Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast for all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're talking about social media takeovers. Have they had their day? So explain to us, Melanie, what is a social media takeover? And we're not talking when Metta buys out things like Instagram and other nice platforms that we used to love.
Melanie
Yeah, I like the way you Let me just turn the first question on me straight away.
Esther
Well, you make me start the podcast, so it's my prerogative to ask you the first question.
Melanie
I suppose. Okay, so a social media takeover is when somebody else takes over Normally a brand or a business's social media accounts, and it can be any of them, but typically it's one where you can go live in, where you can participate actively, so not really a static platform.
Esther
Okay, so we're not really talking on your website with a blog?
Melanie
No. Well, not ideally, no. The idea of this is so that it gives a bit of a shake up to that current brand because It's with a new persona, normally with a new target or a new campaign in mind. And it reinfigurates their audience and introduces the brand that's taking over to that audience.
Esther
Okay, so a recent example of this would be, we're both members of the digital women community. And a recent example is when coming up to the recent event that they had a couple of months ago, Christine Gritman took over and interviewed the speakers who were going to be talking at that event. So she got given access to the platform and got given authority to use, under the brand of digital women, her own voice, literally, as she was talking to these speakers. Is that a good example?
Melanie
It is. But it also has to be important that you share the same values in many respects as well.
Esther
Yeah, so Christine's another member of digital. Exactly. So that made sense.
Melanie
Absolutely. And so it can't be completely random. There has to be some connection. Otherwise, you don't just shake up things. You can actually piss people off. You've got to be really, really careful about who you do the takeover with. The takeover, ideally, is with somebody who's got a very large audience, but it can be with people who've just got more than you. Now, I'm not suggesting that if you've got 500, you go and do a takeover with somebody who's got a thousand. But it's still more than you. If that's where you want to start, then as long as it's beneficial to both of you, then absolutely you should.
Esther
See, and that's where I think a lot of people jump in and rush things is when they just go, oh, I must do this collaboration with someone and just hand over the keys to my social media channels. And they'll just, because they're so good on their own channels, they'll be really good on mine. But there should be, obviously, a strategy behind it. Why do you want to do it? How long are you going to do it for? Who are you going to approach to do it? As Melanie says, is it actually a good fit? Or is it just because... I follow the Formula One, and I would not be a good person to go in and take over Ferrari's social social media platform, even though I follow Formula One and I like watching them. Ferrari would not be my favorite. No, it was when Schumacher was there. I'm showing my age. But there'd be no point in someone like me or someone with just a passing interest in that would take over. Whereas if you got Enzo Ferrari himself to go on and do a cameo, it's like Stan Lee always appeared in the movies. In the Marvel movies. That idea to get somebody really influential and really knowledgeable on the topic to take over.
Melanie
So do you think it has to be both? Somebody who is well-recognised as well as very knowledgeable?
Esther
I think they at least have to have a good enough knowledge of your products and service and your audience type. The Like you said, you don't have to be super well known. But if it's a massive brand like Ferrari, they should have.
Melanie
Oh, yeah. I mean, they would have no problems. I don't think either of us could do that.
Esther
No.
Melanie
However, if you want to pay us to, If Ferrari are listening.
Esther
What do you think? Okay, so Ferrari is one example of a type of brand that could have someone taking over their social media for a day, for a week, for a day in the life of just hand it over to one of their drivers who But everyone who follows Formula One knows who drives for Ferrari. But that's a massive brand with a massive global audience. Does it work for small B2B companies, B2C companies? Who does it work for best?
Melanie
Well, I think it does work for smaller companies as long as it's got an active audience. If you don't have an active audience, and especially if you're not a known person to do it, there's no real draw to it. I could just imagine if you had like, Maury Smith taking over, I can't think of anybody who's bigger than Maury Smith right now. Social media examiner. Taking over social media examiner's social media platforms for the day. People already in that industry know who she is. But they may not necessarily know who Enzo Ferrari is, even if he is a big name. There does have to be, and you'll pardon the pun here, a marriage of having the right person for the right discipline, for the right area. It doesn't have to be big. I'm based in Mullingar, which is in County West Meath. One of the most famous people around here was and still is Niall Horne. If he came on to- For our older audience who don't know who that is, he was in One Direction. For One Direction, yes. He's now branched off on his own. If he did anything here, basically in Malingar, it would send that business into orbit.
