Tips, and tricks to connect with your customers

LinkedIn Channels

‍

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network, with more than 690 million users on the platform. Last year, the platform’s engagement increased by 50%, so it makes sense as to why 97% of B2B marketers find LinkedIn as their go-to channel for their content marketing efforts.

‍

Brandwatch allows you to keep track of the performance on all of your company’s LinkedIn pages in one place. This allows you to strengthen your content strategy to make it more impactful in the global professional community.

‍

When you are seeking to better understand what drives engagement the most, and how it contributes to reaching a larger audience, you can measure the success of your owned and paid content. Build a more valuable audience by analysing and monitoring your following over time. Study responses to recognise your top employee advocates and industry influencers who could ignite new conversations and opportunities.

‍

Facebook And Instagram

‍

Social media giant, Facebook, recently revised their terms to further define how social intelligence partners utilise their data for analysis.

‍

What should bring joy to Brandwatch users is that Brandwatch has been compliant with Facebook requirements for years. So, unlike other data providers, there will be no loss of data or significant changes for our users. Brandwatch can continue to focus on further developments that help users make the most of their Facebook and Instagram data.

‍

New Additions This Month:

‍

• Bulk uploading of non-owned Instagram business accounts: Increase your coverage by monitoring the posts of the brands, newsrooms, brands, and companies in your industry.
• Improved user-experience: The Brandwatch Query-builder now has alerts to notify you when you need to set up channels and hashtags to get sufficient coverage.

‍

Upcoming Additions:

‍

• Even more user experience improvements: Monitor Facebook and Instagram accounts with more agility and with easier authentication.
• Hashtag autocomplete: It's now easier to search for and find the correct hashtags to monitor.
• More historic data: Now you can get 400 days of historic data for both owned and non-owned Facebook pages as well as owned Instagram accounts.
• Non-owned Facebook pages now allow bulk uploading.

‍

Disqus: Article And Blog Comments

‍

Disqus is a public commentary sharing platform used by many news sites such as the Boston Herald, Mercury News, and Bloomberg. Disqus is also used by blogs, review sites, and forums.

‍

When your query matches the text in a comment, Disqus data will be automatically added to your results. Ask your Customer Success Manager on how to best utilise this new content source.

‍

• Monitoring comments under blogs and articles adds a new layer of consumer insight to your brand tracking.
• Understand how people are reacting to articles or blogs about your brand to get your consumers opinions on the current events.
• Notice when people bring up your products or competitors’ products on review sites or forums.
• Identify unlicensed selling of your products
• Analyse comments on your own site, if you utilise Disqus.

‍

Geofence Queries

‍

Using latitude: and longitude: operators, you can now filter or search within a particular area. This opens up an entire host of new possibilities such as:

‍

• Monitoring live responses to events.
• Comparing consumer discussions at various transport hubs, malls or shop locations.
• Discovering where your brand logo appears at popular monuments and attractions.

‍

Per Capita Maps

‍

Brandwatch Vizia now has a new 'per capita' map view, this allows you to see where your brand or topic has been mentioned the most. This is very helpful for answering strategic questions that will inform important business decisions such as:

‍

• Which audience does your campaign best resonate with?
• Possible regions in which your new product should first be launched
• Identifying new markets in which your brand may be gaining traction.

‍

Better Location Tagging

‍

Locations provided by social media users in their bios cannot be easily placed. They are often slang, playful, or ironic (e.g. “Jozi Maboneng” or “The mother city”). Brandwatch’s advanced machine learning algorithms can learn to interpret those informal references and correctly link them to their actual geographic meanings, providing you with sharper data for your location analysis.

There is Lekker Food at my Door, does it Ring a bell?

‍

Food has always been a social occasion, it brings people together irrespective of race colour or creed. Most cultures communicate love through food and South Africans fall within that margin. In that case, how do fast-food restaurants in South Africa ensure that food lovers' needs are well met?

‍

Food plays a big role in our lives. Not only as a source of nutrients but as part of religions and a centre point of some cultures even. Food has been a symbol of respect and a way to show love and appreciation.

‍

It’s no wonder we invest so heavily in what we eat. But how has our perception of food changed throughout time. Particularly with the introduction of fast food. Many traditionalists, culturalists and nutritionists have always seen food as freshly made in your home.

‍

But how does the landscape of food look in 2020 where fast food and food delivery is growing at a rapid pace and there has been more demand than ever before.

‍

The average person in 2020 has definitely either eaten food from a fast food chain or ordered food online. Why? Well we are busier than ever and always on the go.

‍

YOUKNOW, using social intelligence collected consumer insights on how the South African online community talks about fast-food outlets and food delivery apps.

‍

When we analyse the fast food industry in South Africa we have to look at the two aspects. Fast food chains and Food delivery.

‍

Though growth is undeniable within the industry, economic issues like load shedding are a big challenge for most business owners. On the bright side though, food is a basic need which means fast food eaters will continue ordering their food even if it means doing that online, because when this generation wants something, they want it now.

‍

‍

With instant gratification came forth convenience which led to the invention of food delivery apps. These applications are preferred by consumers for their convenience mostly. Being able to order from numerous restaurants without having to rearrange schedules is one of the benefits. Other benefits include allowing for instant payment methods, real-time tracking, delivery scheduling and looking at the menu and price while reading reviews by previous customers before any order can be confirmed. This isn’t only convenient for customers, but for restaurant owners too.

