The powerful role of social media groups in ad campaigns

Secrecy is sometimes the best way to market a business. Facebook Groups are a very good example, as they are considered to be the most effective way to gain valuable insights from, and engage with, a brand’s top customers.

By Romanita Oprea

Simina Zidaru, Tribal Worldwide Romania

“There are 1.8 billion people who say they use Facebook groups every month. These opt-in communities offer businesses a great way to bypass the merciless Facebook news feed algorithm and connect with audiences where they are actually likely to see and interact with branded posts. Groups are effective because people want to be there. Think about it: is someone going to opt in to a group for a company they don’t really like?” said Michelle Martin for blog.hootsuite.com. Moreover, according to the specialist, these groups bring together the brand’s #1 BFFs, who are ready to be its personal cheerleading squad. Brands should solidify and enhance that relationship and make use of the exclusive access a Facebook group provides, along with special content or privileges.

“Being able to test new strategies and ideas in this small focus group will give you a lot of information. As a bonus, your super fans will appreciate being ‘in the know.’ It’s your job to keep the group productive, on topic, and respectful. But don’t try to control it too much. Encourage members to start conversations and feel comfortable enough to speak the truth. Maybe your latest product launch didn’t wow as much as you thought it would. Instead of policing negative opinions and keeping the group as a positive echo chamber, welcome the feedback. Allow users to share their true opinions of what went wrong, thank them for it, and keep the conversation going,” Martin explained.

“Get your Facebook group members talking by actively sharing discussions relevant to your brand niche. This strategy not only enhances more activity in your group but also boosts the probability of your posts appearing in your members’ feeds. The information you’ll want to receive in asking the users include the kind of content they want to see on your group regularly. By asking questions, you can better understand what your customers need. In addition, the information you gather will help you learn what your existing consumers like and dislike about your product offerings,” said Neal Schaffer, CMO at Fractional and teacher at Rutgers Business School and the Irish Management Institute. Facebook groups are providing more and more opportunities for brands to expand their reach and they are most helpful in creating more compelling customer loyalty programmes. This is why Facebook is likely to continue adding new features to its groups, and why Facebook group marketing is expected to become an increasingly powerful advertising tactic.

A SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE FROM ROMANIA

Birra Moretti® and Tribal Worldwide created a group on Facebook, where users were invited to join to have fun like they would at the Electric Castle festival—before the festival actually took place. With lots of featured activities and artists, the group encouraged users to role play as if they were at the event, commenting, posting, and interacting with each other.

But the goal of the group was to not only create a strong community around the brand, but also to reward the most active fans, with 50 double tickets for the Electric Castle festival in play. The group format follows a popular trend among Millennials, where members play pretend on different topics. Among the most well-known groups are “A group where we pretend that we’re in student halls” and “A group where we pretend that we’re at the Vama Veche beach.”

“Electric Aperitivo: A group where you win tickets to EC2022,” created by Birra Moretti® and Tribal, gathered people who were already familiar with this group format and who joined the game naturally. Birra reinvented the way groups were traditionally being used by brands and transformed them into an authentic communication tool with a closeknit community. Artists that performed on the Electric Castle 2022 stage also joined the

group, including Robin and the Backstabbers, Byron, Ana Coman, Dimitri’s Bats. Members also included well-known influencers Sore and Sanziana Negru, local radio station Virgin Radio, and even the official festival page. All of them posted and interacted with members, and some even created exclusive content for the group.

“It seems ambitious to develop a consumer promo inside a closed group that’s created especially for this purpose. But we understood the insight and the dynamics of closed groups. The results were beyond expectations and a strong community was born, one that we will definitely be reactivated,” says Sharon Annette, Marketing Director at HEINEKEN Romania.

Users interacted with the brand and with each other, and some even created content themselves, without it being a requirement for the campaign.

“We wanted to speak the language of the person who goes to EC and create an activation that they want to be a part of. We didn’t just want to promote something, but to create a natural experience that can be organically integrated into people’s everyday lives. We noticed the popularity of this type of group and we realised that there was room for one more, one that would reward you for having fun like you would at the Electric Castle festival,” says Simina Zidaru, managing director at Tribal Worldwide Romania.

The results were excellent, with over 2.5k members in the group, smart user-generated content, and authentic brand interactions. In fact, the level of engagement within the group exceeded that of regular social media profiles. The community still exists and it will be reactivated at various times throughout the year.

But how different is it from other types of social media campaigns? What does it essentially require?

