More often than not, my claim to know Social Media would be the least; not because I haven't worked on it enough, but more for the dynamism it offers. Every time one would possibly think that they have mastered ‘the art of Social’, it flips that belief on its head by changing, progressing, and evolving (and keeping us social media marketers on our toes, of course). In the humble read below, we will, in the humblest of ways, try to measure, reveal & reason the greatness of Social Media!

Realising the Statistics
The Length & Breadth of our Universe

Over half (57.6%) of the world’s population is present on  social platforms, with 424 billion people getting on Social Media in the last 12 months alone. This not only explains the vastness of the medium but also establishes the gravity of the platforms and the responsibility they shoulder. 
The average time spent on Social Media has gone up to 2 hours and 27 minutes daily where we realise that not only the content but the format of the same, the relevance of the format to the platform, and the implication of the same as per the changing trends, has to be maintained religiously. 
As per SocialBakers, Facebook continues to be the most preferred Social platform followed by Youtube and WhatsApp. Audience interaction has seen a categoric shift towards live videos, long-format content & visual-rich content.

Social Media Intelligence
Monitoring vs. Listening vs. Intelligence

‘Data is currently the God of tactical & behavioural analysis on Social Media’ - DevMRoy

Marketers are constantly spanning the social channels 24X7 to help the Brand understand what is being told about them, the potential risks and all the necessary feedback on their activities. But the activities of Social Media Monitoring is nothing but the guard that is maintained for a deeper understanding, we have to dig through this data to infer relevant insights and that is where Social Listening comes to the fold!

Social Listening, however, goes a definitive few steps ahead. Apart from duly monitoring what the Brand is doing, it also takes into consideration the activity of the competitors, major movement in the category/industry & specific trends and skews in the market

However, to use this to the benefit of the Brand by deriving the right insights and helping the Brand take the right decisions that are derived from thorough listening & monitoring of Social  Media.

Social Media Intelligence helps Brands take better decisions for their customers:
 

• By tracking Brand Equity in detail
• Detecting emerging trends & opportunities for the brand; eventually realising new & emerging  markets too
• Track and understand customer tribes/cohorts to create niche communication for them
• Ensure a handsome reputation overall and asses the upcoming challenges & crises

Social is a Multi-starrer Blockbuster
Monitoring vs. Listening vs. Intelligence

Every social media platform has its own pattern of narrative, its own way of engaging with its audience and Its own way of acknowledging its success. Thus, the audience for your Brand might be the same but what they want to see, read and experience through these social media channels could be unique & different.

Enlisting the current top picks from the social cluster & how they are creating discerned experiences for their users: -
 

LinkedIn tops the list by not only creating a well-connected professional network but also giving its function a dual prominence i.e. one of an individual professional and that of a Brand or an organisation.

The Prominence comes through -

• Adaptation of emotions, Moment Marketing, LinkedIn Polls, Engage tab on Event Pages and  addition of Stories – all this has increased the relevancy of the platform on social terms
• Insights, Tests & Assignments, AI-feed back on interview trials have further increased the knowledge sharing on the platform; further reassuring the dual functional aspect of the platform
• Post-pandemic, there has been a new wave of experiential and behavioural content on Linkedin which is rather personal in nature than professional; this has made LinkedIn more human and thoughtful
• New trends such as #OpenToWork, ‘Commenting for better reach’, long format posts, And extensive video content have further increased user retention and engagement on LinkedIn
• Brand & Organisations are moving out of the former approach of Brand representation to various content-first approaches like Employee Branding, Video Content Series, Thought Leadership Campaigns, and Interactive Response Management Exercises

And this was just one of the stars of the Galaxy. Other platforms which are running high on relevance & authenticity are undeniably Facebook & Instagram followed by WhatsApp & Youtube and then Tumblr & Quora along with others.

All said and done, people from Social do not lose their focus and relevancy —  they are, in fact, the proponents of Social Magnificence.
Closing this on the thought with which I started - with such tectonic movements in the Digital arena post the pandemic phase; the content consumption pattern online, specifically social channels, has evolved to become categoric.

Thus, with time, it is reaffirmed that the Social space is not only going to glamourise itself but also take a #quantamleap towards becoming User Affiliated Media.

With a decade of enriched experience in Digital, Dev believes that every brand story is different, every experience is unique; and the storytellers have endlessly been trying to narrate the same in their own unique ways. He brings an integrated approach to the table with the aim of leveraging advertising, marketing, communications & branding together to create distinctive experiences.