‍

Though the benefits may be numerous, the CoronaVirus pandemic is affecting this industry as well. Not only the customers are scared for their health, but the drivers too, and we see that through customer conversations on social media when a driver almost throws a customer's order over the gate.

‍

‍

Besides catching flying food, customers are getting used to getting their food in a click and are becoming more and more demanding. What does this mean for the fast-food and food delivery industry?

‍

Fast food delivery players backed up by modern technology can start looking into genius marketing and bizarre innovations so that they are able to withstand competition and can keep up with ever changing customer demands.

‍

A few innovations that are being implemented to meet customer demands use new delivery channels like order by tweet, self-service ordering kiosks, order by smartwatch and order with a smart tv are already penetrating the industry.

‍

Smarter technological advancements like robots and drones delivering your food will become normal as food delivery companies will no longer be limited by labour force.

‍

‍

With today’s busy schedules and lifestyles, mobile devices will keep people out of the kitchen and send them straight to apps where they will order their food in one click. Will that stop fast-food restaurant owners from coming up with new concepts? We are yet to find out.

“The new normal”: a term I think we have all grown to hate. Hate is a harsh word, but from some of the reactions I have gotten in meetings in 2020, I would say it may be a fair label. But the term exists for a reason. Our life, as we knew it, has turned on its head. And marketers and brands alike tried to talk to their clients about how the world will look post-COVID.

‍

Now that we know COVID is here to stay a bit longer than we thought, it has bought us some time to collect enough data to get an overview of how consumer perceptions and behaviours have changed throughout this period.

‍

COVID may be a thing of the past by the end of 2021 (vaccine dependent), but will consumers go back to their past lives? Let’s look at some of the data and give you an idea of what may transpire.

‍

DATA For Good.

‍

If you have not watched “The Social Dilemma” yet, do yourself a favour and give it a viewing, but try not to take all the doom and gloom that comes with it. Social media and data can be exceptionally beneficial to us humans. If you have been drawn into the outrage - on social media - by a group of people who believe that “The Government is stealing all my data!” via the COVID tracking app; you are probably misinformed.

‍

A trend has appeared, globally, where internet users appear willing to suspend their usual concerns with personal data to assist contact tracing software. Facebook was even experimenting with paying users for data, which in the long run can change our mindset and bring us closer to fair monetisation of personal data. With enough transparency and education, data can be your ally in times like these and moving into the future.

‍

‍

Exclusively Excluded

‍

Calling all influencers.. calling all influencers! It’s easy to hop on the bandwagon and bash celebrities and influences during times like these. There were even articles stating that, “Hollywood is dead”. The pandemic was new, we had some wild ideas.

‍

Let’s be honest, it must be difficult for people to show off Gucci watches and BMW’s when thousands were losing their livelihoods at the same time. The virus does not discriminate. We are all equally affected in one way or another.

‍

Initial data collected out of Italy and parts of Asia tells us that consumers will be less likely to want to stand out from the crowd, with a focus on solidarity within the collective. Brands may want to focus on values that try to escalate their consumers above the pack. Emphasise practicality over exclusivity, where possible, over the coming months.

‍

‍

Life In The Slow Lane

‍

With the opportunity for a lot of us to work from home and with movement limited we tend to have immediate access to screens, pretty much all the time. One way we have filled this time is to stream and stream some more.

‍

Ongoing COVID survey data, performed by GlobalWebIndex, did eventually show a drop in online media usage after the initial spike in a number of countries. This shows that consumers may be moving to a stage where they are trying to pursue offline pursuits. A large number of people in my personal network have found new passions in cooking and reading again, and have limited hours they are allowed to use their phones. COVID highlighted this dependency on screens for them, and more than likely to you as well.

‍

Brands should consider how to engage and support consumers wanting to look away from screens. Good examples of this are Mcdonalds and Kraft Heinz with their branded jigsaw puzzles.

‍

Reduced Horizons

‍

International travel has ground to an absolute halt. Because of that we have somewhat been forced to focus on our immediate environment. From the bespoke COVID research conducted by GlobalWebIndex in the first few months of the pandemic, we noticed consumers have become more and more conscious of their countries’ performance and well-being during the crisis. Flags on balconies, from images on CNN and Sky News, became cliché and conversations about global lockdown comparisons became a hot topic when our beer had been taken from us.

‍

Brands can tap into feelings of national pride and solidarity. For airlines (I’m looking at you, SAA) a focus on domestic travel isn’t only practical, but also a meaningful way of connecting consumers who have a personal stake in the recovery of their nation.

‍

‍

We can all agree that COVID-19 has probably shaped society differently for the rest of our lives. Brands need to adjust quickly. While most small businesses were forced to adapt very quickly (have a look at the Shopify share price from January to now), larger, more “traditional” retailers and brands were not immune. With consumer insights readily available and becoming more accessible and affordable, change can be implemented swiftly, backed by the right data. The question is: “Can you afford not to change?”

Hello December! Today Hootsuite brings you a little light summer upgrade and a sizzling hot new product feature.

‍

For the longest time, users have not been able to report on Instagram Carousels despite them being one of the most engaging formats on social media, but that is all in the past now.

‍

Hootsuite has launched its Instagram Carousel metric in Analytics which allows users to track their Instagram post-performance. Users will be able to compose, schedule, approve, and publish up to ten carousels using their Hootsuite mobile app. A notification will be sent through to their mobile app for verification and then they will be prompted to open Instagram to complete their publishing workflows within a few clicks. From there, the tracking begins, all in Hootsuite Analytics.

