Winning the Battle for Digital Q and A
Key questions and answers on winning the battle for digital
We had some fascinating guest speakers at our recent Winning the battle for digital event. A Digital Champion working in the communications department at a military organisation and an IoT evangelist in a scientific instrumentation company talked to us about how they are winning their respective digital battles.
We also wanted to encourage a discussion amongst attendees that included a prestigious university, a leading scientific publisher, a large housing organisation, and a number of government departments.
These were the some of the questions in the discussion…
How do you decide which new form of social media to dedicate time and resources to when the playing field is so fluid?
Our Digital Champion explained: “I’m not averse to TikTok, I think it’s got benefits. I think if you’re trying to go from a recruitment angle, and you want to look at people that are thinking about careers, then TikTok could be a route. I don’t want to flood TikTok with a load of corporate videos, because that’s not what TikTok’s for.” His key tips were:
- You’ve got to be prepared to have the content for a new channel
- You have to have a channel strategy and not try to be everything to everybody
- Look to exploit channels as your weapon of choice and try and create the content suitable for those channels.
His organisation stick to the regular suspects Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and the website. But he also said: “we’re not averse to branching out into others, if we think that would tell our message the best way. But you can’t do that without a strategy – without knowing what you’re trying to achieve. And it’s just as important sometimes to exclude things than it is to include them. Because if not, you’re diluting your message.”
Our partners at Helpful Digital also have this handy guide to help you decide whether you need a new digital channel.
Thinking about a full reboot of your digital strategy? Here are our top tips.
How does the rise of digital tech change audience and consumer research for you? Or has it not changed?
Our IoT evangelist answered this one, stating: “I think the conjunction with digital tech and the COVID pandemic has pushed us all to be thinking completely differently. The idea of doing something like this event two years ago just would have left me cold, I might have wondered whether it was worth my time doing all the travelling and that kind of stuff. Actually this is an opportunity to hear what other people think, to get a message out there and get some feedback that I wouldn’t have got before. So the ability to reach out and touch people is much wider.
The challenge is the same
But actually, the challenge is exactly the same as it’s always been so be careful what questions you ask and be careful what answers you get back. If you ask anything on social media, you will get flooded with opinions, so the opportunity for customer research and audience feedback is very much a double-edged sword. But in terms of being able to get hold of people that you just couldn’t before, that conjunction has made life really interesting.
A lot more people are on Teams and would just not have thought about communicating this way two years ago. I saw a piece recently where one of the big toy companies was games testing over Teams because they couldn’t travel or get people in a room and do all the usual stuff with the video cameras. It worked a treat. In fact, you find that people are more candid that way in their own space. And that’s one of the big things you’re taught from early on – don’t listen to what they’re saying, watch what they actually do. And that becomes much more interesting over digital, as long as you can actually see what they’re doing.
Measure effect
Our Digital Champion added that it is easy to get seduced by likes and performance stats, but what’s important is measures of effect. Messages should get a reaction, comments and user research shouldn’t be ignored, because stats will then drop off and things will go stale.
One of the things we are keen to do in our work here at Binary Vision is to bridge that gap between data and insight. Nothing really replaces human analysis, insight and review. The challenge is turning data into something useful and actionable.
How can you think about and plan for emerging tech policy eg the upcoming EU AI act?
Our IoT evangelist explained that this was an ongoing challenge and something really important to keep an eye on. He also said the IP landscape and patents were another area to watch closely. For our Digital Champion an important area of compliance is accessibility guidelines, not just because they have to, but as he said “why wouldn’t you? If you are trying to be really inclusive and get your message out there to everyone.”
What’s your most successful data platform to drive traffic and what visual content works best?
Our Digital Champion has lots of creators who produce press releases and great images and then the digital team works out where they can share that content. He acknowledged they don’t always have the time or resources to go back to fully discuss the best places to share that content and do something bespoke for each social media channel. Great photos work really well on Instagram, and as a hook on other social channels. He believes it is worth spending a little bit of extra time to get a really good image. They try to ensure their images are representative of their diverse workforce. He also highlighted the importance of using the right hashtags and tagging relevant accounts to increase the reach of content.
In summary, rich and regular content is key to good social media performance.
Engaging properly is key for our IoT evangelist. He stressed the importance of good value content that people are going to want to engage with.
Ask yourself “why should anyone pick to read the thing that you did? Don’t put out stuff that you don’t think people really care about.”
User journey and user experience is also important. Our Digital Champion works hard to ensure people can move from social media to their website and around their website finding more related stories and further information on topics they are interested in.
Here at Binary Vision we’re real advocates of evaluating your work, talking to your audience, really finding out what they are interested in, and what captures their attention and helps you to meet whatever goals you are working towards.
We’re hugely grateful to our two fascinating speakers and everyone who attended this event.
If this has inspired you to review your own digital strategy we have a handy guide here to help you to get started.
If you have any questions for us, our speakers, or partners, please get in touch.