Connecting with Social Media Audiences in 2024

I have worked in social media marketing for the last 16 years, creating content and being the online voice of dozens of global brands, charities and organisations, ranging from confectionary brands like KitKat and Aero, to electronics giants Samsung, Canon and Bose, as well as events companies, theatrical productions, museums, and most recently (prior to joining Situation) the UK’s biggest telecoms brand, EE. Three months ago I joined the Situation UK team as the Head of Content and Social Media, and I’m thrilled to be working with UK Arts & Culture clients and their uniquely passionate online fans. Entertaining, nurturing and communicating with online audiences has been a huge part of my career. It’s been fascinating to watch the social media industry and the technology around it evolve and expand since 2008, not to mention the shift in user behaviour and attitudes towards the medium as well as the cultural impact it has had.

In the marketing world, working in this specialist discipline is unique as the content that a social team creates is broadcast instantly and publicly to followers and subscribers on the platforms, and each social media page we publish to has an audience of people watching and reading what we create seconds after we publish it. If we make great content that connects with people, it gets commented on or shared, and it can spread further and live longer too (some content I made and published over ten years ago still gets watched and occasionally commented on). This is not something that really happens with other marketing media. 

The sizes of our audiences can also range from a couple of thousand people in one location to tens of millions all over the world. The scale of it can be hard to comprehend… currently there are over 5 billion social media users around the world, which equates to 62% of the total global population. Approximately 265 million new users have joined social media sites over the past year. This is an average rate of 8 new users every single second. With the average user spending 2-2.5 hours a day on social media it is by far the most popular way to consume media. Every user will follow and engage with things they are interested in and with the infamous ‘feed’ algorithms working to process the huge volume of content flooding the platforms daily, the job of the social media marketer (in 2024 more than ever) is to reach the right people, and give them content that they want to see. To build an online audience and keep that audience interested and engaged with what you do is absolutely key. 

One of the most exciting things for me coming back into the Arts & Culture industry is having more engaged and receptive audiences who have a passion and love for what our clients do. This has been very apparent working on Mean Girls The Musical over the last three months. We see dozens of messages a day on each social platform from our fans and the general public seeing the shows, who not only love the production but also love the content we’ve been working hard to create and publish. Our content gets tens of thousands of views and hundreds of positive comments. It’s a truly joyful, growing community of fans and audiences who have either enjoyed the musical for years or just discovered it and connected with it. This is very different from my recent experience working with the UK telecoms client, where having worked hard to create a great piece of content (that sometimes would take weeks of work), we would see the comments section fill up with people just complaining about their phone reception or their broadband contract, not even acknowledging what we had posted about. 

Another of our clients at Situation UK is the Royal Literary Fund, a brilliant charity that supports writers through grants and educational programs. Our team is working closely with the RLF to build an audience of passionate professional writers and those passionate about writing, poetry and literature, while working with our media team to raise awareness of the charity and the great work they do. Again, it is a real privilege and delight to see passionate people engage with our content and share information about events and initiatives the RLF and their members are involved with, even if it is on a smaller scale compared to our West End show clients. 

In the Situation London office, the social content team works closely with the media team on paid social marketing activity to help grow our clients’ online audience and communicate with people beyond our organic reach. The level of collaboration between the two teams in our office is exceptional,  and from my experience over the years working in agencies, this is something that is far too often kept separate. Our work is better when we do it together, which is evident in our campaign results, combining intelligently targeted ad spend from our media team and using engaging, fun creative assets made by our social content team. 

Social media is a fast-paced medium to work in and it can be challenging and often filled with surprises. But working on such a collaborative team and with such passionate fans makes such a difference. I am excited to be back in the UK Arts & Culture sector with online audiences who love what we do and our team. Coming to the office, I relish being able to engage with them and create content that they love to see.