Is COP an ES-G win for brands on social media? Brands are now mindful that they need to showcase their green/responsible credentials to an increasingly ecologically and socially conscious customer. COP26 gave brands a potential high-profile platform to showcase their green credentials, network with ministers, and drive brand objectives. But should big environmental set-piece events such as COP26 play a role for brands who want to showcase their ESG credentials? Who drove digital and social engagement, and what can be learned? The research: what we did... We analysed 40,000 tweets about COP26 over the two weeks the event was held. We then broke down each tweet into pairs of consecutive words in both the body and bio of the author to help us analyse not only the topics mentioned but also context and sentiment far more accurately. So, who is talking about COP26 and ESG online? While the conversation online is still being driven by a combination of left-wing political advocates, environmental activists, and journalists, there was an unexpected addition. As the pictures of vicars and pensioners blocking motorways for Insulate Britain have shown, the idea that climate activists are all tree-hugging 20-somethings is naive. Older generations are increasingly acting and speaking out on climate-related issues. The term “Retiree” was the 12th most popular word in the sample of Twitter bios that mentioned the event. Pension funds and the like, take note. However, within this conversation, this cohort is still left-leaning, and therefore, this audience may not align with every organisation's target audience. The sentiment often struck a defiant tone among the people who were tweeting. Calls to action were frequently used, with phrases such as “show,” “send,” and “stand up.” What also stood out was an “us vs. them” narrative within these same tweets. “Stand up together and show them a message,” for example. This narrative can be a potential minefield for brands to engage with. Online chatter: What are they talking about? Unsurprisingly, the online conversation was centred around various states’ pledges and leaders' contributions. As expected, Greta, Boris, Nicola, and Biden all feature prominently, as does Jeff Bezos, who was the only real business figure to generate significant mentions or RTs. What is notable, though, is just how little brands are getting cut through within this conversation. Given the amount of pledges companies made during this period, there is very little traction apart from the odd retweet from senior corporate individuals at the event. Less than 1% of tweets in our sample mention a brand. We also broke out the brand mentions of principal sponsors in our sample; Scottish Power did best in terms of volume with 0.2%, Microsoft was mentioned in 0.065% of tweets, and Unilever was mentioned in just 0.002%. So, what does this mean for brands and climate pledges? Simply, the public perception is that climate change needs state based solutions, therefore the discussion around the largest climate based summit is still dominated by discussions around pledges by states. OneFifty believes there are better opportunities to announce important climate pledges for brands, digitally speaking: Engaging directly with key stakeholders online can be more efficient, and effective, whether through paid, owned or earned routes The role of individuals is key within this, from across the organisation, real people, using personal profiles, need to show their involvement and commitment to get traction. For brands to generate digital engagement they need to create their own moments, not join others. TLDR: unless Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos is your CEO, leave the COP announcements for Boris to worry about. About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

Authentic communication from the C-suite has lost its novelty, but has it gained in prevalence? Beyond the CEO, is social communication now a tool around the board table more broadly? What works to attract and engage an audience? Here's the lowdown on exec communications. Our new research on FTSE 100 C-suite / CEO use of social media and executive comms showed some notable strong performers, with key areas driving success: Personality – sharing things which relate to your individual experience Issues leadership (e.g. mental health) – but not ESG as a general area Engaging with people – not just shouting with your profile as another news channel Not just duplicating corporate news… Particular standouts were Bernard Looney (BP), Alan Jope (Unilever) and Amanda Blanc (Aviva) who prioritised these behaviours. We concentrated our research on Executive Directors in the FTSE 100 because these are some of the highest-profile businesses. They also face very similar constraints on behaviour (listed businesses with multiple constituencies to address) and, therefore, broadly comparable communications frameworks. Outside of the FTSE 100, there are fascinating examples of UK CEO / C-Suite communicators, many with different exec communication strategies and a wider array of communication objectives and constraints. Here are some of our favourite examples of C suite and executive comms. Representing very distinctive points of view, and engaging with current affairs. Topical issues – often in areas which don’t match the status quo, often means using Twitter: James Timpson (Timpsons) Richard Walker (Iceland Foods) Luke Johnson (Risk Capital Partners) Perhaps unsurprisingly, Instagram usage is higher amongst those working in creative industries, such as fashion: Angela Ahrendts (ex-Apple / Burberry) Paul Smith (Paul Smith!) Meanwhile whilst LinkedIn is a more predictable choice for a leader, there are some notable examples of especially effective usage: Umar Kamani (Pretty Little Things) Timo Boldt (Gousto) In the research, you can find out: How much is social media actually used by FTSE 100 executive directors? Who uses social media most effectively to build a personal profile? Which c-suite members are the most active on social media?   Read the Executive Comms research here About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms  here.