‍

Some users may ask if they will have native editing capabilities from the Instagram app to finalise and fine-tune their content before they send it out, and the answer is yes. Hootsuite made this feature available for all plans as Instagram Carousels are an enormous advantage to expand any business.

‍

Now, Instagram Carousels are one of the most versatile tools you can use to achieve your business goals, and with a good creative strategy, you can boost engagement levels, increase brand loyalty, and even drive product sales.

‍

Carousels have become an important part of Instagram marketing strategy, and Hootsuite allows you to prepare, preview, and schedule your Instagram Carousels so that with a single push notification, you have everything ready to publish.

‍

This feature is set to be released on the 8th of December 2020. Be ready to get an in-depth analysis of key metrics for your Instagram posts.

‍

Instagram Stories

‍

Instagram is obviously one of the most popular photo-sharing apps today, and with its stories feature, it allows users to share all the moments of their day, not just the ones worth keeping on their profile.

‍

Hootsuite enables users to download a free pack of of 20 customisable Instagram stories templates, to save time and get results. It also enables users to Create Instagram Stories campaigns in Ads, which allows brands to connect with their audience on a personal level.

‍

Hootsuite continues to evolve and keeps introducing more engagement boosting features that give users a direct line to connect with their audience and learn more about them. The platform has lots of hidden ways to take user experience to the next level.

Just in! Hootsuite has updated its dashboard for a better social media management experience.

‍

While some owlies have already been enjoying the new look and feel, the final implementation across all accounts will happen towards the end of August 2020.

‍

‍

Last year the SMM dynamo went through a rebranding exercise, and the new Hootsuite interface is a continuation of the future-focused initiative. Fresh colours and improved features position Hootsuite as the easiest SMM tool on the market, suiting both social media novices and experts.

‍

‍

So, what can you look out for? The left panel has core product functions bundled together The compose button is positioned to be easier to find, no matter where you are in the platform Streams and tabs have been redesigned into boards. This simplifies the experience when toggling between social networks

‍

Along with the above, Hootsuite has also added some NEW functionalities:

‍

Now users can publish and schedule Instagram stories as well as Instagram Carousels from the dashboard. Hootsuite works closely with social networks to deliver value-added features to clients regularly. With this release you can: Post multiple images to LinkedIn Add subtitles to Facebook and Twitter videos Leverage additional metrics in the analytics component

‍

More exciting additions to Hootsuite will be announced over the rest of the year. We're keeping mum for now - but stay tuned for how Hootsuite is quickly becoming the most coveted Social media Management tool in South Africa

‍

To see a brief demo of the environment click here.

‍

Alternatively, drop us an email at theteam@youknow.co.za

If you are looking to thrive in the aftermath of COVID-19 is all about keeping on top of consumer trends, and moving with them.

‍

The best way to do this is to listen to what they are asking and understanding what they want from you. Once you know what that is, you can change your strategy to meet their needs. Consumer insights play a massive role in this.

‍

We can all agree 2020 has thrown a spanner into the works in everyone’s lives, from personal to work to how brands need to rethink their strategies and where consumers are spending more time these days. COVID 19 has brought radical change and new habits, opinions and perceptions.

‍

Our partners at GlobalWebIndex have fielded coronavirus research across 20 countries and have recently released their 4th wave of findings. These types of surveys allow us to map crucial changes that consumers will bring in a post-pandemic world.

‍

The crucial question we are looking at here is: what changes will stick? We have highlighted some trends that are most likely to continue:

‍

Travel Habits Will Continue To Change.

‍

When asked what type(s) of vacation people intend to take in the next 12 months, domestic vacations and staycations in the local area top the list, scoring considerably more than short-haul foreign vacations or long-haul ones.

‍

If we look specifically at South African survey respondents from the last round of survey data (29 June - 2 July 2020). 43% of South Africans say they intend to take a domestic vacation in the next 12 months and 35% tell us they will not be taking a vacation at all. We can assume that comes down to a squeeze on finances during this period.

‍

‍

Consumers Are Reassessing Their Personal Finances.

‍

When asked about their personal financial response to the coronavirus outbreak, over 90% are planning to change their behaviour in some way.

‍

This is reflected in the 83% of consumers expecting the pandemic to impact their personal finances, albeit with the largest amount anticipating only a small impact across multiple markets. (44% say this, compared to 30% envisaging a big impact and 9% bracing for a dramatic impact).

‍

If we look exclusively at South African consumers, 64% of survey respondents have told us that COVID 19 will have a big or dramatic impact on personal and household finances.

‍

Globally, around 4 in 10 plan to cut back on their day-to-day spending or are looking to reduce their regular financial commitments (e.g. cancel subscriptions, memberships, etc).

‍

Online Shopping Will Continue To Boost

‍

Online shopping is set to grow - and this enthusiasm has increased since April, showing no signs of waning even as more countries move into the recovery phase of the pandemic.

‍

Free delivery is the single biggest motivator for global consumers when online shopping, with discounts and customer reviews taking second and third place.

‍

‍

These trends are just a few of a number of developing trends happening globally due to COVID 19.

‍

For free access to the report please find it here, these reports are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the information available on the intuitive GlobalWebIndex platform.

“Now don’t go wasting my precious time...”

