SMT Expert Series: Nick Cicero Discusses the Latest Analytics Trends and Opportunities

Nick Cicero is considered one of the most skilled and educated minds in social media analytics.
Nick made knowledge analytics his main focus with the launch of his firm Delmondo again in 2014. Delmondo was the first platform to supply in-depth knowledge on Instagram and Snapchat video efficiency, and rapidly rose to be the main supplier in the house, with shoppers together with Viacom, Red Bull and ESPN. Delmondo was acquired by Conviva in 2018, and now, below the Conviva banner, Nick focuses on real-time measurement and intelligence options for streaming video throughout all platforms.
Given his expertise, Nick is uniquely positioned to supply insights on the evolving digital advertising and marketing house, and the significance of analytics and efficiency measurement to enhance your efforts.
We lately had an opportunity to place a couple of inquiries to Nick, price noting in your course of.

Q. What do you assume has been the most important development in social media advertising and marketing over the previous couple of years?
NC: For positive the development of video. In the first wave of social, it was all about utilizing textual content, dialog and photographs to speak. Today, almost all social platforms are video-first. The value to supply, distribute and devour video has decreased exponentially, and this has now pushed companies to consider how they place their message to a video-first client. 
This isn’t nearly media firms or sports activities groups both. Consumer manufacturers are rising their video output considerably. As measured by Conviva Social insights, from January to June 2021, throughout greater than 2,500 client manufacturers, video output on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube is up greater than 60% year-on-year. And that’s not even counting the surge in video content material revealed to TikTok.
Q. In phrases of knowledge developments, what’s been the most attention-grabbing shift over the previous 12 months?
NC: Two specifically – first is the development of TikTok when it comes to share of the time spent by social media customers. Of the 900 TikTok accounts measured in our latest Conviva TikTok Benchmark report, the profiles gained a staggering 604k new followers, on common, over the previous 12 months. 

Second is the development of YouTube as a participant in OTT/Streaming Video. Among our hundreds of buyer accounts, we discovered a 69% improve from This autumn 2019 to This autumn 2020 when it comes to linked TV viewership on YouTube. Today, YouTube is changing into extra and extra like Hulu or Netflix for a wider scope of content material. 
Q. Which sorts of manufacturers are you seeing carry out greatest on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat?
NC: Sports and Sports Media accounts have lengthy been a few of the greatest performing accounts wherever on social, however we noticed a shift in the final 12 months as to what was protecting individuals entertained, and streaming companies, consequently, have actually taken off.
In our Q1 2021 State of Streaming report we noticed that the majority streaming service accounts grew their complete viewers by almost 100% over the final 12 months. Streaming companies are constructing empires of regional accounts, and present particular accounts to extend their model footprint. This works even higher if a present has a nostalgic following – the iCarly reboot on Paramount+, for instance, has a large cross-platform viewers of 27.8m, which is greater than Netflix’s golden goose, Stranger Things’ viewers at 26.4m.
These reveals, their actors, the companies are all performing very effectively on social proper now.

Q: What, in your opinion, is the key factor of an efficient Stories technique?
NC: Consistency. In our earlier Stories analysis we’ve famous that the manufacturers who’re in a position to develop their Instagram Stories attain constantly at all times have two issues in frequent – they publish a number of instances per week, and their Stories are at all times, at minimal, 6-7 frames lengthy.
One body Stories right here and there merely aren’t going to chop it for manufacturers attempting to be aggressive in immediately’s world dominated by social algorithms.
Q: Which platform do you assume is underrated when it comes to model alternatives?
NC: While TikTok is the latest platform with tons of alternatives for manufacturers, Snapchat is the most underrated, by far.
In May this 12 months, Snapchat added Brand Profiles, which suggests now you can get your model verified on Snapchat the similar means that Sports groups, influencers and Discover reveals can. 

This provides manufacturers one thing on Snapchat they didn’t have entry to in the previous – viral natural attain. Currently, solely verified accounts present up in Snapchat’s Discover/For You web page. As such, a superb model story on Snapchat is not restricted to simply the individuals who observe you.
Snapchat’s advert merchandise are additionally extremely user-friendly, and very efficient.
Q: How important a job do you anticipate to see AR play in future social advertising and marketing methods?
NC: I nonetheless assume that it’s early days, however the potential upside for all the varied purposes of AR inside social platforms is huge.
Today it’s nonetheless pretty experimental, however it may be an awesome piece of the engagement toolkit for user-generated content material. We’re additionally seeing the bodily and digital worlds converge via NFTs and the Metaverse, and whereas a variety of this exists in pure VR or gaming environments, I can see extra and extra AR purposes used as methods to customise a person’s content material creation instruments.
For instance, superfans of a model may very well be given entry to distinctive, unique AR results. Combined with the social graph, the potentialities are limitless.
Q: What’s the most typical error you see manufacturers make in analyzing their analytics?
NC: I’d say the most typical error we see is twofold.
First, that you must set benchmarks. What’s your baseline engagement, video viewership, common watch time, engagement charge, and many others.? What are your benchmark for engagements or video views amongst your rivals or trade? 
You can’t measure what content material works and what doesn’t in the event you don’t know the baseline. 
Second, as soon as you identify your baseline, that you must categorize your content material based mostly on initiatives. These may very well be your Content Messaging Themes, Video Series, or Campaigns (and there are lots of different methods to phase content material). This means you’ll be able to determine what social media investments are shifting the needle, and which of them aren’t. 
It’s essential to do not forget that whereas all of us set out to achieve success with each publish we publish, or each interplay we now have, that you must be trustworthy about what’s working, and what’s not producing outcomes. 
You can swing for the fences, however to hit house runs in social, simply know you’re going to want a variety of possibilities and you’re going to strike out rather a lot. 
You is usually a strong place participant, and be extra constant in your hits, however you may by no means hit that house run.
Try to steadiness these two extremes while you have a look at the knowledge to regulate your technique.
Q: Do you assume that Facebook will stay the key social platform of focus for the majority of manufacturers shifting ahead?
NC: From a content material creation perspective, I feel the main focus has rapidly shifted to different platforms for the majority of manufacturers, with extra manufacturers doubling down on paid spending. That being stated, their teams are house to wealthy, vibrant communities, many of those are brand-curated, and there’s nonetheless a big viewers on Facebook, and these energetic group/neighborhood customers are extremely useful.
Also, Facebook’s advert platform, spanning each Facebook and Instagram, is extremely useful, and I do not see the majority of manufacturers shifting away from utilizing the platform for driving conversions.
Nick Cicero is the Vice President of Strategy at Conviva, which leads the means in digital video intelligence. You can observe Nick on Twitter for extra of his trade insights.

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