The corporate madness of social media
The trends of the trends of the trends
As a business owner, partner, marketer and recruiter, you are bombarded every day with trends and facts that you should not miss. How many times have you seen or even read an article that begins with: “Ten Social Media Trends for the Year x You Can’t Miss”?
We will therefore not bore you with all kinds of trends that you should absolutely not miss, our motto is to (critically) look at the evolution in the social and technological field. Long-term trends in your industry are always the result of macro trends and factors. Although this sounds very logical, in practice it often turns out quite differently. Many organizations look at what the competition and opinion leaders are doing within their niche. However, if you look at the macro trends and if you are able to translate these to your market and field, you will have the power to plan and act on the basis of a strategy. This point brings us straight to the main topic of this article: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook…in short, the madness of social media.
Social media and your niche
Social media is not a goal and will never be the goal. This applies to your entire social media presence. You should not be present on social media because your competitors do, but because it is part of a bigger picture. In the case of social media, this larger whole consists of two components:
- The platformization of the world around us. This means that the economy and/or parts of it are moving to online platforms.
- The aging of the boomers in combination with the rise of the millennials and Generation Z.
The graph above shows the aforementioned transformation well. We can discuss the usefulness, value and truth of the platforms. But, these foregoing things are certain; our life has been transformed into a platform and gig economy with sites like AirBnB, Booking.com, LinkedIn, Poppy and so on. For the people who are not yet familiar with the term gig economy. This is the phenomenon where various (work) platforms bring together supply and demand of work. This type of work is classified under the work of the gig economy. A good example is Uber.
In addition, we have not yet found anything for infinite life, so the new generation is taking over. You may find the 1996 television more beautiful and better, but it is certain that it is operated differently than your 75” QOLED TV from this year. This also applies to the way of branding, marketing, recruiting and job communication. This cannot and does not go as before…
Your target is your target audience…
Where social media is not your goal, your target audience is. Logical isn’t it? Whatever niche or professional category you are in, your target group has more choice than ever. People today have unlimited access to information. This means information about your organization, reputation, social responsibility and commitment. This makes the average consumer and therefore also employee more critical than ever before. I could write a full article on the norms and triggers of the new generation, but the important thing is that they are completely different from the previous generation. Status, possessions and earning a lot have become less important. Being able to make a difference, on the other hand, working for a good and social employer is much more important.
Via social media, your target group evaluates, consciously and unconsciously, whether you as an employer, supplier, partner etc. fall within their ideal picture. Renowned healthcare institutions, retail brands and even law firms are eager to respond to this. Employees doing fun dances on TikTok, nurses and doctors performing flash mobs with army coordination, it’s all for a better employer brand. With this I don’t mean to imply that this is all show, but I do want to make it clear that you can afford not to have a social strategy. Simply posting videos also becomes less effective. Understanding your target audience, knowing their triggers and translating them into the right content and your social brand, that’s the key.
Let’s start creating an account on TikTok..?
Maybe this might sound funny and someway it is, but it ain’t that bad of an idea. Just create an account, see if you can find the people in your target audience (employers, employees, customers, partners) and observe them. That’s the beauty of social media; you can quietly observe and study entire target groups almost scientifically. After this you can make an overview of what drives these people and how you can reach them. The next logical step can be creating a content plan, communication plan and/or social media plan.
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Richard
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