‍

The Spice Girls were actually way beyond their years. A few of their lyrics hide some really great customer engagement do’s and don’ts that are relevant to customer engagement in 2020.

‍

Hootsuite considers current customer engagement trends as the ‘Age of the Individual’. Meaning generic broadcast messages have come to an end, and one-on-one connections are on the rise. Companies who prioritise busy content calendars, while having a response rate of 8+ hours to customer comments, could be missing the plot leaving customers throwing their hands in the air.

‍

On the topic of time, during one of my online shopping binges, I wondered whether South African consumers were upset by a lag in the delivery of items due to restrictions. I used Brandwatch to quickly investigate this further.

‍

‍

Surprisingly, courier services are not as large of a concern as anticipated. It seems as though the majority of South Africans are more dissatisfied with responsiveness from online retailers. Customers appear to be understanding of delays in delivery, but many just wanted a response- to their calls, emails, and social messages.

‍

‍

"And, all that I want from you, is the promise you... will be there"

‍

It’s well known that many call centres weren’t equipped for operating during the lockdown, and this has put pressure on optimized digital transformation. Social media has always been seen as a departmental activity while it actually is the golden thread that weaves a business operation together. Luckily, there's a fix for looping queries from social, emails and calls together to track a customer's complaint cycle. Enter: The Hootsuite and Zendesk integration.

‍

The below numbers provide a glimpse into how capturing customer engagement data can provide valuable insights into how customers talk to a brand- and ultimately- what they need.

‍

‍

In this example, we see positive brand-related topics from consumers on a brand’s social pages. However, depending on the brand and industry, the majority of topics aren’t always positive. In some cases, a first response time could be 15 hours, with the customer topics all being support related. This drowns out any of the brand’s marketing activities. What is the best practice then? You should be aiming to respond to customers on an average of 0-4 hours, no later than 8 hours.

‍

So here's the story from A-Z... Customers are voicing their opinions and needs. Tools like Hootsuite and Brandwatch provide businesses real-time monitoring and response capabilities to streamline activities. To learn more about customer engagement and best practices, download the below toolkit.

‍

Hootsuite’s customer engagement toolkit

‍

YOUKNOW helps curious companies with marketing technology, and represent the leading global solutions.

‍

To find out how Hootsuite can help your business, email ashleigh@youknow.co.za

While in the midst of a pandemic , any good news is very much welcomed, however I think we got a bit more than we bargained for when Sony decided to drop the designs of the 5th PlayStation console. The PS5 design which is to be released at the end of this year was revealed at the PlayStation5 Future of Gaming event on Thursday, June, 11, and gaming enthusiasts took to social media to share their thoughts.

‍

The PS5 design was revealed on Thursday, 11 June at the Future of Gaming event. This release, which is set to be available towards the end of 2020, will be competing with the Xbox Series X which is also scheduled for release at the same time. The game will be competing with Xbox Series X which will also be released towards the end of this year. Fans had a lot to say about the PS5 design which included a white outer shell, black hardware, and blue lighting elements.

‍

With such a big release comes very big conversations around specs, design, price, compatibility and competitor comparisons. The 4 p’s of marketing. Using Brandwatch’s consumer insights platform we delved a bit deeper into the conversation to understand what this looks like. Within the 1st week of release there were over 1 Million mentions of PS5. Most pressing question amongst gamers was the official release date, The Spiderman: Miles Morale game that is one of 15 games that come standard with the console.

‍

The PS5 design gained over 1 Million total mentions gamers describing the console as a superior gaming console. With much praise on the envious design, came the difficult discussion of price. At what cost to which body part would this beautifully crafted piece of engineering come? According to social media the speculated retail price estimate would be around $500, R8715,18 to be exact. The CEO of Playstation has however contradicted these rumours by releasing a statement saying that they are focusing on value over price for this edition.

‍

Either way South African gamers were quick to express their willingness to do almost anything to get their hands on this hot property. A female influencer took the lead by offering to buy any male the new PS5 console if they twerked for her. Stereotypical gender roles were quickly reversed as a male took her up on her challenge to secure himself a PS5.

‍

‍

There have also been speculations around the price of PS5 being $500, but Sony has not said anything about the pricing as the company CEO has emphasised it must ensure that they focus on getting the value equation right.

‍

‍

Only two versions of the game were revealed, the first being the edition with an optical drive and the other is a digital edition for game downloads only which might cost a little less than the other version.

‍

With that being said, we looked at conversations that happened during the week of the release of the PS5 and we were able to get up to a million mentions around the PlayStaion5 conversation with over 740 thousand authors taking part. With Spiderman: Miles Morale as one of 15 games that comes with PS5, most people showed excitement around it than with other games.

‍

‍

As we look at people’s feelings around the release, we also take at a look at emojis that were used to show expression when PS5 was mentioned. The emojis that stood out were the face with tears of joy emoji, the loudly crying face emoji and the smiling face with heart eyes emoji. Most emojis depicted positive emotions around the conversation.

‍

With Twitter being at the forefront of our data collection, people on the app had a lot to say about the release of the game and it is evident that #PS5 and #PlayStation5 were the most mentioned hashtags with people also ensuring they tag @playstation5 within their mentions.

All insights were collected through Brandwatch Consumer Research. The data used are from different content sources, but most of it is from Twitter. With all that’s been said, PS5 looks pretty cool and the reaction received was mostly amazing, though it was expected.

