Social media now plays a key role in business - Mike Christoforou

World Social Media Day falls tomorrow. The global campaign aims to shine a light on the role of social media in connecting cultures, starting movements and bringing people together.

For businesses, social media communications have never been as important as in the past year. In the absence of any face-to-face meetings or physical events, social media channels have provided a quick and efficient way for businesses to connect with their audiences, and keep them updated in such uncertain times.

As a communications agency, the team at Perceptive has had to adapt quickly, along with our clients, to our new virtual environment. We’ve turned up the dial on our digital and social media services, introducing online webinars and events, creating compelling video content, and managing paid social media campaigns to amplify our clients’ voices online. And it wasn’t just us! Social Bakers found that global social media ad spend was up 50.3% year-on-year at the height of summer 2020.

We’ve used Facebook and Instagram advertising to launch new developments for our housebuilder clients to great effect. We’ve created engaging video content for both internal and external communications, for clients in the engineering and life sciences sectors, and we’ve also developed a bank of digital assets for our own social channels.

In contrast to some more traditional marketing methods, social media campaigns are highly-targeted, cost-effective and measurable and it’s this that has made them such an attractive option during the pandemic.

As more and more aspects of our life and work moved online, the patterns of social media usage changed. All of a sudden, we were using social platforms more often during the working day, while home and family time meant that social media usage decreased on the weekends.

People are now using social media to be part of a community and engage in meaningful interactions. For brands, tone of voice and authenticity has never been so important. They need to open dialogues, offer help, and engage in real conversations with their audiences. During these times of lockdowns, social-distancing and isolation, the appetite for a human touch on social media is huge. Hard sales messages alone will no longer cut it.

Social media not only has the power to raise awareness and educate, but also to effect tangible change.

Scottish postman Nathan Evans memorably rose to fame after posting videos of himself singing sea shanties on TikTok. The 26-year-old has now gone on to sign a deal with Polydor Records and released his new single just last week.

The Black Lives Matter movement has gathered incredible momentum on social media. 24 million of us shared a #BlackOutTuesday post on Instagram. The Black Lives Matter hashtag has received 12 billion views on TikTok, and YouTube pledged $100 million to support black creators and artists.

World Social Media Day is our chance to celebrate some of the amazing stories that have been brought about by social media; the people and businesses it has helped, and the lives it has changed.

Social media is here to stay, so let’s embrace it.

You can join the conversation tomorrow using the hashtags #SMDay and #SocialMediaDay.

Perceptive Communicators have helped many clients raise their profile with carefully crafted social media and digital marketing content. Find out how we can help your organisation here.

Mike Christoforou is the Social Media & PR Manager at Perceptive Communicators.