Something I’ve heard from marketing teams recently is, “We’re really focused on our LinkedIn company page strategy right now.” Here’s why that’s a mistake.
Brand pages on any network are important. After all, they’re an extension of your brand. But there’s only so much value you can derive from them. The ceiling is low.
So, why do brand pages exist? Why did social networks create them in the first place?
To generate revenue. Primarily via ads.
As any social media manager knows, posting content to your brand page in the hopes of anyone actually seeing it is naive.
If you want impressions and engagement on your brand posts, you better be ready to put some ad dollars behind them because that’s the only way it’s going to happen.
Brand pages are not a strategy. At best, they’re a tactic.
The foundational question these teams need to ask is HOW do they reach their target audiences (their customers, buyers, hires, etc.) in the following ways:
☝️ Efficiently (without spending gobs of money on ads)
✌️ Effectively (at scale)
☘️ Authentically (authenticity is the currency of success on social!)
The ONLY way is by enabling brand advocates to post your brand content to their networks. Real people, including your executives and staff, but also people outside of your company.
While social networks DEPRIORITIZE content posted to brand pages, they PRIORITIZE content posted by users to their timelines.
Why? Because without users, a social network doesn’t exist. And the #1 thing that keeps users coming back is content posted by other users. NOT brands themselves.
Just take a look at the example below. 👇
Brand advocacy programs are some of the absolute highest ROI investments a marketing team can make. You have people, they’re on social, and they want to share your content. You just need to give them the tools to do so.
And unlike brand pages, there’s near limitless potential in terms of the value you can derive from a brand advocacy program. The more advocates you activate, the more value that’s produced. The ceiling is so high you can’t even see it
Brand pages are something we all have to do, but as with all things, it’s important to understand where the greatest opportunities are. Marketing teams that spend their precious time and attention anywhere else guarantee they’ll produce less-than-exceptional results.