In recent years, the story of social media has mainly been around the discussion of cutting down on how much we engage with it. Spending less time on the platforms, being more careful about social media behaviours, and putting less of our personal data within the public domain.

‍

However, under lockdown things have changed very significantly. In the beginning of April, almost half of the consumers said they were allocating longer times on social media, as detailed in our coronavirus investigation.

‍

In 2014, we started following the behaviours on social media, the utilisation of the news on social media has increased but now its propensity is front-and-centre since the outbreak.

‍

“Doom-scrolling” (perusing through a stream of discouraging headlines on social media) may very soon become a dictionary entry before long, which fortifies how powerful it’s been as a news source all through the crisis.

‍

Demand for up-to-date data within the early stages of the pandemic was unparalleled, with social media giving fast and simple access to important information.

‍

‍

This is consistent across all age groups except Gen Z, who are more likely to go on social media for entertainment and to fill up spare time.

‍

‍

Social Media Fun

‍

In today's times, social media has increasingly become a part of the way of life now – "go viral or go domestic".

‍

The third most popular reason people go on social media today is simply to find forms of entertainment and amusement (33%), behind by one per cent is, filling up save time (34%).

‍

As shown in the chart above, this particular motivation is mostly cited by our youngest demographic – Gen Z (40%) – but it’s also very prominent among millennials (35%).

‍

The thought of social channels advancing into social entertainment platforms is nothing innovative, but the pandemic has taken the focus away from latently consuming the content, but it's also moved to the users creating the content too.

‍

Creating and uploading videos on platforms like TikTok is one of the few online behaviours accelerated by COVID-19 that has witnessed increased engagement since April.

‍

‍

As we would expect, Gen Z are at the forefront of this trend, with almost 3 in 10 creating more videos because of the outbreak – an increase of eight percentage points between April and July.

‍

‍

The viral video-sharing app, TikTok, has been the facilitator for social media fun, as it has seen a huge spike of visitors according to the Q2 research conducted by GlobalWebIndex.

‍

TikTok has very much taken up the identity of being the home to Gen Z, the platform has attracted more diverse audiences looking for escapism during the lockdown, with 22% of parents with young children creating and uploading videos more on video-sharing sites because of the outbreak.

‍

Social Media For Purely “Social” Activities

‍

Prior to the outbreak, social media’s role in encouraging sharing, connecting, and socialising was gradually being replaced by more passive and purposeful activities, like researching brands and consuming content. To put this into perspective, back in 2014, people were using social primarily to stay in touch with what their friends were doing and to share their opinion or details about their personal lives.

‍

‍

The crisis has encouraged consumers to look to their wider communities for support, as people have felt as comfortable sharing what they’re going through in the public sphere as they have with immediate friends and family.

‍

We also see evidence of this when consumers were asked what content they found most inspirational in the last 2 months, content from the local community was the second-most popular answer after that of friends and family.

‍

What Does This Mean For Brands?

‍

Currently, 24% of consumers across 18 markets discover brands on social media, and 55% approve of brands running “normal” advertising. Now is the time for marketers to tap into consumers’ changing social media habits and adjust their messaging accordingly. So how can businesses advertise in the social space without the fear of looking opportunistic? And what are consumers’ new priorities?

‍

‍

‍

We are still experiencing the primary impact that COVID-19 had at the beginning of the outbreak, but the ramifications for social media may go well past how much time is spent on it. If brand purpose hasn’t been front-of-mind for companies before COVID, it should definitely be on their immediate radar. Brands should work on strengthening this, as it will enable brands to filter through the noise and make a positive impact in this new social media-driven landscape.

Have you been baking during the lockdown? You're not alone. South Africans have posted about their baking endeavours more than 20,000 times since the start of #LockdownSA. These conversations have reached more than 4.4 million people.

‍

‍

What has sparked this baking frenzy? Here's one popular reason:

‍

‍

With all of the restaurants, bars and other venues closed, well-meaning South Africans are attempting to make the birthdays of loved ones special with birthday treats.

‍

‍

And how are people feeling about it all?

‍

‍

A little overwhelmed!

‍

‍

But most are feeling proud of their achievements:

‍

‍

Joy is on the rise according to the emotional development graph

‍

‍

And sadness, in the true South African style, is still half joking -

‍

‍

Now, let's take a closer look at what people are discussing baking:

‍

‍

Cake and Bread are far out front! Did you think Banana Bread would take first place?

‍

Cake and Bread tie for the most share of voice (31%) Banana Bread comes in with 12%.

‍

‍

Zooming in to Cake:

‍

‍

Zooming in to Bread:

‍

‍

With a country as diverse as ours, here is how the goods compare by geography:

‍

‍

Pretoria loves to bake cake, whereas Capetonians are most keen on baking bread.

‍

Finally,__ when__ are South Africans most chatty about baking online?

‍

‍

Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days.

‍

*This data was analysed through Brandwatch Consumer Research, with the most volume of conversation coming from Twitter, for the period March 2020 - April 2020.

Design Your Advocacy Program

1. Plan,Pitch,Andgetbuy-In

‍

A desire to see the company succeed is crucial for advocates, and this cannot be created by corporate mandate. Compulsory advocacy negates the entire point of bringing employees on to social media creating a transparent and sincere business environment that resonates with customers. For these reasons, buy-in across multiple stakeholders within your organisation is key.

‍

So, what motivates an employee to become a company advocate? The simple answer is engagement. If an employee feels personally rewarded by the work environment, it’s natural to transfer that engagement to customers.

