You’ve heard this before: mobile has flipped marketing on its head. More so than television, radio, or desktop internet; consumers’ ever-growing shift to mobile has presented an entirely new world in which marketers attract and engage with potential customers. The mass media world of TV, magazine, and radio ads has given way to one that’s personally relevant to each individual – where basic demographic information is only part of the equation in how to reach a consumer, along with their passions, behaviors, and interests. It’s broken the mold of old media, where messages were delivered to a passive, stationary audience at predetermined times.
Now, in addition to consuming media on demand, individuals play a massive role in creating the content that their friends and family consume. Rather than playing to a captive audience, we as marketers now must take the initiative to reach out to our audience directly. But with consumers’ attention occupied by the moments that they and their friends create and share, how can marketers build meaningful connections with them?
The simple answer: participate in the moments that are personal and relevant to consumers. In a whitepaper published earlier this month, Facebook IQ laid out a strategy for connection with people through the millions of personal moments they post to social networks through their mobile devices. Extraordinary insights are hidden in even the most mundane updates. Every small moment gives us a glimpse into a potential consumer’s world – their day-to-day routine, their desires, goals, passions, and hobbies allow us to see a more complete picture of who they are and interact with them accordingly.
Moments that Matter
Online, there are varying degrees of moments that matter. Some are fleeting and repeated, and others are huge, momentous life events. Regardless of its overall significance, each moment presents a unique opportunity to connect with potential customers.
Once in a Lifetime Moments
Life-changing events provide many moments to take advantage of. Engagements are followed by posts of the proposal, wedding planning, dress shopping, and honeymoon planning. Moving brings up posts about house hunting, packing, and moving services. All are opportunities for engagement.
New parents are an especially good example. Having a baby creates a flood of moments for new moms and dads to share – announcing the birth, posting all of their new baby’s “firsts,” sharing articles on parenting, and so much more. Additionally, new parents’ behavior differs from the average mobile user’s in a couple of key ways. First, the demands of a new baby’s feeding schedule has new parents awake earlier than non-parents, and this shows in the time of their first mobile Facebook session of the day – 56% of new parents begin their first session before 7am, compared to 45% of non-parents.
Additionally, their activity level is much higher than that of their peers without children. New moms and dads share 2.6x and 1.8x more status updates than their respective childless counterparts. Photos and videos are shared at even higher rates.
What does this mean? As the new baby becomes a parent’s world, their mobile device acts as their connection to the outside world. They’re eager to interact with and share content, and they do so at hours of the day that other potential consumers aren’t active. This is a prime opportunity to deliver image or video based content that a new parent can consume quickly during an early morning feeding.
Yearly Moments
From holidays and special events to the changing of seasons, each year brings a set of unique, one-off moments that people celebrate. Mobile allows people to share more than ever before, and marketers have increased opportunity to share with them. The excitement of holidays and events leads to greater excitement and higher spending among consumers, giving brands extra incentive to connect. And a growing number of “holidays” celebrating just about anything online, there are more chances than ever for marketers to connect with their audience.
The vast majority of moments shared online happen daily. As mobile continues to drive constant connectivity, a person’s online persona is a reflection of their entire life. This means that most of the content they post and share revolves along run of the mill, common events – what they made for breakfast, a show they just discovered, something funny a family member said.
As consumers’ lives play out online, they increasingly view Facebook and other networks as a trusted resource for content discovery, though Facebook comfortably outranks other online sources:
What Does This Mean?
So, what should you take away from this? How can you build a strategy around these moments?
- Get Personal. People share millions of personal moments every day – engagements, births, binge-watching their favorite shows, cooking, eating, exercising, and more. By paying attention to what matters most to your audience, you can deliver highly personalized, relevant content to your consumers. They share their lives on mobile; serve them content that aligns your interests with theirs.
- Precision is Key. The convenience and constant connectivity through mobile enables people to create and share small moments one after the other throughout the day. In order to stand out in the constantly updating stream of content, your brand needs to act with precision to deliver the most relevant content to the best possible person at the most convenient time. Tailor your content to individuals – a new mom awake at the crack of dawn to feed her baby, a recent graduate who just lost his phone and is in the market for a new one – and you’ll see results.
- Stick Around. Your mobile strategy needs to be consistent and persistent. As new moments come and go in rapid succession, your brand must keep up in order to stay relevant. To be viewed as a trusted resource for consumers, you must deliver thoughtful, personally relevant content to your audience on a consistent basis.