In times of change and turbulence, we look to leaders. For large businesses, that now means leading in public, as their C-Suite, Executives and Directors communicate directly with stakeholders, publics, and employees, digitally. In this context, how has the C-suite used social media to connect with the myriad of needs and priorities confronting them? We set out to conduct a meaningful analysis of how C-suite executives in FTSE 250 companies have used social media in the last year, to shed light on how it can best be harnessed in the year ahead. Our findings provide a benchmark for maximising effectiveness in C-suite social media use, encompassing analysis by financial performance, business industry, C-suite role and overarching topic trends of posts. When it comes to Corporate Comms and how execs use social media, we looked at: Which channels (Linked, Twitter and more) do they use? How often do they post? What content on social media drives the most engagement? Which FTSE 250 Director (CEO, CFO, HR Director etc) is best practice at social? What does it mean for your strategies? This new research, which examines every c-suite Director in the FTSE 250 and their use of social media, has uncovered surprising insights, including the days to post for engagement vs. consumption. You can download the full report here. About our Corporate Communications and C-Suite / Senior Executive Comms services Reputation in the digital age is driven by people. Corporate communications need to be delivered by people throughout the business - not just at the top.   Digital and social platforms mean your organisation's substance, criticism, and growth disseminate faster and with less predictability. LinkedIn’s post-pandemic success has especially driven this, with audiences from media to candidates engaging there—but more often with individuals than the brand itself.  OneFifty Consultancy can help with: Strategy and planning - Building your reputation through data, insight and digital specialists Data and insights - Identifying who influences your reputation directly and indirectly, from stakeholders to staff, across topics and people Digital exec profiling - How do your leaders show up digitally, how do their peers, and what they should be doing next Reputation Management - Enhance and protect through clear preparedness, processes and plans Digital Content Creation - The role of content production for corporate purposes, from video to photography, to copy and websites Find out more about Corporate Communications and Executive Comms here.

Instagram Collabs and Partnership Ads - What's new from Meta? If you’re crazy about influencer content and you spend your Saturday nights researching how it’s integrated into the paid funnel (just us?), then there’s a chance you stumbled upon Instagram's ‘announcement’, rebranding its influencer partnership product as collaborative ads... When we say announcement, we’re referring to a 170-word blog from Meta that gives you the very basics into potentially the biggest shakeup to collaborative advertising since the creation of the paid partnership product... So in case you missed this announcement (hehe), we’ve broken down: What has changed within Meta’s paid partnership product? The meaningful implications Instagram Collab ads have when it comes to working with influencers Our own thoughts on the future of collaborative content for social media and digital marketing Can you boost a collab post on instagram? What are Instagram Partnership Ads or Meta Collaborative Ads? Meta has updated its Instagram creator ads product, rebranding ‘content ads’ to ‘Instagram Partnership Ads’, colloquially named collab ads. The rebranding essentially acts as an upgrade, with additional features allowing for more effective use of influencer collaborations. So although the concept behind partnership ads isn’t new, the naming and scope of use have changed significantly. More specifically: The update allows brands to produce content in partnership with a creator, without using an existing post (creating a dark ad) Advertisers can boost more variations of UGC, including branded content with the paid partnership label, Instagram Collab posts, @mentions, people tags, product tags, and other content without the paid partnership label Once a creator has accepted the partnership request, their audience is shared with the brand, enabling