Our Most Popular Social Media Posts of 2017: Lessons Learned

Episode 24

News

• 1:00 - The Verge has reported that Facebook experienced a drop in 50 million visits in January. 
• 5:12 - Instagram updated their API to allow for business pages to schedule organic content.

Our Top Social Media Posts of 2017 - lessons and actions

• 07:18 - Introduction to the review - Review of our social media content for six months in 2017 and what we’ve learned, and how we can change things around.
• 10:49 - Facebook findings: running through the top 5 Facebook posts, we found that 3 of the posts were podcast content, more specifically was video content with long-form written post
• 13:08 - Facebook actions: People want to be both educated and entertained, so we’ll be posting more Facebook marketing content, which will continue with video content and longer form written content as well as boosting posts that did well, organically
• 18:35 - Twitter findings: Twitter was the highest converting platform for us, mainly due to the frequency of posts of valuable content, which was mostly authored by us.
• 24:00 - Twitter actions: We’re aiming to create more content that can be consumed within the Twitter timeline (this means video, too), so that it complements the Twitter user behaviour, rather than clicking through to go somewhere. This also makes it easier to share!
• 29:09 - Instagram findings: we previous shared behind the scene content on Instagram with very little engagement. This time, we shared plenty of video content from our podcast that did really well, and our candid content did awesome
• 33:08 - Instagram actions: We’ll be creating a separate strategy for Instagram in 2018 to focus more on culture and entertainment, and posting more behind the scenes pictures.
• 39:32 - LinkedIn findings: Our highest converting platform in the last 6 months, we found that our podcast content did extremely well, as did our team photo. Content that was focused on tips that the audience could quickly action in their strategy, was very popular.
• 46:15 - LinkedIn actions: We’re going to invest more time on LinkedIn, even posting 7 days.
• 48:52 - Blog post findings: The most popular blog posts over the past 6 months, was content that people could take and action in their own strategies.
• 53:58 - Blog post actions: Include more case study content by using content from others, not just from ourselves, to be able to drive home our point
• 55:53 - Podcast findings: The older podcasts were most popular, which could be due to their age, but the common trend was that they were all “how-to” and heavily educational episode.
• 59:00 - Podcast actions: We’re looking to create more “how-to” content this time, as well as creating specified content for each audience.

Let us know what you think by emailing us: podcast@bam.com.au 

Show notes

To be completely honest, our podcast was created without much planning and research. We agonised over it for what seemed like months, but it may have only been a matter of weeks. The problem that we were facing was fear. What overrode all of that was that we knew we had value to offer people - our expertise.

If we let fear get to us, this post wouldn’t exist. Actually, neither would any of the previous episodes, or the data from their campaigns. At least now, we have 6 months of valuable data we can use as a benchmark and put into our 2018 digital marketing strategy.

The biggest thing we learned is that, you can be a perfectionist and wait for the perfect time or spend endless hours creating the perfect piece content, but the time will pass anyway. What we got out of it was new clients and a new awareness of our brand, and this is just the beginning.

So, we’re reviewing our top 5 social media posts across each platform for the period of 31 July, 2017 - 31 January, 2018, to share our key findings with you all, as well as actionable items to incorporate in our 2018 strategy that you can use, too.

Platforms reviewed:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Blog posts
• Podcast episodes

Let’s do this!

Organic Traffic V Social Media Traffic: KO

Our largest channel of traffic to our website was organic search, which accounted for 62%, with a similar conversion rate.

Traffic from our social media content accounted for only 8.5% of overall traffic, with a 4.81% conversion rate.

This confirms that social media truly is about creating brand awareness and engagement.

