Podcast: Engaging an audience with a 2.5-second attention span

How do you do your social media marketing? Think you need a change?

Successful social media marketing is a delicate alchemy of choosing the right channels and staying active on each of them, says Maggie Lower, CMO of social media marketing and management dashboard Hootsuite.

On this episode of the Next Stage podcast, Maggie talks about customer engagement online, and what’s next for marketing in this space. She covers every big trend from tapping into the creator economy to employee advocacy.

Maggie says the most basic principle of social media is to know your audience, and that the only way to achieve this is to listen. In this episode, you can listen to her top tips for successfully leveraging your presence on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or elsewhere, no matter what size your business is.

This listening is leading marketers to tap into the power and popularity of content creators.

“What we’re starting to see is that move from influencer marketing to creator economy. I think you’re going to see a lot less branding at the top-of-the-funnel level in terms of […] really large banner ad campaigns,” she said.

Influencer advertising can lead to sell out products

Maggie gives the example of ELF Cosmetics’ recent partnership with US fast food brand Chipotle.

“What we’re seeing work is some unexpected partnerships. There are these two famous drag queens who actually use [ELF] products, and they created this bold concept with Chipotle. It was wildfire,” she explained.

GET FREE CHIPS AND GUAC WITH EVERY e.l.f. x @ChipotleTweets EYESHADOW PALETTE PURCHASE 🥑🙌 The limited-edition e.l.f. x @ChipotleTweets eyeshadow palette is🔥ALMOST SOLD OUT🔥 on https://t.co/hvOVkgt2T1 pic.twitter.com/dsLaRbAxgN

— e.l.f. Cosmetics (@elfcosmetics) March 10, 2021

“Charli D’Amelio – she and her sister – they got over 25 million views on one [ELF Cosmetics] product,” said Maggie.

“The cosmetics company gave Charli the product for free and it was sold out within three days. 25 millions views! So I think the new branding is going to be allowing people to authentically and organically interact with your brands,” she concluded.

Maggie Lower is in conversation with Martina Fuchs, business correspondent for Xinhua News Agency. This talk is from PandaConf at Web Summit 2021.

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Want to learn more about the trends that will define the marketing and advertising worlds in 2022? Just click below.

Main image: Cody Glenn/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)