Sustaining a robust presence on social media is a huge investment. Not just in terms of time, people and budget but also — more even — in strategy and creativity.
But the wins are worth it. The gains simply outweigh the risks and headaches.
Breaching the online din and securing a digital foothold contribute significantly to business success nowadays. While traditional business channels such as offline marketing and public relations, even sales and customer service, still exist, their online counterparts have long since made great headway. And social media is a huge part of the equation, especially in the Philippines where social media is the internet for the majority of users.
Many customer journeys now begin on social media. From looking for products and brands, checking out reviews through making the purchase to giving feedback and asking for after-sales support, the conversations happen — start even — on social media platforms. This is why netizens expect platforms to provide not just entertainment but also information, service and an overall seamless experience.
Social media is indeed the lifeblood of modern business, and not making it a key part of the business arsenal could be a serious oversight. There is time to catch up though.
For insights and pointers on upping the ante on your social media content, see the first part of this article. Own the brand narrative and be authentic in storytelling. Spice up the content with UGCs and see how these help build community. Broaden reach and increase the chances of deepening follower ties through collaborations with content creators.
Revisit the overall strategy to see where alignment can be made. ICYMI, check out our articles on social media shifts happening this year and recalibrate plans as and where necessary to match trends.
Be consistent across platforms
As mentioned previously, not all platforms are equal. So choosing where to be visible is a crucial strategy decision.
Brands need to ask themselves if it would be worth the effort to be on all platforms. The decision could be a game changer especially with social media saturation and fragmentation rising fast. Audience behaviors and preferences varying from one platform to another is likewise a huge consideration.
Regardless of which and how many platforms on which a brand decides to be present, consistency is very important. In messaging, that is.
The brand story or narrative should be the same. This contributes not only to brand recognition and identity but also to brand trust and loyalty.
If the decision is to be present in all platforms, decide on priority levels or usage strategy. For example, LinkedIn can be where you try to highlight domain expertise while TikTok is where you showcase products and/or services. Again, it is about tailoring assets to the platform.
That means yes to having platform-specific content. Consistency across platforms does not necessarily mean crossposting and using the same material. Stick to the overall narrative and brand message, but tailor the material to the platform’s format parameters, audience and even culture.
A one-size, fits-all mindset will not work anymore.
- Identify and pick the platforms most suited to your brand or where your target audiences cluster. Being where your brand will stand out is better than being all over the place yet not be seen at all.
- Create a calendar for each platform based on goals, content strategy, and audience behavior and preferences per platform. Here again, note the importance of knowing the audience, in particular per platform.
- To manage resources better, consolidate all calendars to see where and how repurposing can be achieved.
- For example, short reels for use on TikTok can be snippets of longer videos meant for YouTube. Inversely, videos for YouTube can be broken down into several shorter versions for posting as reels on other platforms.
- Tailor the content to the platform and its target audience. Using the same exact material bores audiences. It does not reflect creativity or adaptability to the platform’s audience.
- Think: What demographics does each of your social media platform attract and cater to?
- How much time do they spend on the platform?
- When are they usually online?
- What content engages them the most?
- Cross-sharing or reposting may be done from time to time as this optimizes assets. Just do minor tweaks whenever necessary to cater better to the platform’s audience and format.
- Find the balance between evergreen content that may be used across platforms and trendjacking material.
Leverage AI, but keep the human factor
Make use of AI tools to aid content strategy and speed up asset production. Not adopting AI might be construed as being too slow in adjusting to market shifts, trends and new technologies.
Moreover, AI tools have improved social listening capability, enabling businesses and organizations not just to get more data but also to convert these into insights for PR and marketing.
But maintain the human touch in the storytelling. Be aware of AI’s limitations and do not turn over to the technology content creation tasks that are supposed to be yours. Keepingto the brand story, for one, is not for AI to do. Also, be transparent about how the brand is using AI.
- Do not rely on AI in crafting content strategy. If intending to use AI, treat it as an assistant. Let the humans create the strategy and plan.
- Use conversational language and tone.
- Add emotional nuances and humor. These humanize content.
