Today in Digital Marketing - 118: SPECIAL EPISODE: How is COVID-19 Changing Social Media?

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

A special edition today, summarizing the report from Social Bakers regarding the Coronavirus’ impact on social media. Get the full report at socialbakers.com/blog/covid-19-is-changing-behavior-on-social-media-for-both-brands-and-users Give them a follow at https://twitter.com/socialbakers Can you help spread the word? Review this podcast at https://ratethispodcast.com/today AND/OR click https://ctt.ac/o713H to preview a tweet you can publish Today in Digital Marketing is brought to you by engageQ digital. Can we help you with YOUR brand’s digital marketing and social media? Let’s chat. http://www.engageQ.com or call 1-855-863-6233. TOD’S SOCIAL MEDIA: Tod’s web site: http://TodMaffin.com Tod’s agency: http://engageQ.com LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/todmaffin Twitter: http://twitter.com/todmaffin Instagram: http://instagram.com/todmaffin Facebook: http://facebook.com/tmaffin TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@todmaffin Mixer: https://mixer.com/HappyRadioGuy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/todayindigital/messageOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. It is Wednesday, March 25th, 2020. I'm Todd Maffin. A different kind of episode today. And in normal times, I would not devote an entire episode to a single study, but these are not normal times. And so I'm going to be summarizing a report from Social Bakers today called How is COVID-19 Changing Social Media? Normally, I wouldn't read large passages from source material, but again, strange times. I did

tweet Socialbakers to ask if I may quote liberally from their work. They haven't replied yet, but I'm going to assume that they too believe that information is one of the best disinfectants for a global pandemic. And so, from pretty much herein, the words you will hear me speak come from the Social Bakers report, and there is a link to it in the description. As most would expect, the worldwide pandemic has had an effect on brands' social media strategy and performance. This can be seen in a variety of areas,

including a lower demand for paid ads on Facebook, the increased performance of organic content, and perhaps a lower demand for paid ads on Facebook, the increased performance of organic content, and perhaps a hidden opportunity for brands that do have some budget to spend and increase their reach because of the lower costs of ads on Facebook. Because people have been forced into social distancing at home, they have more time to consume social media content, and as a result, the supply is trending up. That has also created new possible opportunities for smart marketers to create engaging content. Social bakers analyze data across 18 industries and five regions worldwide, looking at recent

trends in cost per click, ad spend, click-through rate, and more. In summary, the decrease in paid advertising can be seen across all metrics, while the trends have a correlation to the relative regional spread of and recovery from COVID-19. And now the findings. There has been a decrease in CPM across the board of all industries that Socialbakers analyzed. For brands overall, the most recent figure, about 81 cents, is less than half of the previous seven-month high in late November of about $1.88. Regionally, the CPM in Eastern Asia has bounced back to about where it was seven months ago. However, the other regions, which are still in the midst of the pandemic, have steadily declined in the new year.

As North America is just starting to feel the impact of COVID-19, during mid-March, the CPM there is starting to drop, as we have seen back in Asia back in February 2020. Not surprisingly, the Facebook cost per click has decreased, making the cost to advertise much lower for nearly every industry that Socialbaker analyzed. For brands overall, the previous low was 11 cents right after the new year. Most recently, that decreased by 19% down to just under 9 cents. The lower ad costs have traditionally been after the new year, and because of this situation, that trend has continued into the spring. That means there's a possible

opportunity for brands that have the budget to make their message go to a wider audience than it normally would. All right, about the click-through rate. As people are engaging more with organic content than paid, the CTR for all brand accounts has declined by about 17.2% since the new year. This is an opportunity for brands to push more organic content as it is seen as more authentic and reliable at a time like this. One of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic, accommodation, reached a high click-through rate of 1.84 in mid-January and has decreased by 18.5% over the last two months. But the economic hardship of the pandemic can be seen most clearly

in ad spend, where brands are forced to limit their budgets, this can again be seen most clearly in accommodation, where the most recent data suggests that ad spend is nearly a quarter of what it had been just a month ago. As in other cases regionally, Eastern Asia is mostly on the other side of this pandemic and its ad spend has picked up and surpassed where it was seven months ago. The other regions have been declining, with the most dramatic results in North America, where the pandemic currently has center stage. Now, on to the organic social media posts. The brands that are being proactive and making contributions to their communities and employees have seen the most engagement on Facebook and Instagram. Looking at posts related to coronavirus over the last month and a half, the post that got the most interactions on both platforms came from Brazilian brewery Ambev, which announced that it would use its production lines

to make half a million bottles of hand sanitizer for local hospitals and the cities hit hardest by COVID-19. The other top posts on Instagram came from two Italian car companies. Ferrari pledged 10 million euros in support of the crisis, while Bugatti expressed its sympathies to the people of Italy, one of the country's hardest hit by the pandemic. On Facebook, the other top posts came from Home Bargains, a UK discount chain that announced a 3030 million fund to support its employees, and US-based Screwball Whiskey, which on March 16th pledged to donate $1 to the Bartender's Emergency Assistance Program

for every share of the post, up to $500,000. Brands across all regions have consistently posted fewer pieces of paid content in 2020. Not all of this can be attributed to COVID-19, but as the trend continues, it has become clear that some of it is related to the tightening of budgets. As a result, organic posts have increased slightly across all regions since the start of the year. This trend is expected to continue as businesses look for less costly alternatives to engage their audiences. That means organic strategies driven by the right content may win during this period. Backing up what you might expect considering the situation, Socialbaker's data suggests that fans of Facebook brand pages in Europe have been spending more time online every day in recent weeks. As more and more companies have settled into home office situations,

the percentage of fans who have seen Facebook posts on brand pages has increased a little each of the last three weeks. And it's not just during the week, either. The data shows an increase in March on the weekends, too, which means that marketers looking to take advantage of the lower ad costs could potentially find an audience any day of the week. Finally, regarding engagement, while it may change as people keep spending more time in their homes and online, the overall engagement for both organic and paid content on brand profiles has been mostly steady throughout the crisis.

This bears monitoring, as many areas of the world have an indefinite period of working from home in front of them. But so far, social distancing in the real world has not led to a spike in social media engagement in the digital world. Unquote. So again, big report there. I read most of it. It's from social bakers. There is a link in this episode's description. So lots to take in there. I hope you're well,

that your family is well, please stay home. I'll talk to you tomorrow.