However, many brands still approach social media with a transactional mindset - as supplementary to the instore experience. Our fundamental buying behaviours haven’t changed but our shopping experience has. In the absence of the store, has your brand stepped up its social behaviour to replace these valuable, personalised experiences?

These are the highlights.  

Instagram added the greatest number of new users between July and September 2020, posting stronger growth figures than Facebook, Vista’s proprietary research shows dads preferring Instagram (74%) over Facebook (68%) and 80% of users follow at least one business on Instagram, more than 200 million people visit at least one business profile every day and 60% of Instagram users claim they’ve discovered at least one new product on the platform.

Tik Tok - March 2020 saw 115m global downloads. 745k from the UK 

Pinterest is still a key platform to drive bottom-of-funnel conversations

Vista found that 53% of mums and 36% of the dads have been drawn to a brand because of its social presence. The most compelling factors being if it engages and interacts with its followers and is entertaining. 

21% of mums are put off buying from a brand that doesn’t have a social media presence. 

stackla.com claims 90% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support, and 60% say UGC is the most authentic form of content claiming it's 35% more memorable. 56% of consumers say consumer-generated content is what they most want to see from brands. Only 15 percent said they wanted to see brand-created content.

Vista found people more readily trust the recommendation of a real person over what a brand says about itself. Friend recommendation is still the most powerful influence on a purchase with an average 85% response. 'People they don't know personally', is growing in relevance with our dads. 66% of dads and 58% of mums follow people they don’t know and mostly this is people who share their hobbies and interests or who they find entertaining. 72% of mums and 48% of dads have either bought, researched or plan to buy as a result of a recommendation from ‘people they don’t know personally’. A healthy 17% uplift of dads from last year. 

According to Social Films: The 65+ age group accounts for 9% of Facebook users – with 31% using it once a week or more. During Q3 of 2020 Hootsuite reported 70% of internet users aged 55-64 bought something online, and 37% are planning to continue to do so more frequently. 

Our influencer collaborations team operates strategic negotiations to deliver a variety of creative endorsements. We build active brand communities and channel memorable content across your digital touchpoints. 

Our Facebook advertising specialists finely target opportunities and deliver relevant content to the right people, advising on appropriate budget to meet your business objectives:

- Run ads at the top-of-funnel on hero products and new releases with PPE, Traffic and Conversion campaigns to learn about your audience, find people who are interested in your products and encourage more engagement on your social pages

- Run Dynamic Product Ads at bottom-of-funnel, to complete sales with people who are close to purchase

Our Social Media Management service delivers platform strategies and content creation to give your brand a sense of purpose, analyse what interests your audience and delivers according to their preferences. Do you know what you want them to do or think of your brand? Do you know how to fit into your customer’s conversation instead of imposing on it? Do you know how to create and capitalise on the latest posting tools?  We will set social media goals for your business, help you define your target audience, establish your critical KPIs and metrics and curate engaging content. We will time your social posting, analyse and improve.