Understanding how to approach social media is crucial to the modern marketer, and a key element to growing an online gambling brand. Alvin Hussey, insights and business development director for social media marketing agency The Hook Group, joined CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero to share his tips on how to approach the evolving space.
A popular idea is that to succeed online, you need viral content. That isn’t something you can really build a marketing strategy around though. “The amount of times I’ve had people come to me and say, ‘We want to go viral,’ cool. What does it mean?” Hussey asked. “Why do you want to do it? How is it going to help you achieve your business goals? So what you’ve got a million views, who cares? Has it actually helped you achieve your business goals?”
Figuring out what’s popular is easier than ever, thanks to new social media tools. “There’s third party platforms like Tubular and Crowd Angle, which aren’t that expensive. Look at your budget, but they can really help you work out, actually, whether your campaign is going to perform,” Hussey explained.
Once your business has a decent handle on what’s popular, the next step is really just putting your effort out there and determining if it works. “A lot of it is just learning and trying things out,” he told us. “Just trying things out. Try stuff on your own personal pages. Try stuff on LinkedIn. Just try things out and see whether people want to share it. And very quickly, the great thing about social campaigns, is you can know very quickly whether it does well or not.”
An important thing to keep in mind is to approach social media in much the same way that marketers have always approached their campaigns. “It’s just really thinking about, like in all forms of advertising, why you’re doing it, what reaction you’re going to get, and that’s for all forms of advertising,” Hussey noted. “It’s no different from social. It’s just thinking about the different platforms and the different tools you have at your disposal.”
One of the newest hot trends is using influencers to spread your advertising message, and Hussey is a big fan. “I think with influencers, again it’s a very hot topic at the moment, influencers, micro-influencers, bloggers, YouTubers, I think they’re incredible, they’re amazing” he told us. “The fact that they’re able to create an audience who genuinely love what they do, I think is incredible. So I guess my tip for it is, time, you can’t get your time back. There’s a reason why you say, ‘You spend time,’ you can never get your time back.”
