Nick Cicero is likely one of the most skilled and educated minds in social media analytics.
Nick made information analytics his major focus with the launch of his firm Delmondo again in 2014. Delmondo was the primary platform to supply in-depth information on Instagram and Snapchat video efficiency, and rapidly rose to be the main supplier within the house, with shoppers together with Viacom, Purple Bull and ESPN. Delmondo was acquired by Conviva in 2018, and now, beneath the Conviva banner, Nick focuses on real-time measurement and intelligence options for streaming video throughout all platforms.
Given his expertise, Nick is uniquely positioned to offer insights on the evolving digital advertising and marketing house, and the significance of analytics and efficiency measurement to enhance your efforts.
We lately had an opportunity to place just a few inquiries to Nick, value noting in your course of.
Q. What do you suppose has been essentially the most important pattern in social media advertising and marketing over the previous few years?
NC: For certain the expansion of video. Within the first wave of social, it was all about utilizing textual content, dialog and pictures to speak. Immediately, practically all social platforms are video-first. The fee to supply, distribute and eat video has decreased exponentially, and this has now pushed companies to consider how they place their message to a video-first shopper.
This isn’t nearly media corporations or sports activities groups both. Client manufacturers are rising their video output considerably. As measured by Conviva Social insights, from January to June 2021, throughout greater than 2,500 shopper manufacturers, video output on Fb, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube is up greater than 60% year-on-year. And that’s not even counting the surge in video content material printed to TikTok.
Q. When it comes to information traits, what’s been essentially the most attention-grabbing shift over the previous 12 months?
NC: Two specifically – first is the expansion of TikTok by way of share of the time spent by social media customers. Of the 900 TikTok accounts measured in our current Conviva TikTok Benchmark report, the profiles gained a staggering 604k new followers, on common, over the previous yr.
Second is the expansion of YouTube as a participant in OTT/Streaming Video. Amongst our hundreds of buyer accounts, we discovered a 69% enhance from This autumn 2019 to This autumn 2020 by way of related TV viewership on YouTube. Immediately, YouTube is turning into increasingly more like Hulu or Netflix for a wider scope of content material.
Q. Which forms of manufacturers are you seeing carry out greatest on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat?
NC: Sports activities and Sports activities Media accounts have lengthy been among the greatest performing accounts anyplace on social, however we noticed a shift within the final yr as to what was protecting folks entertained, and streaming providers, because of this, have actually taken off.
In our Q1 2021 State of Streaming report we noticed that the majority streaming service accounts grew their whole viewers by practically 100% during the last yr. Streaming providers are constructing empires of regional accounts, and present particular accounts to extend their model footprint. This works even higher if a present has a nostalgic following – the iCarly reboot on Paramount+, for instance, has an enormous cross-platform viewers of 27.8m, which is greater than Netflix’s golden goose, Stranger Issues’ viewers at 26.4m.
These reveals, their actors, the providers are all performing very properly on social proper now.
Q: What, in your opinion, is the important thing component of an efficient Tales technique?
NC: Consistency. In our earlier Tales analysis we’ve famous that the manufacturers who’re capable of develop their Instagram Tales attain constantly at all times have two issues in frequent – they submit a number of occasions per week, and their Tales are at all times, at minimal, 6-7 frames lengthy.
One body Tales right here and there merely aren’t going to chop it for manufacturers making an attempt to be aggressive in at this time’s world dominated by social algorithms.
Q: Which platform do you suppose is underrated by way of model alternatives?
NC: Whereas TikTok is the most recent platform with tons of alternatives for manufacturers, Snapchat is essentially the most underrated, by far.
In Could this yr, Snapchat added Model Profiles, which suggests now you can get your model verified on Snapchat the identical means that Sports activities groups, influencers and Uncover reveals can.
This offers manufacturers one thing on Snapchat they didn’t have entry to up to now – viral natural attain. At the moment, solely verified accounts present up in Snapchat’s Uncover/For You web page. As such, an excellent model story on Snapchat is now not restricted to simply the individuals who comply with you.
Snapchat’s advert merchandise are additionally extremely user-friendly, and really efficient.
Q: How important a task do you count on to see AR play in future social advertising and marketing methods?
NC: I nonetheless suppose that it’s early days, however the potential upside for all the varied functions of AR inside social platforms is very large.
Immediately it’s nonetheless pretty experimental, however it may be an incredible piece of the engagement toolkit for user-generated content material. We’re additionally seeing the bodily and digital worlds converge by means of NFTs and the Metaverse, and whereas loads of this exists in pure VR or gaming environments, I can see increasingly more AR functions used as methods to customise a person’s content material creation instruments.
For instance, superfans of a model might be given entry to distinctive, unique AR results. Mixed with the social graph, the probabilities are countless.
Q: What’s the most typical error you see manufacturers make in analyzing their analytics?
NC: I’d say the most typical error we see is twofold.
First, you could set benchmarks. What’s your baseline engagement, video viewership, common watch time, engagement fee, and so on.? What are your benchmark for engagements or video views amongst your rivals or trade?
You possibly can’t measure what content material works and what doesn’t when you don’t know the baseline.
Second, as soon as you determine your baseline, you could categorize your content material based mostly on initiatives. These might be your Content material Messaging Themes, Video Sequence, or Campaigns (and there are lots of different methods to phase content material). This fashion you possibly can establish what social media investments are transferring the needle, and which of them aren’t.
It’s necessary to keep in mind that whereas all of us set out to achieve success with each submit we publish, or each interplay we have now, you could be sincere about what’s working, and what’s not producing outcomes.
You possibly can swing for the fences, however to hit dwelling runs in social, simply know you’re going to wish loads of probabilities and also you’re going to strike out quite a bit.
You is usually a strong place participant, and be extra constant in your hits, however you may by no means hit that dwelling run.
Attempt to stability these two extremes once you have a look at the info to regulate your technique.
Q: Do you suppose that Fb will stay the important thing social platform of focus for almost all of manufacturers transferring ahead?
NC: From a content material creation perspective, I feel the first focus has rapidly shifted to different platforms for almost all of manufacturers, with extra manufacturers doubling down on paid spending. That being stated, their teams are dwelling to wealthy, vibrant communities, many of those are brand-curated, and there’s nonetheless a big viewers on Fb, and these lively group/group customers are extremely priceless.
Additionally, Fb’s advert platform, spanning each Fb and Instagram, is very priceless, and I do not see nearly all of manufacturers transferring away from utilizing the platform for driving conversions.
Nick Cicero is the Vice President of Technique at Conviva, which leads the way in which in digital video intelligence. You possibly can comply with Nick on Twitter for extra of his trade insights.