custom audiences to be created. This includes: everyone who has engaged with the creator's account, followers, users who have visited the account, and users who have saved any post or ad How are Instagram Partnership Ads different from before? Previously, advertisers/ brands were only able to boost existing organic creator content with the paid partnership label This meant when brands were using influencer content in paid campaigns, there were two options: boost content from the influencers page through the paid partnership label use the creator’s content and run as a dark ad (unable to link the creator's handle as a sponsored partner) The update now allows for the creation of dark ads with the paid partnership label, resulting in a third option for utilising influencer content When using influencer content in paid campaigns, the most effective method of targeting was through interest-based proxies of the influencer's followers An example of how brands could use Collab Ads… In a parallel universe, say Heinz identified football fans as their prime target audience, and created an influencer campaign where footballer Erling Haaland ate beans as a nutritious halftime snack... When using this content in paid campaigns, Heinz would have to build an audience for football fans based on interest pools that Meta has created. To generate these pools, Meta uses data from content that users have interacted with, and the problem is (shock!) Meta’s algorithms are not perfect. For instance, you might despise football and wonder how you can spend 105 minutes watching TV for there to be 1 shot on target and no goals… However, you may like a goal posted by @Ladbible , and because of this, Meta includes you in one of its football-related interest pools. This would mean that you're included in Heinz’s targeting, and served a video of the Man City squad eating a can of ‘Haaland's halftime Heinz’. So, even though you're not actually part of Heinz’s prime target audience, you'd be included in it, according to Meta. The difference with Collab ads... To get around this, the most effective way to reach their target audience would be to directly serve ads to Haaland’s followers, the users who are most influenced by Haaland. And right on cue, the update to the partnership product means an influencer's audience is shared with the advertiser/ brand - Heinz can now serve ads directly to Haaland’s followers, more effectively reaching and influencing their target audience vs. interest-based targeting. Importantly, once Heinz has accepted Haaland as a paid partner, they can use Haaland's handle alongside Heinz’s in a dark ad, without extra permission from Haaland. This effectively gives them free rein of the ad creative variables and needs no further approval from Haaland, provided he's tagged them in the post. It should be noted that, on Instagram, Haaland can see active and inactive ads and has the ability to pause them, however, he would not receive a notification of when the ad goes live. So in theory, once Heinz has Haaland as a paid partner, they could create unlimited ads in partnership with Haaland, with different copy and creatives, without Haaland's approval… Ultimately, what does this change to Instagram Partnership Ads mean for brands? Increased reach effectiveness with target audience - we’re able to target the followers of users and create lookalikes of users who have engaged with the influencer's profile, building a more specific targeting pool vs. our current interest-based lookalikes Increased effectiveness for utilising influencers as a credible role in driving demand gen Ability to continually leverage creator partnership permissions (without having to gain access each time) Our own thoughts on Meta's collab ads... There’s no doubt that sharing custom audiences is massively beneficial to the influencer and brand. However, given the limited transparency of new ads being set up, it does seem like a ticking time bomb until an advertiser/ brand purposely or accidentally uses a large influencer's handle (like Haaland's) in a campaign that they’ve not been made aware of. When this happens, the partnership product is likely to be revamped to include greater security, with the influencer having to approve each individual ad. Perhaps this is why Instagram ‘secretly’ announced the rebranding of content ads, and this isn’t the finished product.

