Naritiv On How Brands Are Evolving Their Social Media Strategies

The social revolution has hit marketing hard, and brands have been strong supporters of social media from early on. The relationship between brands and social media continues to evolve, and the increasing array of social media choices make it even more challenging for brands to find the best way to engage across different channels. There are plenty of different strategies being used, and clearly some brands are doing a better job than others at engaging with consumers through social media. But what strategies are best How can a brand get help

Naritiv co-founder and CEO Dan Altmann, formerly in integrated marketing at IAC and Warner Brothers, took some time to speak with [a]listdaily prior to the upcoming [a]list Video Summit where his topic will be How Brands Can Shine on Snapchat.

How are brands changing the way they use social media?

For us we see Snapchat as this really important tool for telling a story, whether it’s a campaign-based story or it’s an overall brand story. We see Snapchat as a great way to tell a story throughout a week, or throughout a month, or throughout a year. That applies to each one of the platforms that we look at for social media. Instagram is its own story, it’s less content but tailored content and prettier content. Twitter is this constant stream of updates… each is really a component of a bigger story and being able to use them helps brands get a story across in a more effective way if they do it right.

Are brands making better use of social media than they have in the past?

I think brands are getter smarter about it. I think they see brands like Red Bull that have done a great job of telling their brand story, and they want to be smarter about it and not have everything be tied to a transaction, understand that there’s a dialog and an activity that you can create their that you couldn’t do in the past. I think they are catching up, and hopefully companies like ours can help them get better at it.

What can a brand expect to gain from social media now?

It’s a number of things. There are definitely opportunities for direct commerce. Snapchat is a great place to get someone to watch something immediately because it goes away in 24 hours. If you want to drive immediacy and excitement around a movie coming out or a sale that’s going on, it’s a great place to do that. In the longer term it’s more about how do you create a conversation with fans and with customers that goes beyond just doing a commercial. With Snapchat it’s an ability to have a conversation with a younger audience and build a brand over time. Big companies that are jumping on these platforms are looking at it in a longer term connectivity way versus ‘how can I get on and sell product.’ It’s really ‘how can I get on be a brand that a younger generation cares about and thinks is cool in five years.’ It’s a longer term strategy but it’s an important one to have.

What’s next for social media and brands in the future?

We’re really excited about what can happen on mobile-first platforms, that were only ever built to be on a phone. That’s why we’re focused on Snapchat. Livestreaming is also really exciting – it has a lot of immediacy. It’ll be interesting to see if it creates a critical mass there. Some of the biggest stars don’t draw more than five thousand people to a livestream. It’s a really exciting area that we’ll be keeping our eye on.