Increase your reach

Social media savvy, from Facebook to meta

By Leslie T. Snadowsky

If you asked someone out on a date, how would you engage them?

It’s a question Ryan Lockhart, owner of Group 46, a full-service, brand-driven marketing agency in Bluffton, says is at the heart of every successful social media campaign.

“I would try to build a relationship through multiple engagements over time,” he said. “So if I bump into someone a few times in line at Starbucks, I might see what their order is and maybe offer to buy them one and start to build that relationship.”

This strategy translates to marketing, says Lockhart. With ever-evolving technology and social media platforms, his position for all his clients, regardless of the industry, is for them to understand their own brand voice and to be congruent with that brand voice to set an expectation with their ideal clients.

80/20 Rule

Lockhart says service-based social media for Group 46 and his clients focus more on aspirational or inspirational content. “Eighty percent of our posts are informative toward our brand and our position and our why. Twenty percent of posts focus on action to schedule an appointment or purchase a product. We focus on a unique brand message or a unique brand position and try to generate awareness around the principles we stand for, the value that we bring to our clients, and the why they need to use us, versus purchase my stuff, or get this for a discount.”

Reinvention

With so many social media avenues available, Lockhart says many companies are tempted to post “cookie-cutter” content that often is overlooked. For clients like Callawassie Island, Lockhart uses social media to reignite and reinvent the lifestyle brand. “We helped them come up with a unique position or unique voice that would be meaningful and relevant to the people who actually are interested in hearing what they have to say. We focus on the essence of what they stand for to get to the most distilled point of their messaging and their engagement to have a consistent voice.”

Message over platform

“Every medium works,” says Lockhart, “so catering your social media marketing toward whom you’re trying to engage with would be the most appropriate choice, regardless of the social media platform.”

Lockhart also says you shouldn’t be distracted by what your competition is up to on social media. He says the danger of trying to keep up with others often leads to the dilution of your own voice, brand and vision for what success is.

Hello, Metaverse

“Individual companies should be mindful of the type of client that they’re trying to attract to ensure that they’re saying the right thing to the right person at the right time,” he said. “And choosing a platform is part of the timing.”

While Lockhart says there’s a place for Facebook, Instagram, Snapshot, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube, the Metaverse, augmented and virtual reality is where the future of marketing lies.

“Apple has already filed and received a patent on augmented reality, and there are companies out there taking augmented reality to contact lenses. Virtual reality headsets are already available for home use. The future is evolving at a rapid pace, and Meta would be the first virtual, augmented reality platform that we can see in the next five years coming to heavy, heavy fruition. It will overtake everything.”

Choose your megaphone

Facebook   Launched 18 years ago, this social media giant boasts 2.85 billion monthly active users who post text, photos and multimedia content. Rebranded as Meta Platforms, this platform has been valued as much as $1 trillion.

Instagram   This photo and video-sharing social networking service was sold to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012 and is now worth $100 billion. It has 1.2 billion monthly active users, and 32 percent of them are between the ages of 25 and 34.

Snapchat   More than four billion Snaps are sent each day on this multimedia instant messaging app that’s popular amongst the age 16-and-under crowd.

TikTok   Released in 2016 this video-
focused social networking service surpassed Google as the most popular website of 2021. Forty-one percent of its users are between age16 and 24, and 90 percent of them say they use the app daily. 

Twitter   This microblogging and social networking service’s net worth hovers around $12.2 billion, and its 396.5 million users tweet 200 billion tweets annually.

YouTube   Google scooped up YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion. Today the online video sharing and social media platform is worth $160 billion.

Metaverse   This network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection is the future of advertising and will offer users opportunities to build virtual-reality billboards, sponsor content in social spaces, offer product placement in VR Games, create immersive native ad experiences and engage a new generation of influencers. 

-Ryan Lockhart, owner of Group 46 in Bluffton