Nick McGivney: Content is still king when engaging with your followers & building your brand

On February 15^th the people behind some of the country’s most popular and influential digital brands will be brought together as part of DoneDeal’s Measurement.ie conference (@measurementconf | #donedealsocial). Founded by Damien Mulley (@damienmulley), the conference will show businesses and start-ups how to use the social web more effectively.

Since 2003 io (@thisisio | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google+ | Vimeo ) has developed one of the most impressive portfolios in the Irish advertising and brand creation industry. Chances are you’ll recognise their creative work for companies such 11850, CityJet, Husqvarna, as well as Google.

But don’t just listen to us, here are io’s Robot and Child to give you the information you need.

Nick McGivney (@nmcgivney | LinkedIn) is io’s Senior Writer; his work regularly appears on TV, radio, video, the web and mobile. Nick’s experience includes working for Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and Ogilvy & Mather.

At the Measurement.ie Conference Nick will be touching on subjects such as best practice in social media and its qualitative nature.

Nick will also be discussing something close to his heart, the written word.

[There are] still too few copywriters contributing decent quality content to sites, blogs, videos, social media channels, apps and whatever you’re having. It’s no longer about gaming keywords in a big SEO race to the bottom. It’s about having something that people will click to see.

Content best practice
Carefully crafted content, whether it’s produced for a campaign or a quick status update, won’t just placate grammar pedants but can provide a company with a personality that users will want to engage with.

Simply pushing content out is a big mistake. A human or at least humanesque profile is a good idea, by which I mean don’t always sound like an auto response, and let your real personality show occasionally.

Say Brrr if it’s really cold. It differentiates you from the robot crowd.

Managing competitions
As for competitions, it’s important to consider that the participation, as well as the prize, can be an opportunity to build your brand. But again, make sure that your content is appropriate and air-tight.

People like to win, but they also like to take part, and sometimes that’s enough. Finding and tagging themselves in a picture of a full Cusack Stand at Croke Park might be all they need to associate positively with your brand.

Lock down your Facebook terms and conditions, this will save you many heartbreaking interactions with competition trolls. There are many trolls, and they resurface frequently.

Realistic expectations
As your content generates a community for your brand you need to have realistic expectations about this community. Echoing some of the conference’s speakers, Nick says that you need to consider the qualitative value of your community rather than just look at the numbers.

Putting a monetary value on followers or fans is nigh on impossible to do at this point. What are you measuring against? Previous returns on earlier campaigns? What about when those fans are only saying horrible things about your content/competition etc?

You can certainly measure individual promotions for monetary value, but fans are a more fickle proposition. Are they engaging with you beyond the hope of a competition win?

Are you spending time talking to them? Is that generating loyalty? Are they talking back as though you were an organic creature rather than, say, their mobile phone service provider? There are too many variables at play to be able to pin profitability on popularity.

You can learn more about the speakers and the line up on the Measurementi.ie website.