But it doesn't have to be Niall Horan. It could just be a respected business person. It could be somebody who's won awards or accommodations that's well known in the area. It just depends on what meaningful outcome you're looking for. So if you're looking to support a small local business and you've got a small business champion, and we know a couple of those, don't we? We do. Then that's really going to be beneficial. But if you're trying to take your business national or heck, even global, then you're going to have to find the personality that meets that particular requirement.
Esther
Well, that's true. But in that example of using Niall Horan, it also has to align with his values. Yes. So there's no point in... I don't know much about the guy, but if he's a vegetarian, he wouldn't really want to be going into the butchers and promoting that. So there does have to be this, like you say, in marriage, but also of values and not just of the right audience that they have or the right following. So there has to be that idea of it fits with both the company and the ambassador's value, because that's really what they're turning into is like a brand ambassador on your own platform rather than doing it on their platform. Yes. So let's give our audience some more examples of what this.
Melanie
Let's give them stats. Get your pen and paper out and we'll start giving you some stats.
Esther
So ideas and examples of some takeovers that could happen. There's a lot of ones that go around a day in the life. So follow me as I get ready or follow me as I study or follow me as I cook the dinner. So if somebody is taking over, for example, the Just Eat. No, that's a delivery one. What's the other one? Gusto or...
Melanie
I have no idea. I don't know where you're going with this.
Esther
You know the box of fresh food that arrives.
Melanie
Oh, Hello Fresh.
Esther
Hello Fresh or Simply Cook, things like that. So you could have Gordon Ramsey or Jimmy Oliver, or insert the name of another well-known chef that I only know, too. So come with me as I prepare this Hello Fresh box of goodies. So you've got an influencer, somebody famous, a chef, to put together, working off a recipe card that they probably never use anymore, to show how simple it is that even they can follow this because they're more used to coming up with their own recipes.
Melanie
I think they should get somebody like us to do it, because we're both clueless.
Esther
We really are. We really are. But bringing it... Because we've got a friend, our friend, Nive Hogan, who owns Hola Skincare, so she could do a product launch takeover. And Nive, if you're listening, we would be the perfect candidates. And yes, we have some of your products already on hand. So I mean, we would... If you're listening and not watching, Melanie is showing a couple of samples that we got from a recent trip to Social Media Fest, where Nive very kindly gave away some goodies in our little goody bag.
Melanie
And I am using them. I know they're in the box, but I am actually using them.
Esther
I'm using them too. And the little small one is really good for traveling. So product launches, behind the scenes tours, when somebody is, think of behind the scenes at Disneyland, who would be a good person to do that. They don't have to be famous. You could pick, do a competition and pick somebody to take over.
Melanie
That would be so cool. Wouldn't it? It would have to be a video audition, though. Oh, absolutely. Because you'd have to find out what the character's like. Yeah.
Esther
And you have to be... Because we were saying that these are all done on one that's very visual.
Melanie
I think it could be audio, actually, couldn't it?
Esther
No, you wouldn't. Behind the scenes, you want to see what's happening behind the scenes. So When you're coming up with your ideas, take a look at other people's social media, take a look at YouTube, at Instagram, at TikTok, take a look at their videos and see what they're already doing. Reach out to people and say, hey, I would love to do this. So this all came about because we saw a local football club, soccer for our American followers, that a guy was going to be taking over their social media for the day. And he was a famous footballer who had come up through the club and was giving back to his local community. So things like that, that just Obviously, that makes a good match. But if you see something that you would like to do, and we'll be reaching out to Nive after this to offer our services for the product launch. I kid you not. I I know it means me going on video, but I'm willing to do it for Neeve. How do we do it?
Melanie
Well, there is a suggestion criteria for you to follow. Ideally, as we've already mentioned, it would be helpful if you had somebody who was out there with a personality, somebody who's interesting, somebody who is brave enough to go on video, even unpaid.
Esther
I tick the first few boxes.