Influencer marketing has grown notably in recent years. With it has come demands, loud and quiet, for enhanced regulation. Recently the ASA & CMA have issued combined guidance for the first time. Why does the ASA / CMA guidance matter for influencers and brands? The new guidance has legal force, as well as the risk of reputation shaming (the ASA’s tool, previously). What are the key points of the ASA / CMA guidance? Everyone in the process (brand, agency, influencer) has responsibility for compliance Every piece of communication needs to say ‘advert’ or ‘ad’ - there’s no scope for paid partnership tags, “ambassador”, “gifted” etc It is all encompassing… anything you are gifted, or experience - let alone paid to participate in - has to be disclosed If you’ve previously had a relationship, you should disclose it What are the implications for brands, creators and influencers? People have long utilised the ‘grey areas’ of previous legislation / guidance… this makes it more explicit, especially around the use of ‘advert’ However, we are already seeing influencers find new ‘grey areas’, using text on stories which obscures the “ad” tag, etc… Reputable brands will follow to the letter. Bad actors will not - exactly the people who circumvented reasonable behaviour previously The same applies to influencers - the disreputable will continue to be so The clarity provided is welcome. Does it drive meaningful change for the public? Probably not. They’re already highly media-literate when it comes to influencer endorsement, it cannot address those sitting outside UK jurisdiction, and those intent on deceit will continue. We can expect to see a flurry of citations from the ASA to influencers and marketing campaigns as they demonstrate the guidance.

Meta recently announced the introduction of WhatsApp channels - this forms part of a wider direction of travel from Meta toward advertising and monetisation on the WhatsApp platform. As you will see, while WhatsApp used to have limited use cases for businesses (mostly if you needed a solution for customer service, e.g., WhatsApp Business), WhatsApp Channels have introduced a unique way for businesses to update customers in a newsletter / RSS feed fashion. What is a WhatsApp Channel? WhatsApp Channels are essentially a one-way broadcast tool for organisations to send text, images, videos, stickers, and polls to a list of subscribed users. Instant Messaging Channels are not a new concept: Telegram has had these for a while (in fact, since 2015!), although the business viability for these has been limited (due to the overall platform being associated with cryptocurrency and piracy). WhatsApp is still rolling out the ability to create WhatsApp channels worldwide, and most users can already subscribe to them. Channels live in a new ‘updates’ tab on WhatsApp and users will be able to discover them from a public directory. However, we expect that building a following will also require signposting from other digital and physical properties (e.g. social, e-mail and QR-codes). Here are some WhatsApp Channels that are have already been released to the public: WhatsApp - 18.2 Million followers Real Madrid - 12.2 Million followers BBC - 435.8K followers Why should businesses consider creating a WhatsApp Channel? As always, the main purpose (and perceived benefit) of a platform will only become clear once users start using it (the same way as Threads). However, there are some use cases that we can already identify based on what was announced by Meta: You can roll out content (or important updates) in a newsletter fashion -additionally, users will be able to engage with the content through reactions. This, coupled with polls, will give businesses an additional user engagement metric to work with. Furthermore, it appears users will also have access to a range of emojis to react with (allowing some degree of sentiment analysis). Any piece of content that is forwarded from a WhatsApp channel will link back to the original channel. This is an opportunity for businesses to capitalise on network effects and word-of-mouth. Furthermore, being in the public directory will mean a further opportunity to be discovered on the platform. Whatsapp channels are embedded with unique privacy features. For example, subscribed users will not be able to see who else is subscribed, or even which users have reacted to a given message. The owner of the channel will only be able to see the public name of the user (and no one will be able to see the phone number or profile picture of who is subscribed to the channel). This will make customers more inclined to join WhatsApp Channels, in contrast to joining a group, or messaging directly with the business. Furthermore, this solves the moderation issues associated with using groups, and the limits on broadcast lists. The TLDR: What do business owners, brand managers and marketers need to know about WhatsApp Channels? The introduction of WhatsApp Channels shifts the platform towards a direction that is more content-focused and advertising-friendly. We have yet to see if this will lead to a further monetisation of the platform (and maybe the introduction of ads). WhatsApp Channels offer a unique way for businesses to update customers in a newsletter fashion, while also benefiting from (a) additional engagement metrics, (b) word-of-mouth and (c) platform security

