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What is the most powerful content on social media?

By Rumble Romagnoli, Founder

Relevance

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The Drum Network article

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September 29, 2020 | 9 min read

Most brands worth their salt put a great deal of time, money and effort into creating exciting social media campaigns that attract new business and engage existing clients. But how many of us know what it really means to make top-tier, ‘powerful’ content that leaves people talking for months and even years after it’s posted? And are the rules different when creating a social media strategy for luxury brands? Let’s explore below.

Relevance on the importance of creating powerful social media strategies for luxury brands. Image: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

Relevance on the importance of creating powerful social media strategies for luxury brands. Image: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

What makes good social media content?

Powerful social media content consists of images, videos and text that make a big impact - this desired impact will depend on the objectives of your business, but may include creating widespread awareness of your brand’s messaging, or growing your community. The most important thing is that this content speaks and connects to your target market, so much so they feel the need to comment, save and share the post; it is so powerful that it moves them to action.

How to create it:

● Tell a story, with a beginning, middle and end

● Be authentic, talk about real people and only use real quotes

● Be original, show the behind-the-scenes and focus on your USP

● Be creative, in your content, but also your approach (what’s new in the world of social media?)

● Create impact through humour, surprise, and other emotions, as well as through your reader’s personal connection to your brand

● Make it shareable - whether that’s because it’s cool, stylish, exclusive or fun

● Be useful, informative, timely and reactive

● Create high-quality content. Keep it concise.

● Be interactive. Use polls, ask questions, and interact with your community.

● Be accessible. Make sure you are easily understood, subtitle your videos.

● Post frequently, whether once a week or once a day. Whether varying your content or doing a sustained campaign. Check the days and times that work for you.

● Post live: this included live-tweeting, stories, immediate reactions.

Remember that videos and images should always be high quality, eye-catching and uniquely yours to really make an impact; Shutterstock just won’t cut it.

Also, the language used needs to really connect with your audience. For example, a brand aimed primarily at Gen Z would do well to have a Gen Zer onboard to check the authenticity of the text and ensure it appeals to their demographic.

How are social media strategies for luxury brands different?

HNWIs and UHNWIs are attracted to experiences specifically tailored to them. This means that any content luxury brands create to get their attention has to be unique and to make the end customer feel unique as well - this is one of the core differences between luxury social media content and social content that is designed for the mass market.

Personalised storytelling is one of the best ways to create an experience, and successful luxury brands often use storytelling archetypes to work out which of the categories their target market fits into and thus what will make good social media content for their specific audience.

Creating unique content like this requires a great deal of time and budget, which often mass-market brands either can't afford or don't want to spend money on.

Another difference is the impact the brands are aiming for. Mass-market brands are typically aiming to achieve quick sales from their social campaigns, and would not be afraid of promoting special offers to try to drive these sales.

On the other hand, luxury brands are typically aiming for brand awareness, which is why powerful luxury social media content is more focused around highly-produced and artistic imagery.

The most powerful social content from luxury brands

What have been some examples of seriously powerful social media strategies from luxury brands?

Gucci impressed when it was quick to the react to the #GucciModelChallenge created by a TikToker, which poked fun at the eccentricity of the Gucci runway/brand aesthetic by encouraging users to wear clashing colours/patterns/layers to achieve the ‘Gucci Look’. It quickly went viral. Gucci spotted this and featured a few of the best User-Generated Content videos on their own page, as well as taking it one step further and partnering with them to create future content for Gucci.

This is a great example of how creating good social media content is sometimes all about being flexible and reactive to your community. Gucci could have easily ignored these posts and stuck rigidly to its social media calendar, but it would have been a missed opportunity to connect with followers, which is something most brands can’t afford. The brand also took back control of the conversation by hiring these influencers as their own.

Another powerful effort from a fashion house, Prada built widespread excitement for an upcoming fashion show by using multilingual organic and paid posts to tell fans about a Q&A - with Prada co-creative directors Miuccia Prada (who is also Prada’s head designer) and Raf Simons - that was to occur at the show. Followers could submit their questions for these industry legends on the Prada website, making them feel like their input was valued to the brand.

This is powerful because it is the kind of action that builds interest from new audiences. Even those who may not have been interested in Prada’s fashion offering would likely still be interested to hear the stories of these highly successful individuals, and so this content hooks new potential future fans.

Meanwhile at my luxury digital marketing agency Relevance, we created a live video for sailing yacht builder Oyster Yachts to cover the launch of its new yacht, the Oyster 565-01 Panthalassa, capturing the moment that it passed underneath Tower Bridge and was introduced to the world.

The video was incredibly popular, reaching more than 63,000 people worldwide, and I believe that there is something about live footage that really excites and delights audiences, especially for something as hotly anticipated as a new yacht launch.

How do you create powerful social content?

You’ll need a watertight strategy. At its core, this should consist of what you should post about, when you should post, and where you should post it. However, first you need to define your goals.

Your goals go back to what kind of impact you would like to make, and will help inform the three above points of what, when and where. Think about what your business aims are for the year, and base your social media strategy around this. Then, brainstorm what your brand has to say that is interesting and different - what you bring to the table that will make people stop scrolling and pay attention. Check out your competition and see what makes good social media content for them, and think about how you could do it better.

After you decide on the what, we move onto the when and where. Research the best time to post to your audience and schedule the content around this - useful scheduling tools include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, CoSchedule, Recur Post, and Sendible.

Be sure to alternate them so that you are tailoring your posts for each platform - don’t just lazily blanket implement them and expect good results across the board. At the same time, ensure there is a consistency between your social media platforms that allows your fans to feel like they really know you.

Here’s a quick summary of each platform, and what its users expect:

● Facebook: community-based, sharing content, interactions - it’s personal

● Twitter: breaking news, humour, commentary - timely content

● LinkedIn: professional network, business news, inspiration - the networking platform

● Instagram: photography-based, live video - glossy, stylish

● YouTube: video, personality - youth and specific interests

● TikTok - fun, short, video clips - music, humour

Lastly, be sure to measure your content- see what works, what doesn't, and what time, day and geographic region your audience is most receptive. Never get complacent, and keep trying new things to excite and delight your target market.

If you would like to discuss how to create powerful social media strategies for luxury brands in more detail, I’d love to hear from you.

Rumble Romagnoli, CEO at Relevance.

Technology

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Relevance

Relevance is a strategic and creative digital marketing agency specialising in profiling and targeting Ultra-High-Net-Worth-Individuals for the world's most exclusive...

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