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Social Media Content:
the Good vs. the Bad

Tricia Lim

Tricia Lim

Social media marketing is more important than ever. It’s 2022 and social media is very much evident in all of our lives, especially the billions of daily active users across the globe. 

Anyone and everyone in social media marketing knows this, but brands can’t go without them in 2022. Statistics show that 43% of consumers used social media for brand discovery and 36% used social media to shop and purchase products. Check out our other blog for the latest social media statistics that you need to know in 2022!

So yes, social media is important. No matter what industry your business is in, when done right, you can reap the benefits of social media marketing.

We’ve curated some great examples of social media content for inspiration as well as what mistakes to avoid in this blog. 

Table of Contents

ExploreBC Later Campaign

HelloBC is part of the official tourism organization for British Columbia, Canada and they’re known for their eye-catching visual content across social media.Their #ExploreBCLater campaign was launched during the pandemic, which posed its own challenges. Although the travel industry was brought to a standstill, HelloBC took it as an opportunity to be at the forefront of peoples’ minds. This type of social media content resonated with many people at the time for that feeling of wanderlust from being stuck indoors. 

Brands can use social media to their advantage to boost awareness and communicate messages to the audience. HelloBC honed on their messaging to be socially responsible whilst giving their viewers visual content to look forward to traveling in the future again.

What we liked about their campaign:

  • Their content, caption and concept were very relatable and relevant for their audience. 
  • As an official organization, they opted to position themselves to be socially responsible and advocate it to their audience.

Zoom Background Contest Campaign

2020 was the year the world went online. Every social gathering, work or personal, was defaulted to online get-togethers. Many brands had to shift their social media marketing strategy to address this virtual shift head-on.

Video conferencing tool Zoom was looking to increase brand awareness, while simultaneously driving new users to install their product. They managed to nail both of these goals with their innovative Virtual Background content and giveaway. 

Zoom asked their community to get creative by sharing a picture or video using their virtual background feature. Every month, they award three winning entries with branded prizes and announce the winners via social media. They leveraged on the power of a contest and giveaway to drive engagement across their social media channels. Not to forget, these content are user generated and engaging. 

Fast forward to 2021 where Zoom is crowned the most popular video conferencing platform in the world.

What we liked about their campaign:

  • They leveraged user generated content and the results were entertaining and engaging! 
  • It was timely during the pandemic and the contest was a fun way to introduce zoom to new users.

Apple #shotoniphone Campaign

What better way to showcase your products, than showcasing user generated content? It’s a proven social media strategy that helps brands build awareness whilst being authentic. 

Consumers trust the content created by other people, more than content created by brands. Because, people trust people. 

That’s what Apple did with their #shotoniphone campaign, showcasing beautiful shots taken by iPhone users to captivate other Apple users. After all, 79% of people say that user generated content highly impacts their buying decisions.  

The hashtag has been used more than 21 million times on Instagram alone. Which is incredible brand exposure that Apple didn’t have to pay for by the way!

What we liked about their campaign:

  • Since camera quality is one of their selling points, they utilised visual content from their users for image focused platforms like Instagram.
  • User generated content like these builds up trust between them and their audience.

Canva's Content Challenge

We’ve all definitely been impacted by the pandemic, unable to get together with friends, family and colleagues. What the pandemic did teach us was how to get creative, and unconventional. Content creators definitely had some fun in exploring their creativity and engaging with their community on social media. Similarly, brands can also use social media to engage their audience through fun and creative content!

The well loved graphic design platform, Canva, got creative in creating content despite challenges during lockdown. It’s as simple as repurposing a videochat into an inviting design challenge for their viewers to enjoy. Canva’s known for their easy and quick to design interface, which was exactly what their brand designers demonstrated in the video. Using its quirky, colorful and extensive library of tools, this video content was true to the brand, educational and entertaining for their audience.

What we liked about their campaign:

  • It was a creative and engaging way to show their users a simple how-to video. Plus, it promotes how easy it is to use their software.
  • The fact that the video was short and digestible, and part of a short series that is educational and entertaining.