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been doing something a little bit different each morning at OneFifty. No, it’s not a new type of coffee or standup meeting (although those do happen) - it’s a little ritual called “A Day in the Life”.  Each day, a member of the team gives us an overview of what it’s like to spend a day in their shoes, shared with the team on Slack.  We’ve had various formats; an excel spreadsheet (the finance department), TikTok videos, PDF presentations, Instagram live streams and even a website built especially for it (guilty...), and it’s been an enjoyable opportunity to get to know each other better, and to celebrate our diversity and differences across the team.  However, what has also been very interesting is the shared habits we’ve seen across members of the team, which reflect some of the values we believe in as a business. So, working at OneFifty, what's it like? Here are a few of the common themes running through the team’s daily lives, and what you can learn from it if you're thinking of working with or for OneFifty Consultancy... Sports and coaching culture We’re big on sports at OneFifty. From coaching culture to sports analogies, sports is one area that infiltrates OneFifty life in many ways, so it’s not a surprise that running, cycling and gymming all show up across the team at various points in the day.  Does this mean you have to be an athlete to work at OneFifty? No. Taking care of your physical health is important, sure. But sports is as much about the mindset as the physical act here. Just listen to Pep Guardiola  on that one. It’s about drive, communication and flexibility, and learning to push yourself further - all things that help a career in marketing. Go hard, go home harder The team work hard, when they’re not spending an hour making a website to tell people how hard they work (yep, that was me). But they go home harder, and focus their time on the things they love in the evening (or first thing in the morning before work). Whether starting the day with a 5k run pre-work or cooking with friends, families and flatmates in the evening, the team are all about making the most of their time - in and out of the office.  What does this mean for you, a potential employee of OneFifty? “Go hard, go home harder” is a motto you hear often at OneFifty. It’s why we give people 30 days holiday (AND bank holidays on top) to use in a year, and why we have flexible working hours. So when you work at OneFifty Consultancy, you come in, get your stuff done, whilst still doing the things outside of work that matter to you. Coffee Introducing our most popular team member, the coffee machine. Or at least you’d think it was - the number of times people mentioned coffee confirms its top-tier status amongst the team, closely followed by matcha lattes, cups of tea, and, of course, the occasional beverage at our local favourite, The Lucky Saint.   Now you don’t have to drink hot drinks or alcohol to work at OneFifty - in fact, you don’t have to drink anything at all, though we’d very strongly recommend at least a few glasses of water in the day to, you know, keep you alive. But... Sometimes it’s just really great to take 5 to think things through over a cuppa. We have a few communal drinks areas in our office, whether you need a quick chat over our very fancy and very tasty coffee machine, or a relaxing catch-up over a glass of wine at the office bar (yes, you read that right, an office bar). It's a tasty way of bringing people together, whatever your tipple of choice.  It’s also why there’s a ‘coffee’ budget when you first start working at OneFifty, to get to know your colleagues informally with a brew. Milk no sugar, please.  So there you have it… We’re all different and spend our working and non-working hours very differently, regardless of role, seniority or grouping, but the core values and behaviours of the team reflect some of the same values within the business.  It's been a great way to get to know each other more and celebrate the team a little bit differently, every day. Want to see more?  Check out our day-in-the-life videos from our trainees over on Instagram or TikTok.

