There is a golden formula when it comes to launching a brand on social media. The fame and glory of building a brand on socials is enticing for every business owner. And it’s this formula that is the difference between brands that seem to just have it – viral from day one – versus others that seem to stay stuck in the 200-views ‘jail’ no matter how hard they work.
It makes you wonder, what do these social powerhouses have that I don’t? Did they buy these likes and followers or maybe it’s just my product isn’t suited to social media or my demographic just aren’t on there.
With over 78 per cent of the Australian population on social media, it’s definitely not a demographic alignment issue. It’s a strategy and discipline issue.
No matter what brand you look at that has been successful launching on social media, they have all followed the golden formula. Some so successfully they haven’t even had to launch on their own channels before the product sold out!
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the golden formula of social media, The 3Es and 2Cs of content that will give you the edge against your competitors no matter the maturity stage of your business.
The 3Es are ‘Empower’, ‘Educate’ and ‘Entertain’. The 2Cs are ‘Community’ and ‘Convert’. Each letter represents a strategic golden nugget to help you build an unshakeable social media strategy, not just for launch but for the duration. They transfer perfectly into the age of AI and transcend industry – from eCommerce to excavators.
Putting the golden formula into play
The first thing you need to understand to make this formula work is how to align it with your customers’ journey. Community first, then empower, with educate and entertain in the middle, and convert coming in to close the deal. Just like any customer journey, it loops back and starts again.
Top of the journey – community
Forget the faceless corporation vibe. Brands are now launching themselves and new collections through real people. This isn’t new, but it is important. People connect with brands that feel real and relatable. Take a page out of make-up brand Adorn Cosmetics’ playbook. They were little known until founder Briony Kennedy’s husband encouraged her to be the face of the brand, fostering a sense of community and real effortless makeup for real people. Since making this change, Adorn has blown up, with a Vogue feature and billboards across Melbourne.
But what if you don’t want to be the face of your brand? I’m all about finding solutions to ensure brands can stay sustainable and realistic so they achieve their goals. So how can you do it? Summer Fridays launched its entire new collection without posting anything on its channels. The brand leveraged the power of other people’s communities to sell out. Influencers, love them or hate them, exist in every demographic and can sell better than a spot on a TV breakfast show.
If you have already launched, ask your customers to share videos to regularly showcase your community, how they use your product, etc. If you’re in pre-launch, get comfortable with the next part of this article and keep posting about what’s relatable to your audience – be it food, skin, parenting, etc, just keep posting. Try new ideas aligned with your target to build a community around your shared values, so when you launch, you have an army of supporters who can’t wait to get what you’ve got!
Middle of the journey – empower, educate, entertain
Even if you forget everything else you read here, remember that the 3Es alone can help triple your social media engagement, reduce your mental load when coming up with content, and ensure you have a healthy mix of content types that keeps your followers engaged.
Empower refers to giving customers a voice and a sense of involvement in the brand’s community. A Brisbane tech start-up implemented a user-generated content campaign on Instagram, inviting users to share their experiences with the product. This not only enhanced content authenticity but also increased customer loyalty and brand advocacy, further building the community. Empowering your customers to drive your product features, through polls, video reviews, asking open questions and more is a valuable tactic in your content kit.
Educational content is where your brand comes alive as ‘the influencer’. When used regularly, it empowers brands to transform their social platforms into vibrant educational hubs that engage and inspire audiences. You become the authority in your niche.
Entertaining content, meanwhile, is by far the most viral on the internet. This is the stuff memelationships – communicating using only memes with someone special – are made of. It’s the perfect combination of humour, relatability, nostalgia and mind-mending visuals that makes entertaining content on social media the heartbeat of digital engagement, a magnetic force that draws audiences in with its vibrant energy and creativity.
Show me the money – convert
Convert is the focus for only 20 per cent of your content, but it’s a critical component. It’s where you take the engagement with your followers from a casual fling to a full-blown serious relationship. To harness this effectively, it’s crucial to craft content that not only captures attention but also encourages your audience to make a move – whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource or making a purchase. The secret lies in creating compelling, clear calls-to-action that resonate with the needs and desires of your audience. Take this part seriously, because whilst social media is great, it’s not everything. A media strategy requires three elements – paid-, earned- and owned-media. Social is earned, not owned – if the social network crumbles, or if you’re ever hacked or banned, you’ll be relying on that email list to continue to trade and grow.
Final thoughts
When launching or re-launching a brand, social is a critical component of success. There is no doubt about it. Especially if you need to compete against the likes of discount retailers like Temu, who seem to have all the budget in the world to keep outbidding small businesses on Google, driving the cost of acquisition up for everyone. Long gone are the days of relying only on paid ad Google and Meta ad strategies to launch your brand. It’s all just part of the mix. Combining all of this with a strong earned PR strategy will be critical to your brand recall on social media.
I understand social media doesn’t come naturally to everyone; however, I hope that you’ll be able to use The golden formula 3Es and 2Cs social media strategy framework to help you cut through the noise and gain confidence and clarity about how to build an unshakable community that can’t wait to hear about your latest product and buy time and time again.
Don’t overthink it. Get started, learn what works and what doesn’t. Be consistent, honest and realistic. Most of all, have fun. You never know what will go viral. Oh, and don’t start your videos with “Hi this is Tony from Tony’s Car Emporium and more”, just get straight into it – you’ve got less than a second to capture people’s attention and stop the scroll.
This article first appeared in issue 45 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