Facebook 

Key takeaways

• 4 of the top 5 posts was podcast content, focusing on Facebook marketing and available in video and long form, written content
• We received the lowest number of conversions on Facebook

Actions

• We’ll be utilizing Facebook to focus on edutainment as a way of telling the story of the Bam Creative brand, as well as educating by posting a mix of valuable educational content, and cultural content or things important to us
• With the lack of conversions, we’ll be scaling back on the posting schedule for Facebook
• We’ll be boosting organic content that performed well, because we now know they work organically and also aim to recreate well-performing posts to be posted organically, to monitor if they’re worth boosting
• We’ll continue to post video content, which allows our audience to consume content and share easily

Posts

Twitter

Key takeaways

• Twitter was the second-highest converting platform due to the posting schedule of up to 5 times a day on weekdays, and a couple of times a day on weekends.
• Our original content is amongst the most popular content
• Video content did extremely well overall
• Reposting popular content ensured continued engagement

Actions

• The aim is to work with current Twitter behaviour and that is to create content for them to consume in the Twitter feed which means more video content, images, or using that 280 character limit. This means that users won’t have to leave the Twitter news feed to consume your content, and they’ll get value, too
• Continue to repost content with slight amendments to switch things up and keep things interesting, but also not to annoy your highly engaged audience. If there is a single piece of content that is relevant every day of the week, then why not repost it every now and then?
• We’ll continue to post more of our own content, rather than posting curated content, as we’ll be taking full advantage of growing that Twitter audience
• Jump out of the Buffer platform and post video content organically to streamline the user experience

Posts

1. View image on Twitter

   Bam Creative@bamcreative

   Our MD @milesb speaks about how to get the most out of your #contentmarketing here: http://bam.gd/2xwMyZU 

   38:45 AM - Nov 7, 2017

   See Bam Creative's other Tweets

2. View image on Twitter

   Bam Creative@bamcreative

   We produce 40 pieces of additional content from a single #podcast episode.
   Find out how we do it: http://bam.gd/2zNnn7F 

   88:45 AM - Dec 15, 2017

   See Bam Creative's other Tweets

3. Bam Creative@bamcreative

   We reveal what 337 email marketing campaigns over 2016 tell us about email marketing, & how you should embrace it. http://bam.gd/2mvj4uG 

   10:45 AM - Dec 14, 2017

   Western Australian Email Marketing Statistics [Research Results]

   We reveal what 337 email marketing campaigns, and 341,248 recipients over the last 12 months tell us about email marketing, and how you should embrace it.

   bam.com.au

   See Bam Creative's other Tweets

4. 

   Bam Creative@bamcreative

   Tune into our #podcast with our good-looking hosts, Rich, Josh & Jess. They're talking websites & digital marketinghttp://bam.gd/2fdSO4O 

   911:29 AM - Aug 4, 2017

   See Bam Creative's other Tweets

5. View image on Twitter

   Bam Creative@bamcreative

   Nothing beats @varsity_burgers, seriously nothing. #pertheats #yum #agencylife

   911:53 AM - Aug 16, 2017

   See Bam Creative's other Tweets

Instagram

Before the time of the podcast, we posted candid, behind-the-scenes studio content, pre-podcast days, but it received very little to no engagement. It almost seemed as though it wasn’t worth running with the platform.

This time, we went ahead posting a mix of video and image content, mainly revolving around the podcast with a lot more candids. We knew that it wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, but we really needed to just understand how our target audience on that platform engage with our content. What ended up happening is that we received more engagement than ever.

Key takeaways

• Posts that had the location and hash tags performed much better than content that didn’t
• Video content wins again, specifically quick behind-the-scenes podcast content
• Candid photos did much better than they ever did
• Conversions were extremely low, meaning that Instagram really isn’t the platform to bet on conversion but works to grow brand awareness
• Videos that didn’t have detailed captions had very little engagement

Actions

• The new Instagram strategy can borrow certain elements from the Facebook strategy, in terms of using the platform to tell the story of our brand and the team, with a lot less posts about our actual podcast information. The focus should be on culture and fun, rather than education. There’s no point pushing the content where it won’t be well received
• It’s worth spending the time to build followers by liking and commenting on other users posts, as well as following relevant accounts. This process shouldn’t be automated, only a human can create a genuine connection which will have a lasting impression
• Video content will have subtitles or a detailed caption, so the user has a choice of how to consume the content

