One of the important components of the content plan for promoting your company is situational content. Its main function is to respond to the current situation in the media space quickly and creatively, in the style of its brand. In this article, we will consider in more detail what a situational SMM is, why it is needed and how it is used by big brands within the framework of SMM.
Primarily it is worth mentioning that despite the fact many cool examples of situational marketing or content are implemented in the world, numerous companies have never used this case in their social network sites.
What is a situational SMM and what is it for?
Situational SMM is a general term that includes both situational marketing and situational content, and refers to the promotion tools on social networks. First, with the help of marketing, the creative idea of a popular newsbreak is developed. Further, thanks to SMM options, the idea is embodied in media content. Then, if the brand has managed to be original and interesting to present the actual newsbreak through its content, it can significantly increase its CRI. Otherwise, they can disappoint the audience and cause a negative reaction.
A small excursion into history
So, even if you did not know beforehand what situational marketing is, in the West, this case has already become traditional in the SMM industry. The beginning of this phenomenon was the published tweet from TM “Oreo”, that is eventually was called “Oreo Blackout tweet”. It appeared on February 3, 2013, during the Superbowl (The National Football League of the United States), when the stadium had a problem with electricity. The spectators of this event found themselves in total darkness. In a few minutes, “Oreo” SMM-specialists could creatively perform this situation with their brand and publish a post in “Twitter”. As a result, the tweet gained a huge number of reactions. It was even be retweeted by such editions as Mashable and Forbes.
Tweet “Oreo”: “Are you hungry? No problem. You can still dunk Oreo in the dark”.
How to use situational marketing properly?
In order to make your situational content really successful and do not look ridiculous or absurdly, you need to know a few useful points before you start creating it.
Events or situations that can be used for situational content
As a good material for the further creation, you can use the release of a new film, song, clip. As an actual event may be news on social or socio-political topics. A win-win option can be a calendar for upcoming holidays. “Oh, my look” service used even seasonal weather conditions, as the situational in their situational marketing.
The main thing is that this topic is to be close to the interests of your target audience. So, for example, if you rely on the calendar of events, then around such an event as the Oscar Awards, you can always make a good content presentation in advance. The KitKat brand offered its users to take a break during the commercial pause by publishing an image of an Oscar statue with a chocolate bar instead of a sword.
What is important to pay attention to when creating any situational content
When developing a creative idea, remember that it should not break out of the overall content strategy of your company. It is important that the creative is to correspond to the corporate style of the community page. The very concept of the brand should complement this situation, rather than contradict its own values and beliefs. In its SMM strategy, the network of grocery stores ATB uses humorous current content mostly.
The advantage of situational marketing and content
The main indicator in the success of any situational marketing is a high social response from the users or its viral effect. You can measure the effectiveness of your idea with the help of key indicators: coverage of publications, “like” notes, comments, reposts, the number of new subscribers, etc. Due to the statistics of social networks all the items are easy to analyze. Competent situational marketing will be an excellent tool for increasing the performance of your community. The proper usage will help you:
- to increase the loyalty of your TA;
- to increase the sales and brand awareness;
- to engage the subscribers in communication;
- to increase the coverage of posts.
On the example of the company “Morshinska», you can see how successfully they were able to present the newsbreaks with the release of the film and the fashion week in their situational marketing.
Thus, we can conclude that situational SMM is an excellent tool, with proper use of which you can achieve good results for business promotion. It is important to remember that as any skill, the creativity developing requires training and time before your content becomes truly viral. In addition, do not forget that first, you are working for the brand image and for any activities, you need to approach seriously and meaningfully. You are to do it even when it is a deadline.