As social media continues to grow at a rate of knots more and more digital agencies are trying to get their heads around the stark differences between the digital marketing strategies which have been employed thus far, and how to go about gaining that same level of traction when it comes to social media. Something which so many agencies are discovering is that social media hotspots like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are indeed very different beasts, and here are 5 key implications of social media advertising, inspired by the recent Agency.com YouTube pitch. 

Importance of Measurement 

One aspect which we can find with the likes of Facebook and YouTube at least is some handy measurements which enable companies to streamline their ads. There is an abundance of 3rd party sites which offer necessary insights into social media ads and they are adding metrics all of the time. Who is engaging, when and from where are absolutely key pieces of data which have to be used. 

This is the Real World 

Unlike a pretty banner ad or big bang marketing, social media is used by real people with real opinions and you better put those big boy pants on if you hope to get through it unscathed. When calling for action via engagement on social media you open yourself up to all levels of abuse from keyboard warriors, this is something which clients must expect before launching an ad. 

Dollar Doesn’t Always Equal Success

Historically with microsite advertising and and banner ads there was almost a clear line which could be drawn between the amount of dollars invested and the amount of success which could be expected, in social media however there really are no guarantees. Many social media tools are very cheap and that is what makes this space so accessible. This is not to say that money won’t be required, but don’t think that a big fund is going to guarantee success like it used to. 

Fail, Fail, Fail 

Algorithms on social media sites are not always easy to grasp which is why you have to encourage failure and learning as you go in order to streamline that ad. Social media is about people, it is about feelings and quality of content and within that there will be errors made and things to learn from, you mustn’t go in looking to avoid failure. 

Viral Lessons

We all still have so much to learn from viral content and it is increasingly harder to predict what type of content will take off more than others. Again the key here will be to try as many approaches as possible and stay close to those which really take off. There will be parallels to be drawn between successful content, hone in on that and use that knowledge to then try to create something viral or at least something which is going to have that lift off that the ad needs. 

As the world changes we must learn to change with it.