According to Simina Zidaru, this approach is not for everyone. And if you embark on such journey, you should really know who you’re talking to. Because, as Zidaru notes, if you want the group to work you must be truly relevant; all the content you create and all your community management must be done in a way that means something to the people who are active on that group. Otherwise, you’ll lose them. Is the strategy more likely to be successful for certain types of brands and not for others?

“My mom is on a plant group, my friend on a motherhood one, my creative colleagues go on meme groups, and I have friends on vintage clothes, curly hair, skincare routine or investment banking groups. And these are just a few examples that highlight the variety of people’s interests and the highly specific nature of some groups. I would say that the right type of group can be created for every

product category out there. You just have to find the people who are interested in what you do. Groups really are a big deal nowadays,” Zidaru argues.

Social media research can help your business in a number of ways: understanding and improving the online image of your brand; understanding the market for new products; comparing your presence to a competitor’s; and attracting new audiences by understanding trending topics around your category.

Thanks to advanced social listening and audience intelligence tools and platforms, researchers today are able to aggregate data relating to specific events and topics or within a specific audience group from social media, web, forums, news, and blogs. It’s an approach that’s constantly evolving, with researchers developing new methodologies and techniques in order to understand the way audiences use social media channels and analyse their behaviours and conversations on those channels. As social media grows in both size and importance, becoming a core part of daily life, it is vital to apply research tools to begin to understand this new discussion forum.

“Finding out what people say on forums is a great way to understand social trends around specific topics. People will either discuss a topic in detail or ask for advice, so if you can understand publicly posted

forum topics, you will get an insight into the concerns around various issues and themes, which could support social media research,” specialists from research agency Pulsar write.

Moreover, the research that gets done prior to the start of a campaign is extremely important, as campaign creators get to talk to people who are passionate about something or to subject matter experts—those are people who cannot be fooled. “The level of interaction is really high, so you can’t fake it, either. People comment, start conversations, and you must be there, participating. Otherwise, it will be just another brand interaction that’s selling a message. In a group, a brand becomes a persona that must act as an expert or adviser. I would certainly suggest for people who are tasked with handling groups to be super well-documented, if not truly passionate about the topic,” the Tribal Worldwide Romania representative explained.

Romania has consolidated its position as a world-class technology hub

Romania has consolidated its position as a world-class technology hub in the past five years, according to the Romanian CEO of Mokka (Revo Technologies), Alexandru Balaci, who sat down with Business Review to talk about the latest fintech trends, the outlook for the Romanian startup scene in 2022, and Mokka’s plans for 2023.

By Mihai Cristea

What’s your outlook for the Romanian startup scene in 2022 in terms of funding opportunities and hot industries for investors?

Romania has consolidated its position as a world-class technology hub in the past five years, and this was acknowledged by the EU when Bucharest was designated to host the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre. This dynamic has a tremendous positive impact on the local startup scene, opening our market to more investment opportunities, which in turn will contribute to more growth and focused development. For example, Romania is now a top destination for outsourcing banking and fintech software development, and this will help scale startups in this lucrative area.

What are your plans for Mokka in 2023 and what are the areas that will generate growth for you?

Revo Technologies has ambitious development plans in all key markets in Central and Eastern Europe. We are in an optimal position to develop partnerships with leading merchants, e-commerce platforms and dominant payment service providers in this geography as it is our main focus. As for Romania, we intend to continue to expand our business based on our leading position in this market. The plan is to invest in building partnerships with top Romanian and international traders, which operate in Central and Eastern Europe, and to collaborate with top e-commerce payment services providers.

Mokka is the leading Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service, operating in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria providing online and offline BNPL financing solutions for merchants and consumers.

Mokka has developed innovative and flexible BNPL payment solutions, allowing customers to buy now and pay later in both online and traditional stores. Mokka’s product is unique as it integrates the latest technology to deliver a semless 2-click experience for customers with a range of convenient payment plans from 30 days to 24 months.

Mokka has partnered with over 7500 leading regional merchants across the most popular categories such as fashion, footwear, kids, electronics, jewelry, furniture, travel, and others. Merchants enabling this payment method experience higher conversion rates, increased average shopping cart value and a boost in incremental sales while strengthening consumers’ loyalty. In Romania, the Mokka service is available in stores such as Noriel, Ideall, Lensa, Reserved, Sinsay, Mohito, House, Cropp and many others. As of September 2022, Mokka is trusted by more than 15 million registered consumers in CEE.