‍

Build a plan for buy-in by:

• Gathering key information and figures
• Considering the stakeholders and stages
• Creating a formal case around the benefits of advocacy
• Communicating the concept and gathering feedback
• Attaining buy-in from leadership

‍

While buy-in at the executive level can be achieved through a business case, organisational buy-in at the departmental or employee level is often handled through change management processes. There are different approaches to this process, but it is important in helping to ensure smooth adoption of a new approach. Employee advocacy might seem natural on paper, but each individual has unique views on social media, and the division of work and personal lives. Thus, you need to consider a broad spectrum of comfort levels.

‍

Here is a high-level list of considerations for change management:

• Consider the individual and human sides
• Start from the top down but include every level
• Create sense of ownership
• Plan to assess and create touch points throughout
• Prepare for the unexpected and adapt to real-time circumstances that inevitably arise

‍

The steps you take to gain buy-in will help you throughout the rest of the rollout process for a successful employee advocacy program.

‍

2. Set Program Goals And Objectives

‍

We’ve established why employee advocacy can be highly effective and gained buy-in from the organisation. Defining what you want to accomplish is the next step. Now you need to set objectives for your organisation. These will largely depend on your overall social media, marketing, or communications strategies and will help to create a specific and measurable framework for this aspect of your marketing mix.

‍

Consider different objectives for different departmental needs. Each department has different goals and could potentially leverage an employee advocacy program in a number of powerful ways.

‍

Take these differences into account when setting objectives and consider measuring the following items:

• Employee adoption rate
• Usage and publishing frequency
• Reach of employee advocacy messages
• Business impact: leads generated from employee advocacy (sales, recruitment etc.)

‍

Use the following list to organise objectives across departments:

‍

‍

3. Plan for deployment across Your Organisation

‍

We’ve outlined the different models an organisation can follow to help develop your policies and governance.

‍

Empowerment

‍

Collaboration. Create a social business Center of Excellence (COE). This is an advisory council or governance committee of social leaders in an organisation that sets social media policies and processes, and provides best practices and training for colleagues.

‍

Content. Employee advocates need support from the marketing department and other official content sources within the organisation. It’s vital that advocates get support from marketing to access content for social sharing.

‍

Localisation. Employees advocate the ability to listen and speak at a local level and still act in harmony with company-wide social initiatives.

‍

Culture. Culture is built on trust, transparency and freedom of choice. Senior management is serious about developing the company’s human capital. Collaborative social tools help spark cultural change and ultimately drive employee advocacy outside the enterprise.

‍

Brand. For empowered employees to properly advocate a brand, they must be able to express what differentiates it from the competition. In an empowered social business, employees may collaborate to refine the brand, and even facilitate customer influence over the brand, but they should always know the brand. Even though they can be very credible advocates when describing the enterprise in their own words, their messaging should convey commonalities.

‍

Containment

‍

Collaboration. Financial services and other regulated industries must ensure that employee messaging is compliant with the law. In this model, technological platforms and business procedures value security and control over participation. However, employee participation can be scaled up over time if the right strategy is put in place.

‍

Security. Security is the foundation of containment. This comes from a social relationship platform that includes centralised control of corporate profiles, multi-layered permissions, secure single sign-in procedures, and an encryption protocol, such as https. Compliance might also necessitate automatic archiving of both internal and public social messaging.

‍

Governance. A clear policy that lays out the rules of engagement for all employees. This document is aligned with the company’s guidelines for email, text messaging, and all other communications with clients and the public. Since social media management is part of the company’s overall security and compliance policies, the chief information officer and chief risk officer may be involved.

‍

Roll Out Your Advocacy Program

‍

With your plan in place, approvals in hand, stakeholders bought in and eyes on your objectives, it’s time to get started! Next, we’ll explore how to identify advocates and motivate them to participate, how to execute the rollout, communicate the plan, and set up training.

‍

1. Identify your advocates

‍

You may have existing thought leaders or social media experts within your organisation. These people can be great to launch and help grow your program, starting with reaching out. They can also act as a sounding board for the concept and can offer valuable insight into your community and employee sentiment within the organisation. Align yourself with these folks early and make them feel like a part of the team. These early adopters have an influence within your organisation already and can help get others curious and involved.

‍

Follower and friend counts are only part of the story. When the impact of their social messaging is considered, employee advocates look like marketing powerhouses. According to Edelman’s 2019 Trust Barometer, 53% of all global consumers see employees as the most credible sources for learning about companies.

‍

Enterprises strengthen their brands enormously by activating these internal thought leaders on social media. Employee blogs and social media profiles allow workers to build personal brands online and to create employee generated content that also reflect well on their employer. Meliã Hotels International, for example, launched an innovative initiative centered on the people behind the brand: clients, employees, influencers, and even the company’s CEO.

‍

This initiative allowed the company to capture images of its products and services taken by clients and use them in email marketing, in digital advertising, or as widgets on its website, allowing users to make reservations with a single click from user-created content.

‍

Today’s workers see social media as a basic way to communicate, so they don’t miss 7 a beat when companies introduce internal social tools like Hootsuite to help them collaborate and amplify external messaging on behalf of their brands. Corporate education programs can accelerate the workforce transition and turn typical employees into social media power users.

‍

How you roll out the program will likely have a number of dependencies including the model you’ve adopted, the size of your organisation, social media competencies of your workforce and your goals and objectives for the program.

