It was inevitable. No conversation on ICT and tech today would be complete without a discussion on social media. Experienced media strategist, Knolly Moses, who is the CEO of Panmedia in Jamaica, shares some insights on how social media has evolved over the years, current trends, plus useful tips on how organisations can leverage social media to improve consumer reach, engagement, and hopefully conversion to sales, or other desired action.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes and on Stitcher!

As consumers, social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. The ability to be connected to others, whilst also having a platform to share our thoughts with others, has resulted in explosion of the content online. Globally, and on average, we are spending nearly two and a half hours per day on social networks and messaging services (Source: Oberlo).

Whilst social media might not be disappearing from our lives anytime soon, the landscape has been changing. In addition to the longstanding staples, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to name a few, new social networks, such as Tik Tok, appear to be gaining traction. Further, some of the platforms, which at one time were heralded as the next big thing, such as Snapchat and Periscope, seem – arguably – not to have lived up to the hype.

Additionally, due to our insatiable appetite for social media, marketing and advertising on those platforms have increased exponentially – to the point where social media marketing has become a specialist area, and many businesses believe it is an important and effective channel through which to engage and influence consumers.

On the flipside, and for the social networks, marketing and advertising has become their largest source of revenue. As a result, platform algorithms that manage the exposure of content to subscribers have become increasingly sophisticated, in order to balance the consumer experience, the expectations of paid advertisers, and the platform’s business model which frequently is based on leveraging the size their subscriber base for revenue.

Finally, and thanks to social media, consumer behaviour and attitudes have been evolving. The type of content that attracts the greatest attention, that goes viral, is not easy to predict. Also, younger subscribers tend to have different attitudes and values when compared with those of previous generations. Accordingly, platform owners and businesses continually need to study the market, and adjust their strategies accordingly.

 

Introducing our guest

Knolly Moses (Panmedia)

To share some insight into the world that is social media, generally, along with some tips organisations could apply to better leverage social media, for this episode, we sat down with Knolly Moses, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Panmedia Limited. Panmedia is one of the leading full service advertising agencies in Jamaica, and has a particular focus on online and mobile marketing, public relations, web and mobile applications development, and advertising.

Thanks to Knolly background as journalist, now media strategist, with substantial experience in print, broadcast and new media, we were able to discuss not only social media generally, but more importantly, the importance of content, as well as the types of content that is likely to result in the best traction. Some of the questions Knolly answered included the following:

  1. How important is, or should, social media be to businesses and organisations?
  2. .Can one still get good reach and engagement from releasing posts on a regular basis?
  3. Is social media still a cost-effective marketing tool?
  4. What are some of the misconceptions people, particularly businesses and organisations, have about social media?
  5. What is the premise behind businesses hiring influencers, and are they still important?
  6. What are some of Knolly’s observations and thoughts on millennials, and how businesses could better engage them?
  7. What are some of the trends Knolly is seeing in social media?
  8. For businesses and organisations that want to leverage social media marketing, what are three pieces of advice Knolly would give as they go about preparing their marketing or social media marketing strategy?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay); K Moses 

Music credit: Ray Holman