What is Social Amplification?
Here’s a question we get from brands almost every day: “What are some of the ways I can increase the reach of my content through social media”? The short answer is – through social amplification. You’re probably wondering, where the heck do I start? It’s simple. Social amplification can begin with the people right in front of you. This post will answer any questions you have about this practice and will (hopefully) encourage you to try it out with your brand.
First, let’s discuss the big difference between good old fashion social sharing and what’s known as social amplification. Social sharing is when a brand shares and distributes digital content on their own channels. On the flip side, social amplification happens when that content is picked up and sent through the various waves of social media. Amplified content is shared either through organic or paid engagement by employees, fans, industry leaders, customers or major influencers. Each individual who decides to share your content extends your message even further to their personal network, who can then promote it to their network and so on. Think of it as a digital word-of-mouth. Depending on the amplifier (influencer) who shared your message, their reach could expose your content to more people than you could’ve imagined. Just a friendly reminder, a message has not truly been amplified until it has been picked up and shared with others throughout the web.
Organic Social Amplification
In terms of organic amplification, Facebook’s algorithm puts brands who don’t buy ads at a disadvantage. Less than 5% of your followers will actually get to see your message let alone share it. Plus, Facebook page post lifespan rarely exceeds 2 to 3 hours. You have a little more leeway on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but it is becoming almost mandatory to put money towards your ads or posts in order to be seen. If you are trying to get your content out organically, having friends or coworkers share it and doing some influencer outreach are a good place to start.
Employees, team members, and affiliates can oftentimes be the best advocates for amplifying your brand. Organic or paid, influencer marketing is the practice of looking for specific users who have a strong voice and affinity to your brand or industry. However, even if you already have thousands and thousands of fans, your content is still going to need all the help it can get. This is where paid amplification is highly recommended if not crucial to your brand’s marketing strategy.
Paid Social Amplification
Paid amplification uses advanced audience targeting within social networks to increase visibility and grow a community, thus amplifying the reach of organic content. It also guarantees greater content exposure to your social following. Advanced targeting allows you to pinpoint specific demographics, keywords, interests, locations and psychographics (interests, attitudes, & opinions). Make sure the content is uniquely formatted to each of the channels regarding image size and placement restrictions. Our downloadable Ultimate Social Media Sizing Guide should definitely help if you have questions regarding restrictions for each platform. Amplifying your content can be done through most major platforms with paid campaigns. Here are a few examples of how it’s done:
- Sponsored Updates
- Lead Generator
- Display Advertising
- Text Ads
- Send people to your website from Facebook
- Custom Audiences
- Increase conversions on your website
- Promote your Facebook Page
- Sponsored Posts
- Get people to claim an offer created through Facebook
- Get increased views on video posts
- Account promoted in the “Who to Follow” list
- Interest Targeting
- Send tweets to the top of the feed
- Show up at the top of a particular #hashtag search
StumbleUpon Paid Discovery Service
- Submit your business website URL to have its content recommended to relevant users
- Buy clicks from socially engaged visitors
- Boost visitor traffic by directing users to your website
- Set demographic criteria
- Daily ad budget
Outbrain
- Content promotion ad network
- Advertise content on related blogs
- Unique placements find the right audience for your content while they’re actively looking for something interesting to discover
- Global Publisher reach
Exposure, Goals, and Tracking
Exposure through social amplification will improve visibility, create brand awareness and growth. Influencer outreach will get the attention of major blogs and publishers which will allow you to rank higher on sites and improve your overall reach. It is important to have goals before you set up a strategy and more importantly a way to track those goals. Is your goal to create more brand awareness? Conversions? Increased sales? Higher engagement? Whatever the goal may be, make sure you know how to effectively track it.
Metrics to Track
- Impressions
- Reach
- Frequency
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Follows
- Sales
- Revenue
- ROI
- Return visits
- Conversion rate
Above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tracking, goals, and metrics. Do what works for your brand and the audience you are looking to target. When done correctly, social amplification can build your brand’s authority in your industry. It also increases social signals and improves search engine optimization and of course, overall brand awareness. But, be sure not to lose sight of the big picture as social amplification should integrate with your overall marketing strategy. It may not be the end all be all of the ways to launch your brand into instant stardom, but it sure is a smart place to start.
