Observations from a Social Media Experiment

Hi,

Happy Thursday!

I know it’s not Wednesday, but April 30th was Tax Day in Canada. If you know my story, you know that for the past five years (not by choice), I’ve had to file some variation of dual taxes in the US, UK, and Canada. Would I recommend it? No. Can I now offer international tax consultancy as a service? Yes. Even if you’re family, it’ll cost a premium because it's such a pain.

Anyway, I’m running a day late this week and waiting for my mother-in-law to text me and ask what’s going on. She’s an avid reader.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been refining my offer and have been surprised by some of the approaches I’ve received for different types of services. It’s remarkable where some of my experience, which I assume everyone possesses, actually serves as a differentiator. Just so you know, I’m offering 1-hour consultations for agencies and commissioners on your specific projects, broader strategy, career development, and more. Email me if I can help.

I’ve mentioned before that my offer includes a lot of "-shuns" like inspiration, education, production, imagination, and sesquipedalianization (the use of long, complicated words).

On this beautiful rainy Thursday, I’d like to talk briefly about distribution.

Corporate communicators often lack the funds for media buying, which means they create content but have limited places to share it. This is unfortunate because some corporate narratives are essential for audiences beyond the business, making it challenging to distribute these messages effectively. Instead, they rely on owned channels like their website, or social media platforms not tailored to this type of content, and LinkedIn, which has recently become a mix of new job announcements and attempts at "honest and authentic" posting to increase engagement - times are tough, we know.

When I was trying to expand my network as a freelancer, I did some research and you might think LinkedIn and its InMail feature would be the way to go. Not quite. How often do you check your LinkedIn messages? Did you know that LinkedIn places InMails in users' promotion tabs in their inboxes? This means that if you pay to contact someone, your carefully crafted outreach is decluttered like a promotional offer from a clothing brand in your Gmail.

But where is everyone going to be active indefinitely? Instagram of course. So if you're looking to expand your network of production companies and agencies, why not connect with them on Instagram and communicate there? Surely it's a great idea, given that these platforms are designed for reciprocal engagement? Thanks lead generation influencer A.

You might assume that companies creating social media content for their clients are experts in utilizing these channels, guiding content distribution, and generating engagement. However, you might be surprised to find that, as I mentioned earlier, what I consider implicit in an "expert" knowledge base isn't always the case.

I recently conducted a short, four-week experiment. First, I decided to start an Instagram account (@mrmckcreative) and grow its following at speed and inexpensively. I invested about $50 in cross-promotion and posted every day, quickly going from almost zero to 20,000 “followers.” Congrats, I’m an influencer. However, this brought me nothing substantial beyond the optics of the number and an excuse to play with Midjourney, which has some value, I suppose.

Following that, I began reaching out to agencies and production companies via direct messages, using a draft like this:

"Hey there! 👋 I'm Mark McKenna – 'The Serious Creative.' After eight amazing years at Brunswick Creative in NYC as Head of US Film, I've started a new journey in Canada. 🍁 I'm freelancing in pitch work and creative writing and have nearly two decades of content production expertise. Are you open to collaboration? Let's connect! ☕ Check out my portfolio here. 🌟"

What was I hoping for? A simple "hi," a sign of life, or a hint that these “expert” comms agencies were doing more with the tool than just advertising their LinkedIn workshops, posting staged photos of people on the job, self-promoting recent award wins, or showing off the office cat.

Responses? Zero. And I sent out a lot of messages.

This leads me to believe that agencies and production companies should take their presence on social channels more seriously. Engagement is the foundation of social media, and while paid promotion is rare in these circles, a well-executed strategy would put them miles ahead of the competition. We see you RGA.

Engagement in earned advertising is about how people organically interact with content that promotes a brand, product, or service on social media and other online platforms. This should be the primary goal of an agency or production company because engagement increases the visibility and reach of their content, and I’ve never worked somewhere that paid for placement.

Here are the key elements of engagement:

• Likes and Reactions: When people like or react to a post, it indicates their appreciation of the content. These interactions can increase the post's visibility in feeds and timelines.

• Comments: Comments allow people to share their thoughts and opinions about the content, sparking conversations between the brand and its audience and fostering a sense of community.

• Shares and Retweets: When people share or retweet content, it reaches a wider audience beyond the original followers. This can lead to new people discovering the brand and its offerings.

• Mentions and Tags: When people mention or tag others in a post, they help spread the content to a larger audience.

By focusing on these aspects of engagement, agencies and production companies can maximize their earned media potential and build stronger relationships with their audience. It feels like a 101, but you’d be shocked how little care is taken with their own presence vs their advice to clients. “Do as I say not as I do” at level 100 here.

Here are two "Do you knows" to wrap up this post:

1. Do you know the only person I know who uses social media properly is my mum? She responds to nearly everyone who contacts her, and she likes, comments on, and engages with lots of content. She doesn't spend all her time on the apps and differentiates people she knows only through online interactions as "pocket friends."

2. Do you know what an engagement pod is? Engagement pods are groups of social media users who share their posts within a private group or chat, supporting each other's engagement by liking, commenting, and sharing each other's content. These pods, especially prevalent on Instagram, can range in size from smaller niche pods to larger groups of thousands of users. They may focus on specific niche markets, such as fashion or photography, or be more generalized with posts on a range of topics. Your big name influencers use them to get going and they can be a core element of distribution strategy.

I’m not sure if I’m fully committed to what I’m about to write, but in conclusion, I'm not entirely convinced that AI will solve the distribution problem, particularly regarding engagement metrics with produced content. I think it will become just another tool that lazy or disengaged creatives and strategists can hide behind or use to mask the universal truth: people like interacting with people.

It would require effort for corporate production companies to organize, strategize and mobilize to create an engagement pod to benefit the industry. This would involve targeting corporate communicators (the client) on mass, as a group and providing them with education, information, and inspiration to redefine business communications.

Companies would need to shift from viewing each other as competition and evolve into partners working toward a grander mission that benefits everyone in the long run. That’s either considered as cooperative economics, or starting a Cartel. I'm going to attempt a small project to see what happens and whether we can rally the corporate production community to support each other and act as one on a small scale before trying something bigger. Stay tuned. Let's see what happens! 🍿

As you were

MrMcK.

Mark McKenna specializes in unlocking the powerful stories within businesses. He has spent nearly 20 years at creative agencies serving clients at the intersection of corporate communications, advertising, and public relations. For the last decade, he has held senior leadership roles, providing counsel to leaders of the largest organizations in the world.

Mark's career includes time spent in London and New York, working with Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 clients on their communication challenges across EMEA and the Americas. He empowers companies to drive progress through strategic storytelling and content production. He has experience working across various sectors, advising on solving critical business issues with creativity.