‍

In smaller organisations with a high level of social media sophistication, you may want to simply launch the program, communicate, and open up access immediately. This approach requires a higher tolerance from the employees for learning on the fly and a culture that supports moving fast.

‍

For all other situations, it’s likely that you’ll choose to pilot your program with a number of different groups or individuals, collect feedback, and iterate in a beta prior to launching broadly. The existing group of thought leaders or early adopters are usually ideal candidates, but you may want to consider diversifying to gain other perspectives that may better match those of the rest of the organisation.

‍

The benefits of taking the pilot approach are:

• Gathers learnings and shortcomings
• Clarity into what’s working
• Builds curiosity within the organisation
• Creates ownership or VIP feel for those within the program
• Allows you to predict future success based on early metrics

‍

2. Motivate For Success

‍

This section will help you to answer the “what’s in it for me?” question when rolling out your employee advocacy program to employees. It is critical that they do not feel like the program is imposed upon them or forced in any way. It has to be mutually beneficial for both the employee and the organisation. Just as in your approach with content, be authentic in the description of benefits for both parties.

‍

There are also tactics you can apply to sweeten the deal for employees:

• Rewards and contests
• Leader boards
• VIP programs
• Development opportunities
• Early access

‍

In some organisations you may face friction when asking employees to do something publicly on behalf of the organisation. It’s important to communicate that they can choose to have an impact on the reach and effectiveness of your marketing programs. This will, in turn, benefit them with better sales, or company performance.

‍

From a human resources point of view, this type of program presents a number of development and recognition opportunities that can keep employees engaged and progressing. With training programs, you can provide unique tips for them that can help with their social media savvy in their personal lives as well. That may be seen as a benefit to those who are a little uncomfortable with social media and would like to become more familiar with it.

‍

When you’re ready to roll out your program, remember that how you communicate your program to your advocates sets the tone. It is important to keep the tone of empowerment and excitement throughout. The theme of authenticity is key in your communication plan as well. It allows you to speak transparently and on a human level about the benefits of becoming involved. Taking this approach will help to entice enrolment.

‍

You’ll want to consider developing content that will motivate your advocates. This will not only pump them up about the program, but also about your brand and organisation. Offering prizes or swag for top advocates can be another incentive that keeps them engaged with the program.

‍

Raising awareness can be a hurdle. Ideally you want as many people as possible in the loop on your employee advocacy program, so that it has the greatest potential reach. You likely already have a number of methods for communicating new initiatives across your organisation. Things like company-wide emails, internal 9 social tools, newsletters or other announcements can all be effective tools. Since these programs are social in nature, be sure to think creatively and out of the box for how you can further get the message out in an exciting or fun way. Leveraging early adopters and the pilot team is also a key tactic that you won’t want to forget. Think of your launch as ongoing, not a one-day activity.

‍

Communications should never feel authoritative or imposing. The tone of your communications plan affects the program as a whole. Since the advocacy program is really about social media, consider mirroring its conversational nature. You can use rich media images, videos, gifs, and memes to break the ice, get a laugh, and spread organically through your employee base.

‍

3. Build Your Training Strategy

‍

This step is fundamental to getting started. Experience indicates that the “If you build it, they will come” model isn’t necessarily effective. Illustrating to your advocates, through training, is key to making the most of any initiative.

‍

Consider these questions when setting up training programs:

• Do you already have a learning management system that could deliver training?
• Is everyone in a central location that would suit an onsite or classroom training?
• What are the different learning styles?
• Which technologies are available to employees? (Without computer access, webinars won’t work.)
• How will training on the program best practices differ from certification/policies?
• Will there be a need for different levels of sophistication? For example, will your marketers require more advanced techniques than general employees?
• Will my executives get the most out one-to-one training or one-to-many?

‍

It’s important to consider your options and compare them with the program’s goals to launch successfully. You can also apply incentive techniques as mentioned above (rewards, competitions, and leaderboards) to training completion. Once everything is in place, consider providing refreshers to keep interest up and keep the program running efficiently.

‍

Refine Your Strategy And Measure Success

‍

WITH YOUR PROGRAM OFF THE GROUND, you’ll want to create the ideal environment for it to grow for many years. In the realm of social media, the ideal environment consists of conversation, authenticity, transparency, and—of course—content.

‍

1. Refine your content strategy

‍

Your content strategy for your employee advocacy program should augment your existing content strategy. You can tailor unique content specifically for your employees or keep it simple by hand-picking from your existing content.

‍

When developing your strategy, be deliberate in what you decide to share via this program versus your day-to-day social media operations. Think about what kinds of content they’re already sharing and try to mirror that tone wherever possible: branded, employee generated content, industry insights and thought leadership, and so on.

‍

You will also want to build in ways for your advocates to suggest content. This creates a full loop of feedback and involvement and also empowers the employee and adds to the “what’s in it for me” equation. Seeing content they’ve created shared on a brand channel can be exciting and rewarding for employees.

‍

Along with the overall strategy, developing an appropriate cadence is critical. It may take some time and testing to get it right. How much is too much is a thresh- old that some organisations will reach much faster than others. If you push too few posts, on the other hand, the program may never take off to its full potential.

‍

It’s also important to recognise that your employees may be adopting new social media platforms much faster than you’re able to on the brand side. Keep in mind that you can tailor content for them to use on platforms like Twitter and Instagram and share that way.

