective practice today? Social Media has radically changed the advertising and marketing landscape, and a new king of connection has emerged: engagement.
What is Engagement?
Social media engagement is the how many people interact with a brand. There’s no specific way to calculate engagement. It can be based on likes, comments, shares, clicks, etc. It’s any kind of interaction between a customer, or potential customer, and a brand. How it’s measured is up to the company.
Engagement goes beyond a user simply seeing an ad or content; it strives to quantify the users who make a connection with the brand. When a brand is focused on engagement, authenticity, storytelling, and connection are extremely important, and this is why engagement has become such a vital role in brands social media strategies.
What is Broadcasting?
It’s important to clarify, when we refer to broadcasting in this context, we are not talking about the traditional sector of broadcast media (tv, news, radio, etc.). We are looking at broadcasting as a method of spreading content on social media.
Broadcasting differs in its approach to brand awareness. Broadcasting is as simple as its name sounds: take a broad potential audience and cast as wide a net as possible. The problem with the traditional broadcasting method? It has too many holes when it comes to what people are searching for today. Broadcasting wasn’t designed to create a connection, and today, social media has elevated the importance of connection. That is not to say broadcasting an ad doesn’t have its place and time. There are still times and strategies that broadcasting on social media is effective, but it is no longer the overall best strategy.
Both engagement and broadcasting have the same ultimate goal: motivate people to buy the brand’s product. They just choose to achieve that goal through different avenues. Engagement capitalizes on the way social media has enabled brands to be a person and have a distinct personality that users can connect with. Take Wendy’s Twitter feed as an example. Their tweets are far from the boardroom-approved, respectful, non-combative brand images that were often expected pre-social media. Wendy’s tweets read like a teen got a little too power-happy with the keyboard. They are known for their willingness to call out other brands, start twitter wars, and post trending memes. Despite the unusual strategy, their methods opened a door to connection and engagement among the younger generation. As social media has continued to grow exponentially, broadcasting has struggled to keep up the the changing markets and audience desires. Today, broadcasting on social media tends to find some success when it’s paired with a well developed campaign that is focused on connection instead of a sale, or if it is a well recognized brand, that doesn’t need brand awareness. However, for the average small to mid-sized company, simple engagement strategies are the most effective way to reach potential customers.
Does your business or organization need a new engagement strategy? Give us a call and let us grow your business! (936) 637-7593
