A short description of how and why you got started in social media.
I started my social media marketing career by creating parody accounts on Twitter and building their networks to hundreds of thousands of followers. Building these accounts as a hobby from 2011 onwards has meant that I’ve watched social media evolve and feel that I understand viral marketing in great depth as a result.
What do you believe are the benefits of using social media for business?
Social media is essential for businesses in the digital age, not only for the online presence of a brand but to increase exposure, footfall and ultimately revenue. Social media allows companies to reach out to clients they may never have been able to access previously, meaning that the potential for growth is exponential.
What do you think are common mistakes business owners make when building brand awareness on social media?
The mistake that many businesses make and that we are incredibly conscious of is making your social posts too focused on a hard sell. In order to engage customers, businesses must show their personality and establish their tone of voice as opposed to incessantly advertising their services or products.
What qualities do you think social media managers should have?
The Inferno Media team pride themselves on possessing a keen eye for detail as well as having extremely good creative skills and impeccable grammar. Interacting with customers requires the capacity to create a relatable personality and witty responses, as well as the core understanding of a brand’s tone of voice.
How do business owners know if their social media campaign is working?
Analytical reports have become very accessible in recent years. Through looking into your engagement rate as well as direct customer feedback, businesses have more opportunity than ever to address where their campaigns are going wrong or right.
How do you see social media evolving over the next 5 years… What do you hope to see?
I expect that in the next five years the whole world will be on social media. The increase of online users is inevitable and I think it’s a matter of time before the globe is on platforms like Facebook or Twitter. I also anticipate a fusion between Google and Facebook, where social media will cater to all questions and product or service needs and eventually maybe even make commercial websites utterly redundant.
If you could share one best practice about using social media to grow a business, what would it be?
The most important thing for a business that is new to social media is to establish their tone of voice. Inconsistency leads to an unsuccessful social profile, so transferring a strong ethos onto your online market is imperative.
What are your favourite platforms for social media marketing?
Twitter. Above all social platforms I think Twitter allows global interactions to feel the most personal.
What tools do you use to manage these platforms? What are the limitations for these tools?
We use a range of private programs as well as the more widely-used softwares like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social. We often feel that the geographic limitations hold us back with some of these programs; a more insightful way to specify where users are would be a great improvement.
Name 5 tools that you can’t live without?
Facebook scheduling, Facebook reports, searching through hashtags, Adobe Photoshop.
Describe one of your social media campaigns that went really well.
We recently launched a competition for one of our clients - a boat club in Poole - offering the winner the opportunity to charter a boat for the day on Facebook. Using a combination of paid advertising and organic strategies, the competition reached 50,000 local people over the course of five days.
How is your social media strategy adapted to your industry?
We pride ourselves on the range of industries that Inferno Media cater for, therefore our strategies are adapted to suit each individual client. Though we pride ourselves on our versatility, we feel that it is a combination of creative and technical talent that results in profitable social media marketing across all sectors.