‍

2. Keep Advocates Engaged

‍

Think of this program not as a sprint, but as a marathon. Your communication definitely doesn’t start and end with your launch activity. Creating an ongoing calendar of communication for participants will be crucial in early adoption, but also in maintenance of the program. It will keep your advocates engaged and sharing and ultimately will help you to better achieve your goals.

‍

Don’t limit your ongoing communication to simply promote new content. You can 11 be creative by offering:

• Offers and rewards
• Challenges (team or individual)
• VIP/MVP updates
• Badges
• Rolling leaderboards

‍

If incentives aren’t a good option, you can simply provide transparent insight on how the program is doing, which content performs the best, what times of day are most effective, or other useful metrics and information.

‍

You will also want to communicate how often training will be revisited and use your training plan as an opportunity to re-engage those who may have fallen off the program or experienced social media fatigue. Consider offering new courses, new certi- fications, and optional learning opportunities as well for your most eager advocates.

‍

3. Measure Success

‍

An advocacy program should align with your organisations primary business goals and inform the metrics you should be tracking. The worksheet provided earlier set the framework for you to measure the success of this program. You don’t want to forget about measuring its shortcomings as well. These will give you valuable insights that will improve it and keep it rolling in the future.

‍

Perhaps you will use a scorecard that ties back to your objectives. Decide how often you’ll measure. Will it be weekly, quarterly, yearly? Make sure you set your benchmarks and identify trends and variations from there.

‍

You’ll also want to consider measuring qualitative data by way of surveys or feedback inboxes. This will allow people to share their thoughts and anecdotes, which you may find even more valuable than quantitative data.

‍

To measure performance and increase engagement, include performance markers and milestones from the beginning. Reward the team via badges, gamification, or other reward bonuses as those milestones are achieved.

‍

Lastly, openly share the results, wins, and losses with the team. Involving every- one creates a trusting and collaborative environment, which paves the way to increased program adoption and continued participation.

‍

‍

Hootsuite Is The Leader In Social Media

management, trusted by more than 18 million customers and employees at 80% of the Fortune 1000. Our unparalleled expertise, customer insights at scale, and collaborative ecosystem help people and organisations succeed with social. Hootsuite’s versatile platform supports a thriving ecosystem of social networks complemented by 250+ business applications and integrations, allowing organisations to integrate social media into existing systems and programs.

Along with our channel and agency partners, we help organisations build and manage their brand, strengthen relationships with customers, drive business results, and integrate social across their organisation. Innovating since day one, we continue to help organisations pioneer the social media landscape and accelerate their success through product training, group training and tailored organisational training, as well as security and compliance services.

I’m not Vegan but it seems like everyone else around me is.

‍

Here at YOUKNOW, we see that the conversation around healthy eating habits peaks this time of year, and 2020 has sparked the spirited debate about Veganism.

‍

Using Brandwatch’s brand new consumer research platform, we performed deep-listening on the conversations online around 4 healthy food lifestyles here in SA: Veganism, Vegetarian, Flexitarian and Plant-Based Lifestyles.

‍

The first thing we noticed was certain sub-topics surrounding the healthy eating conversation. South Africans are begging the questions, ‘What is in my food?’ - ‘Where does this come from?’ - ‘Could the food I’m eating be a reason I’m getting sick?’ and ‘Are there better alternative ingredients’?

These questions are also having a ripple effect on the people around them. Those who may have never considered a plant-based diet are becoming more curious and giving healthier, better options a try.

‍

How far has it gone? In 2019 there were over 77k mentions across the four main topics, from both adopters of the lifestyle and consumers researching the lifestyle.

Positive sentiment in conversations centered around #glutenfree, #egglesscake, #diabetic. This can give brands an indication that there is a market for alternative products to cater to these specific consumer needs. We also see that there is a positive connection between being diabetic and these alternative lifestyles.

Animal products, climate change and Burger King reflected negative sentiment. This is an indication of some negativity towards Burger King in light of the release of their new plant based burger.

One company that has capitalised on this trend has been Beyond Meat which received over 1000 mentions in South Africa . Based in Los Angeles the company provides plant based meat alternatives. Their range offers anything from ground beef to sausages. The company’s offering has been well received by the public and fast food chains have also decided to cash in on this. McDonalds has partnered up with the brand to use them as their preferred vegan patty supplier.

In August 2019 we saw a spike in the conversation around Beyond Meat as there were talks that KFC was trialing a chicken alternative in their American stores. This led to excitement around the country in hopes that this might be an innovation coming to a KFC near. Locally the Spur group has also decided to join forces with Beyond Meat burgers as an alternative menu offering.

As for retailers in South Africa Woolworths has led the pack as one of the first major retailers to stock these products on their shelves. However, it does seem like these products do not come in cheap. Something for retailers to keep in mind in order to make it sustainable for consumers.

The bigger picture:

Alternative lifestyle adopters have heavily influenced the way we look at our food nowadays. The demand for better sourced and farmed products has never been more vocal. As a retailer/ brand, it becomes your responsibility to listen to your consumers and cater to this growing market.

‍

Have the likes of Checkers, Woolworths, RCL Foods, Tiger Brands, Pioneer Foods, Danone, Rialto, Promasidor made enough provision to accommodate these alternative lifestyles?

‍

Want us to look at a specific sector? Let us know in the comments below.

‍

*This data was analysed through Brandwatch Consumer Research, with the most volume of conversation coming from Twitter, for the period January 2019 - January 2020.