What we can learn from The Good:

1. They're authentic and true to their brand.

At the end of the day, what we can learn from these examples is to create content that is true to your brand. No matter what, each content that you put out there should reflect your brand identity and values in a way that resonates with your audience. Although there are great examples of brands nailing their social marketing game, it’s important to note that nobody likes copycats. Instead, focus on what’s relevant and true to your brand and your audience. Remember that when you’re authentic, people are more likely to trust you–trust which can turn prospect consumers into loyal and advocating ones.

2. They're timely.

Consumers today are more informed about current events, what’s trending on social media and so on. That’s why the best thing a brand can do in terms of content creation is to build upon that. Create content that shows how responsive your brand is to current events by being sensitive and self aware of what’s going on around you. 

What we’ve learnt as a digital marketing agency, is how to adapt to abrupt changes in our plans, like our social media content calendar. Although content calendars help us keep track of monthly events relevant for us and our niche, we also take measures to adapt and realign our goals often.

To share a little, our team initially had plans to publish humorous content during a time where people in our country were struggling the most. Instead of pushing forward with our plan, we paused, reflected, and put our heads together to create a helpful guide under the #kitajagakita* hashtag. We felt strongly that we had to do what we could to help, even if we were limited in resources. And so, this was one way we responded and adapted our content plans while still being true to our brand. 

*#kitajagakita directly translates into, we look after ourselves. This movement came during a time where many lives were crying for help as the country’s economy halted, leaving them hungry and suffering. Frankly, it was hard for many to just sit by and watch. Thus, many Malaysians from all races banded together to pull resources, give and donate wherever help was needed.

3. They're engaging and relevant.

Engaging content can come in different forms depending on the platform. Typically, visual content is favoured for being more attractive, digestible and engaging in terms of content. So, whether that’s an image carousel post, a TikTok video, or a graphic image, it’s bound to catch people’s attention.

When creating content that engages, you’d want to create content that not only attracts your audience, but engages them too. According to GWI’s social media report, many users turn to social media to find funny/entertaining content. In essence, that’s how social media content should be–funny, entertaining, engaging, and of value. 

We’ve all seen some that really tickled us, taught us something new or even gave us useful tips and insights. Consider this when creating content, can it be shared? What value does it bring to your viewers? Knowing what you want the audience to take away from your content, helps in your content creation process.

Social media users are bombarded by content daily. To stand out against the pack, you need to provide something fresh and interesting.

What to avoid from The Bad:

Mistakes happen but unfortunately with social media, those mistakes are very… public. Here are some pointers to avoid making mistakes with your social media content. 

1. Using poor quality images.

If your brand is using platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, you might want to ditch the poor quality images. Afterall, these are highly visual mediums. Nowadays, these sort of image-focused platforms have a ton of competition. Thankfully there are plenty of free resources that help us content creators design and create eye catching visual content. With amazing stock photo websites out there like Unsplash and Pexels, you and I don’t need to fret about needing to be a photographer to get great images. If images aren’t your thing, you could design graphic content by using great software like Canva where you can find templates to make your visual content pop.

2. Posting boring, irrelevant content.

As mentioned above, engaging content is so important to social media users. Our advice is to avoid posting content that is boring or spammy. If you want users to engage with your brand, you need to give them something to engage with. Create posts that they’ll care about–something intriguing, or informative or fun! 

When you give your followers value added content, they’re more likely to comment, like and share it. Subsequently, it could lead to a deeper relationship with your brand and more reason for new followers to follow you too.

3. Posts with inconsistent branding and visuals

One of the social media marketing best practices is that consistency is key. 

As with any brand content, everything contributes to your overall brand story and image. Your social media, website and overall brand should be cohesive and consistent to make sure your brand is strong and clear. Although your content and interactions might differ slightly between each platform, it should all be connected in the grand scheme of your brand.

Wrap It Up

Long gone are the days of creating clickbait content that used to pull in the masses. With how competitive social media platforms are these days, creating relevant content is more important than ever. When it comes to creating effective content, it comes down to these three essential things: 

  1. Being authentic to your brand
  2. Having timely postings
  3. Creating engaging content


Need help creating engaging content that’s true to your brand? We can help you with that. Get in touch with us at hello@medianetic.me.

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