Post update: 15th October 2014

Top Tips on Incorporating Chat Apps into Your Content Marketing Strategy

1. Like all social media channels, understand the audience you’re trying to target!

Snapchat, whatsapp and Instagram Direct users tend to be within the 18- 29 age bracket and this is both creators and curators of the content on the apps!

What’s special with this demographic in particular is that they are regular social media users and aren’t adverse from receiving messages from brands as long as it’s done well.

2. Don’t brush it off

Chat is engrained in our habits ever since the inception of SMS and online messaging – so it isn’t a surprise that chat is taking more than 20% of user’s mobile-dedicated time, making it an essential pillar in mobile marketing. Read more.

3. Make it easy to share your story

Benedict Evans explains that “People aren’t using Instagram for photos, WhatsApp for text, Line for stickers … they’re using everything for everything” and these apps are all competing for users time and attention – make sure you’re using the channel right for your story!

Post update: 19th September 2014

A few twitter hacks to increase engagement:

1. Full stops

Make sure to add a full stop at the beginning of a tweet if you are @ someone i.e “.@hmadigital hi there!” this means that everyone that follows you will see the tweet, not just those that follow you AND the account you’re @ing.

2. Limit your tweets

Limit your tweets to 71-100 characters to gain more retweets and favourites; these longer tweets share more value. However, make sure it’s less than 120 characters, at which point, Twitter users can’t add their username to the retweet, causing a significant drop-off in retweets.

3. Share TwitPic formats, not Instagram links!

One of my (and other social media managers) BIGGEST pet peeves: http://bzfd.it/1r58J2h
Using TwitPic formats see a huge increase in retweets, being shared almost two thirds more than equivalent tweets without!

Post update: 15th September 2014

Check the hashtag’s meaning before you jump on the trend with a brand tweet.

Twitter is a great social sounding board, and when a news story catches the attention of millions, it will be reflected on Twitter’s Trends. This is a great place for brands to spot opportunities to interact with customers whilst being timely and witty.

Here’s that famous Oreo’s Superbowl Black-out Tweet that garnered thousands of engagements: http://www.wired.com/2013/02/oreo-twitter-super-bowl/

There were some great brand responses to the Royal Baby News earlier this month: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/09/08/ten-brands-who-have-jumped-royal-baby-announcement-tresemme-wkd

The key to getting this right every time is to gauge what the hashtag means, and if it’s 100% appropriate for your brand to comment on it.

Here’s how not to do it…

American pizza company DiGiorno tweeted using the #whyIstayed hashtag, which was used by women and men, that have faced abuse within a relationship, to share their stories in the light of the NFL Player Ray Rice’s Video Leak; accidently making light of domestic violence: http://mashable.com/2014/09/09/digiorno-pizza-whyistayed-hashtag/ They soon realised their error and have since apologised: https://twitter.com/DiGiornoPizza/status/509178151927173120

This is a rolling blog post and will be updated regularly.