Melanie
Even unpaid. Excuse me. Even A big bonus, I suppose, is having a good backdrop to the takeover. It could be a good location, an interesting location. It could be in a basement, it could be out in a field, it could be an area that you've actually created into a fantasy land, or it could be balloons, it could be a bull pit, it could be anywhere. As long as it's interesting, but it also has to be relevant. Because, again, if you're Talking about supporting a butcher's locally and you're surrounded by a fresh fruit and vegetables, that may go okay for a little while. But if there's no meat involved, it's going to look a bit weird. It would also have to be something that's relevant and timely because that's part of the the older algorithm. You need to hop onto something that's relevant and timely. Again, going back to the food thing, if you're talking about Christmas dinner and it's spring. Why?
Esther
I could eat Christmas dinner any day, but that's just me.
Melanie
Touche. But it involves a certain amount of bravery. It involves you doing things where you have to open open up doors. But the good thing is that can also start new relationships, give you access to people that you wouldn't normally get to because you've now got a meeting point that will be interesting to them. Having this podcast has opened us up to some enormous opportunities and people. People we never in a million years thought we'd get access to. Oh, boy, have we got some interesting people coming up? It's important that you take these into account because there are things that could also impact you doing the social media takeover as well. You've got to be very careful about your reputation, and you've got to think about the reputation of the people who you're working with as well. If you're not serious about doing this properly, you could impact their reputation. So it's not just you that could be impacted. There's also security issues. We're forever talking about two-factor authentication. Remember our podcast a while back called Suite 2FA, which you're welcome to listen to. You got to be really careful who has access to this information, how it's sent to them, will you change your passwords, and your access information straight afterwards, just in case, because you don't know what they're going to be doing with the information afterwards. There's a lot of things you need to take into account. And also it could go wrong. It could go wrong.
Esther
Everything could go wrong, potentially. But as long as you set your goals, so what do you want to achieve from the takeover? Is it increasing brand visibility? Is it driving sales? Is it to introduce new features? Is it to show a day in the life? What do you want to gain from it? Because set that first and And then all the rest of the decisions will follow. If you want to increase sales, you don't want somebody, you don't want to choose the host to, like a somebody who won't ask for the sale or who won't give the call to action. You want somebody who's going to fit, like we've said before, someone who fits with your values and that your company fits with their values. Place guidelines for the content. What can they say? What can't they say? I mean, we have people coming on this podcast to go, Can I swear? No, can't. Because that's not our brand. So setting, might seem like simple things like that, but clear limits of what is allowed, what isn't allowed, and what can they say, what can't they say. You might have six products coming out. You only want them to talk about one, and they end up talking about all six. No. Put a script in if need be, so that they know exactly what they need to be talking about and engage with the audience. So while they're on.
Melanie
Yeah, respond. Be responsive.
Esther
Yeah, while they're on the live, you be in the background, answering the questions because you'll know the answer is better than the person who's taking over. But be there and don't just let it be a one and done. Share snippets, share teasers, share a throwback. It's a lot of time and effort goes into both parties doing these takeovers, so use it wisely.
Melanie
Now, I'd be really interested to hear from you guys. I bet now that we've been talking about social media takeovers, you're going to start seeing them. Yeah. And honestly, this came up because they fell off my orbit. And when I saw this, as you mentioned, this soccer club, I was like, Wow, are they still being done? And as I looked around, I went, Crikey, yeah, they are. So I think you'll be shocked as well. How many social media takeovers are being done? They just slipped into our everyday life now. We don't even notice it happening.
Esther
And a lot of people consider them more to be user-generated content rather than social takeovers. But if someone is on the other person's platform, then it's a takeover.
Melanie
Yeah.
Esther
You know? Not a hostile takeover, a very friendly one that hopefully you've approved of.
Melanie
I'd like our listeners to tag us and let us know what social media takeover you saw, good or bad, so that we can Check them out and see what we think. Yeah.
Esther
That's it for today, guys. We'll be back next week with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye. Hey, do you reckon they'll actually do that?
Esther
What, tag us?
Melanie
Yeah.
Esther
Let's hope so. We like our audience to be responsive and do the tasks that we set them.
Melanie
Do you think somebody will ask us to do a social media takeover of their accounts?
Esther
Well, if we reach out to Nive or anyone else, I don't know. I think it would be quite a good experience to do one. I'd quite like to do one.
Melanie
I think it'd be deadly.
Esther
We need to be in the same place, though, at the the same time. We're like Batman and Bruce Wayne.