Posts

LinkedIn

Key takeaways

• Our podcast content was well-received on this platform, because the content was geared more specifically towards business development or marketing managers
• LinkedIn was our highest converting platform
• Posts that had quick and actionable content did very well, especially if it had a link or a video, so the user could consume the content how they wanted to
• Posts about Instagram marketing did very well
• The team photo received incredibly high engagement, especially since it was one of the last posts of the 6 months

Actions

• We’ll spend more time creating educational content that can be quickly consumed
• Even though engagement was lower on weekends, we’ll still continue posting as it’s a great opportunity to connect with those who are checking their profile on the weekend to build connections
• 2018 is the year of LinkedIn, and more video content on the platform. We will definitely be focusing on LinkedIn as our primary platform for engagement in 2018

Posts

Blog posts

Now we've got through our social media posts, we wanted to go through the content marketing posts, which is where a lot of the social media posts came from in some shape or form. 

The below takeways is taken from the same period, using organic traffic data. This data does play a part in helping us decide which content to push on social media, as it means that it's evergreen content. 

Key takeaways

• The content was most shared on LinkedIn
• Posts that contained lists or broke down actionable items, were the most popular
• Only one podcast episode made the top 5

Actions

• Create more posts that have actionable items that readers can take and use in their own strategy, which will continue to be heavily researched
• Content will be created with social media posts in mind, so we can easily pick out gems and create valuable content
• Include more showcase style content, not just referencing our own work, but relevant work from others

Posts

1. 10 Clever Instagram Marketing Campaigns: https://www.bam.com.au/blog/10-clever-instagram-marketing-campaigns/
2. 10 Websites to read all your Australian Start Up News: https://www.bam.com.au/blog/10-websites-to-read-all-your-australian-startup-news/
3. The Importance of Web Security for Small Businesses: https://www.bam.com.au/blog/the-importance-of-web-security-for-small-businesses/
4. Beginners Guide to the Growth Funnel: https://www.bam.com.au/blog/beginners-guide-to-the-growth-funnel/
5. How to create your Brand Strategy (Episode 4): https://www.bam.com.au/blog/brand-strategy/

Podcast episodes

At the root of all of our content over the past six months, has been our podcast episodes. 

The data is taken from the same reporting period, from our Libsyn account which tracks the audio only. 

Key takeaways

• The initial launch of the episode meant there was a spike in downloads, which would drop off after a couple of days. The continuous social media posting kept the downloads alive. 
• Some people opened their browser to listen to the podcast rather than use iTunes or a podcast app, which means that people clicked through to the show notes to check out more details of the episode
• The older episodes did well, which could be due to their age but the common trend is that the older episodes focued on complete guides on a topic that was considered evergreen, such as brand strategy or websites
• The length of the episode didn’t matter, as long as listeners had actionable items they could use for their strategy
• Being able to create the video content was most probably the most effective tool, as we can easily create the most engaging content. 

Actions

• Create a specific targeted campaign with successful podcast episodes, including downloadable content that could help to build our email database
• Podcast episodes are heading back to complete guides or how-to content, as it's always popular and easier for people to understand whether or not an episode is of interest to them 
• Create an updated social media posting calendar, with specifically created content for each platform which we will share with you

Episodes

1. Episode 4 - How to create your brand strategy
2. Episode 5 - Instagram Marketing Tips
3. Episode 2 - Creating your social media strategy
4. Episode 1 - Do you even need a website?
5. Episode 6 - Our Content Marketing Strategy and results

Where to from here?

We'll be taking these lessons and actions, and creating digital marketing strategies across the board for 2018. We hope that you found some of this information useful for your own strategies. 

Here's to an awesome 2018!