Meta has just launched Instagram Broadcast Channels in the UK as a tool for creators (or dare we say it, ‘influencers’?) to share candid moments with their followers at a larger scale. Creators can invite all of their followers to the broadcast channel and directly engage with their most loyal fans. Mark Zuckerberg himself announced the feature through his own channel, sharing that Meta is always exploring new ways to help creators reach their audiences. Nice of them. Can brands play with Instagram broadcast channels? Alas, regular personal and business accounts can’t make broadcast channels on Instagram - the cynic in us suspects this has something to do with wanting brands to pay to reach audiences on Instagram instead. It’s a one-way broadcasting channel though, so not too dissimilar to what brands have with branded WhatsApp channels, which we wrote about here. For now, it looks like the brand opportunity lies with creators sharing branded content via Channels to their followers - useful for reaching people once, but less useful for paid promotion to reach audiences at scale and high frequency. How do Instagram Broadcast Channels work? Broadcast channels live in the ‘DM’ section of the Instagram app, so updates will pop up here as creators share their moments. We have to say it though - influencers sliding into your DMs to tell us about their morning matcha could get annoying. Likewise, for those die-hard fans, it can give them an even deeper peek into their lives. Creators can invite followers to their broadcast channels in two different ways: Sending a message to followers via their channel - Followers automatically receive a notification and message from the creator in their ‘DM’ section, inviting them to join. You probably saw plenty of these notifications when the feature dropped last week. Sharing an invite link - A creator can invite specific users, or large numbers of people at a time, depending on what they want, and where they post the link. So, why should creators use the new Instagram Broadcast Channels feature? Creators can use channels to quickly update their followers and build an even stronger sense of community. It's a great way for creators to casually share moments, and has all the features you would expect like text, photos, videos, and voice notes, without the expectation of a perfectly curated feed post or story. Creators can even create polls to crowdsource fan feedback - perfect for selecting a new tour date or what their next video should be about. There are no moderation issues for creators - followers can’t directly reply to a message, but they can leave emoji reactions or vote in polls. Here are some creators that are already engaging with broadcast channels: Valkyrae, Creator & Streamer: Follow @valkyrae Chloe Kim, Two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder: Follow @chloekim Flau’jae, Basketball and rap star: Follow @flaujae Instagram Broadcast channels let creators get directly in front of their audience at scale, and create deeper connections with their community. Ultimately, we’re reserving judgment on whether this is the next big thing or just another example of Instagram feature-stuffing, and for now will be concentrating on WhatsApp channels for brand-friendly broadcast channels.

Meta has rolled out yet another broadcasting channel, this time for Facebook and Messenger. Much like the Instagram broadcasting channels we wrote about a few weeks ago, the Facebook and Messenger broadcast channels are a type of public, one-to-many method of communication, available for anybody who manages Facebook pages (in relevant markets). Did you hear that? It’s the collective sigh of social media managers around the world working out how to add this channel into their marketing mix…. But hold your horses there, friends… Can brands use Facebook Broadcast Channels ? Meta is currently testing the ability for brands to create broadcast channels, and they expect to roll this out in the coming weeks after the release of this feature for creators and public figures. We recently wrote about how brands can use Whatsapp Channels to communicate with customers in a move from Meta to start monetising the platform, and it stands to reason that some of the benefits to Facebook Broadcast Channels could be the same - providing an opportunity to engage users and gain insights on sentiment (e.g. reactions) from those in your channel. But… What’s the verdict on broadcast channels? Meta discusses these new channels as a way for people to create deeper connections with creators - and it certainly has merits amongst super fans and advocates of content creators. But for brands? We’re less convinced. If superfans are only 10% of a fan base, for the sake of argument, perhaps energy is better spent engaging the other 90% of casual followers on public channels - after all, if we’ve learned anything from Byron Sharp, it’s that brands grow through increasing their share of occasional customers, not through deepening fandom, which has limited empirical evidence for benefits. That’s for brands though - what about broadcast channels for creators? They have less of an interest in market share and more interest in creating an engaged following, so there’s naturally a better use case for them here. But with only 24 hours in a day, is it worth it? Call us cynics, but we suspect most professional content creators are going to be focused on creating engaging branded content and getting it in front of lots of people i.e. the stuff that pays the bills. One to watch - although we’re not convinced there’s a meaningful commercial application for brands here yet.