Time to stop making content for audiences who don’t care

“Content” has been the buzzword for marketers for too long. Brands are creating content that no one is looking for or cares about – they’re wasting time and they’re wasting money.

Brands must know their audience when using social as part of their marketing. It’s not just about demographics or who they are – it’s about their tastes, habits, and psychology. It’s not until you’ve got a true understanding of the audience that you’ll be able to create content which resonates with them, that they’ll engage with, and that will ultimately influence them to buy into your brand or product.

There are three things that audiences demand of brands on social: value, community, and content.

Value

 The product or service you’re selling absolutely has to be of value to the audience.

As part of our Gaming the System research, we found that 55% of all gamers say brands try and sell them products or services that aren’t relevant to them. We found similar results in our research into sports fans, where 44% of young fans agreed brands approached them with irrelevant products. So, your first step always needs to be about assessing whether an audience is right for you.

When using social, note that any “promotional content” is going to sit in between content the audience are being served organically. Avoid interrupting their experience, and make your call to action a smooth experience – a swipe up on your stories, a shoppable Instagram post, or something to click on in your post copy – give them the convenience they desire – the audience will thank you for it, and interestingly, we found that 55% of hardcore gamers would pay extra for the added convenience of speedy delivery and a simplified user experience.

Community

The world of social media now challenges the real world for creating meaningful friendships.

To succeed, your brand needs to be part of that community. Support and nurture the audience and their passions and engage in a meaningful way. The brands who get the most out of social focus on serving the community before they try and sell anything to them. Build trust with the audience, serve their needs, and they’ll support you in turn.

When Oddsmonkey partnered with The Football Republic last year, it found a novel way to integrate itself into existing content strands. The audience were already there and had a relationship with the creator and channel. Instead of creating something itself, Oddsmonkey sponsored the series, adding value to the creator, content, and audience.

There’s an enormous supply of content for just about every passion point and community, and instead of disrupting the audiences’ experience by running pre-roll or mid-roll, the lesson here is to become part of the content instead.

Content

Once you’ve understood the audience and embraced their community, the content you are producing or sponsoring will align and become more effective.

At this point, consider the platform and format of your content. Where are your audience most engaged? What content formats do they most like consuming? Sports fans want to see user generated content and students live for content that’ll make them laugh.

There’s a universal language across almost every social platform, community, and audience: Memes. Memes are bite-sized, relatable, and ultimately – funny. In a space where everyone is competing for a share of attention spans, creating and supporting meme content can be a great way to drive reach and awareness.

Tom Sweeney is the director of gaming at Media Chain (part of the Social Chain Group) where he leads the team responsible for the world’s largest social-first cross platform gaming communities. Prior to taking on the role at Media Chain, he held the position of head of community management at Jagex for more than three years.