- Share anecdotes, examples or experiences specific to the brand and community base.
- For images or videos, show real people in real situations.
- Ensure natural flow but vary sentence lengths to avoid sounding artificial and create a more engaging discussion.
- If you have tried AI writing tools, you will notice common phrases. Avoid these as well as generic examples. Keep a list of AI phrases and share this with the team so they know what to avoid.
Engage directly with your community
Post more intentionally, but listen more.
- Do not simply read follower comments and discussions. Learn more about them through their comments. Then, join the conversation.
- Go live, if possible. And do so more often to get the audience more involved. Interactive live sessions have been known to boost follower numbers and involvement.
- Take advantage of broadcast channels to directly send updates to followers.
- Treat social media as part of your customer experience. Address any questions or issues as quickly as possible.
- If using AI to answer customer queries, supplement that with a service that allows customers to talk to a human agent. This ensures more complex concerns are covered. It also humanizes the experience for your customers.
- Train the customer support team. Everyone knows how frustrating it can be to talk to customer service that is unable to address the issue and just keeps escalating to the next agent or giving a reference number.
Some organizations have even started hosting their own communities, creating that exclusivity with their followers.
Evaluate and tweak content plan as necessary
There are now many tools to check content performance on social media. Freeware would have limitations, but they can be good starting points nevertheless, especially if budget is a factor.
Back the content plan with data to avoid wasting effort and meet goals:
- Monitor posts not just for engagement. If conversion is part of the goal, check for this as well.
- Identify content types that generate momentum for the brand.
- Study posting frequency and schedule for the different platforms to make sure these still work for the audiences for these platforms.
Make the most of analytics. This means though the content plan must have a degree of flexibility to also allow for changes such as following-the-bandwagon posts from time to time.
Check out emerging and alternative platforms
Private communities are gaining more followers. A deeper evaluation of where audiences are going may lead one to new insights regarding these communities.
Reddit, for example, is still a lot smaller than Facebook in the Philippines in terms of user base. But it has now 35 million users, and the number is rising.
The same is true for Bluesky. Active daily users in this platform average 1.5 to 3 million globally.
Both these platforms are deemed private and community-driven spaces where netizens can engage in conversations about topics they are interested in as opposed to being fed content based on an algorithm.
Users on these niche communities are highly engaged. They are also mostly young. So it benefits brands to explore them to learn what audiences deem important and learn how to engage them more meaningfully.
Navigating social media these days is all about offering value to an increasingly discerning audience. Whether it be resonating narratives, UGCs, AI-enhanced content or influencer strategy, at the core of every brand’s social content is listening to the audience and heeding that voice. Establishing that connection on social can lead to conversion and then trust.
Ever heard of shoppable content and full-funnel marketing strategy? These also apply now to social media content.
Simply put, it is about meeting audiences across the different touchpoints to address their needs wherever they are in the customer journey.
The content plan covers building awareness, fueling engagement and converting. Short video on TikTok to catch consumer interest or raise awareness. Product posts on Facebook or Instagram highlighting USP. YouTube video on unboxing and trying out the product.
No matter how you design your social media content strategy, there are things to avoid:
- Limit, if not altogether avoid, random posts. Stick to the calendar.
- Do not risk branding or messaging inconsistencies by posting outside of the content calendar or the overall brand narrative just to follow trend or .
- Rethink hard selling or promoting too much. Anyone will steer clear of too much pitching or promotional material, even in the caption. Even if presented as an elevator pitch, one too many can still be a disincentive.
- Avoid overreliance on AI. Find the balance between AI, automation and bots on one hand and authentic, human storytelling and response on the other.
- Do not ride all trends. As they say, choose your battles. Chasing every trend can cause a brand to stray from the core messaging and confuse the audience.
A final word: Integrate social with the brand’s other digital presence, foremost of which is the website. Besides making for a wholistic digital strategy, this communicates serious business and commitment to being accessible to the brand’s various audiences.
Sources
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-philippines
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/index
https://sqmagazine.co.uk/reddit-statistics
https://archive.com/blog/ugc-marketing-statistics