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), largely through Google, has been the main way to be visible to customers researching your category, product, or brand for 15 years now. Sometimes loved, sometimes loathed, it’s been essential, as the internet has directed ever more of our time and purchase intentions.  The last few years have seen this evolve. This has (and continues to) receive too little attention. Quite possibly because website metrics still focus on the ‘last click’ which often stays with Google, even though the steps before are taken elsewhere. Equally possible, is that, much like Hemingway described how one goes broke as “Gradually, then suddenly”, we don’t realise quite what’s happening until it overwhelms us. So, if Google isn’t the only way we research things now, what is?  Put simply - social media. Algorithm-driven results, within social platforms. We're calling it Social Media SEO. TikTok is staking a claim to be the world’s third-biggest search engine after Google and YouTube. Google has  noticed , and TikTok is even  experimenting  with having Google results alongside its own. YouTube’s role in search has been underappreciated for years, with its videos appearing within Google results, but also queries inside YouTube that require a significant amount of research. So, what should someone do, who wants to optimise for their brand/product’s visibility? One route is to consider how different audiences use different platforms to search. Think Social Search Optimisation, or Social SEO. TikTok will not meaningfully challenge Google’s dominance in the over-50s anytime soon. But for thirty-something women, Instagram is a viable rival for searches around fashion and beauty.  The other route is to look at the role of different platforms for different categories. Financial Services and Google remain firmly entwined. YouTube for auto, however, is significant, and Instagram for travel, and TikTok for books… etc. Researching the different behaviours, meaningfully, in a data-led way, matters. The biggest shift from the Google-dominated age, however, is a shift away from keywords and hashtags to algorithms. Optimising for visibility in a social platform which contains many more signals to the algorithm, means users seeing personalised results. This mitigates in favour of a much more audience-led approach, understanding different cohorts will use different platforms to search different things at different times. So... what does social SEO mean for me? Ultimately, it’s making it more complex to be visible. It means the role of brand in driving visibility becomes more important, as algorithms pick up authority signals, but also cast a halo factor for well-followed profiles. It also requires greater integration of brand, performance marketing, and PR, to ensure visibility across a basket of activities. Ultimately it requires a new lexicon, moving beyond SEO, to broad visibility on brand, product, or topic level. For marketers beloved of acronyms, silos, and templates, this may yet prove the greatest challenge of all.

TikTok recently released their report on how brands can get involved with Valentine's Day on the platform; here's everything you need to know, plus our thoughts on some of their advice. When do brands need to start talking about Valentine's Day on TikTok (and other social media channels)?  According to the report, uses of #ValentinesDay peaked the first week of January last year. That’s right, we’ve already missed that moment, and it’s only January 16th. What!? Now we know that for big events like Christmas, research and planning start much earlier than the day itself, but Valentine's Day surely can’t require as much planning as that?  We dug deeper into the data… First stop, TikTok itself. We headed to TikTok Trends and took a look at #ValentinesDay Hashtag use over the past 3 years… and their data here looks a little different to the report, with peaks showing the week of itself. Next, we headed over to Google Trends; Google searches for Valentine’s Day do start to rise from Christmas onwards, then, as you’d expect, peak around the big day and drop down right afterward until the following Christmas. This reflects what we often see in a multi-channel marketing mix; Google is where people go to research and plan with intent; social channels are where consumption moments are shared. That’s not to say there isn’t a role for discovery and inspiration on TikTok, but for many brands, it’s going to pay off to focus efforts on search now, with social coming in closer to the big day.  So, what have we learned from this? Nothing major. Get PPC running now. Start planning your Valentine’s content over the next few weeks, and don’t be afraid to start posting it a little earlier than the day itself. After Valentine’s Day? Don’t bother.  What types of content should brands post on TikTok for Valentine’s Day?  TikTok prompts four areas in which brands could join the conversation in their report, which are: Valentine’s Day looks (makeup, clothing) Romantic trips (travel) Home decor for cosy nights in  Delicious recipes Back to TikTok trends and we’ve found a few other trending formats to try: Celebrating with friends and family - #GalentinesDay shows us it’s not just about romantic love over on TikTok - friends and family can be treated too “This or that” - an easy format, with community outreach asking people whether to spend their Valentine's Day doing/dressing/eating option 1 or 2.  How I’m spending my Valentine's Day filters (like this ) ASMR What creative tips should brands use for marketing on TikTok for Valentine’s Day? The TikTok report gives some quick insights into how brands can approach creative. We’re not going to write about all of them, because if you’ve landed here on this blog, we think you’re probably already aware that you should create content with your brand and audience in mind. But here are a 3 of our favourite other pieces of advice for branded TikToks: Use trends to spark creativity,  looking at top hashtags and sounds to identify opportunities for content creation. This is something we do daily when we’re identifying key moments and content ideas for our clients - everything we do at OneFifty is driven by data, and this is a great source of inspiration and insight for content creation Make the first 6 seconds count; TikTok supports video lengths ranging from 15 sec to 3min and any video within this range can find success, but we know from experience (and the data) that you have to hook in your audience within the first 6 seconds if you want to see success Lean into lo-fi;  Smartphone camera quality is perfect for TikTok, but be sure to avoid pixelated or blurry videos, and videos should not be below 720P. This is something that will have some brand managers biting their nails with nerves, but a more minimal and made-for-platform aesthetic is what drives success here. It’s why, when we’re filming TikToks at OneFifty, we’re not bringing our 4k DSLR cameras - we’re taking our phones and using capcuts and native features to make videos engaging and fun How should brands advertise on TikTok for Valentine's Day? Unsurprisingly, the rest of the report is dedicated to educating brands about the need to spend money on their ad platform to build brand love for Valentines Day. We’re shocked.  Their suggested route to drive down the funnel fully is: Prime the market with Video Shopping Ads. Leverage VSA Prospecting to target and prime broad audiences of prospective buyers, and if you don't have a product catalog, leverage Web Conversion ads instead.  Drive reach and excitement across the platform. Generate excitement on peak day using Reach & Frequency for maximum reach and to increase awareness. Turn interest into sales with effective retargeting. Scale up your retargeting spend after peak moments and capitalize on increased traffic to your website/app. Convert these users into customers with VSA Retargeting and Web Ads. It’s great they’ve given this suggested route but it’s worth keeping in mind that there’s no size fits all solution to advertising effectiveness for any product or brand. When we’re running campaigns for clients, TikTok is often one of the channels we’ll use, but as part of a wider digital ecosystem that includes multiple channels, such as Facebook, Instagram and PPC, to ensure clients get the best bang for their buck and the best possible chance to convert customers efficiently. And, as we’ve said above, when it comes to a multi-channel marketing journey, you’ll want to look at search before social to catch those researching with the intent to purchase.  What does this mean for me, the average brand owner / marketer / creator on TikTok? Well, firstly, it means you don’t need to worry about reading the Valentine’s Day report because we’ve done it for you. Second, if you’ve read this and feel like you need some help growing your brands on TikTok, you’re in the right place… We’re a digital consultancy which uses data and models of behaviour to anticipate what, where, and how organisations should behave, across social and digital media, including TikTok. We then make that happen. Get in touch to learn more. Link to the report

Instagram announced late last week that they’re modifying the Discover algorithm . Whilst this represents a minority of time spent inside the app (estimated at c.20% of time spent), it represents the majority of how content is discovered which isn’t surfaced by your immediate network of followers. So, this is significant from an audience growth, but also from a strategic perspective. Instagram has acknowledged that the current method favours high-reach established creators. The new model will encourage smaller creators. Sound a bit (lot) like TikTok? It is.  You’ll hear some excited hype around what Instagram's algorithm update means for brands. Likely nothing, however - as brand accounts are treated differently by the Instagram algorithm to begin with, and almost certainly will be - they get limited algorithm traction. It’s not in Meta’s (ad business) interest to change that. So, realistically, there are potential moderate impacts for an influencer strategy on Instagram, whereby micro influencers may play a bigger part in content discovery and visibility campaigns - but the effect is likely to be greater for consumers’ scrolling, and influencer’s metrics. Want to know more? Get in touch with us to chat about what this could mean for your brand.