Say ‘Hello’ to Tierra Filhiol. She’s the Associate Director of Social Media at Campbell Ewald in Detroit, and she’s helping us kick off 2018 with some really great insights!
We Will Ask These Questions:
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Say ‘Hello’ to Tierra Filhiol. She’s the Associate Director of Social Media at Campbell Ewald in Detroit, and she’s helping us kick off 2018 with some really great insights!
But let’s begin, with what brought her to social media in the first place?! Still, in college, Tierra kicked off her job just simply trying to earn some extra bucks in online marketing and copywriting. Tweeting copy tips and reworking headers nearby the idea of boosting growth flows, she caught the concentration of a small PR agency based out of Philadelphia and they took her on as a copywriter for their professional athlete customers! She assumes that it was pretty lucky, and things were very unusual back then.
So let’s jump into the interview with our very first icebreaker… the question of what her personal favorite social media platform is? This was a simple one. She OBSESSIVELY checks Instagram and she’s the biggest fan of Instagram Stories! So while Snapchat used to be her favorite, it’s a tough sell to customers, and she thinks that Instagram Stories and the Instagram platform makes it a much better option.
When asked about how Campbell Ewald builds a grip on social media, she taught that their knowledge and exploration of social media is through social listening and data insights. And while they have technoscientifically social listening tools they rely on, they always rely on the platforms themselves; more especially Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and even Quora, to fully understand particular audiences, a brand’s client journey, the hashtags they use, their behaviors, and more. With that said, the standout platform for Campbell Ewald is definitely Instagram. While the ad network on Facebook is strong, the best capabilities of Instagram are more compelling for Campbell Ewald as an agency.
We then talked about what's the future of social media in 2018. Without any doubt, we discussed integration; integration of social media into our regular lives, but in a way that adds value to our lives vs diverting us. While social was initially designed to distract us, more and more user experience is valuable, and keeping their attention means adding more features that enhance their lives, not hinder them.
And when it comes to the platform that is managing the integrative movement, Facebook is actually seeking to be that platform.
Leading on from that we turned our focus to social media campaigns… We started with her favorite, L'Oreal's True Match Foundation Campaign. As a beauty specialist, she struggles with color combinations and found the campaign really impactful overall. She liked the idea of L’Oreal not only gave a voice to both a topic and problem consistently presented in the beauty influencer area, but they also found a solution to it – perhaps one of the greatest disconnects between social media and product innovation.
Similarly, one of the campaigns she’s satisfied to have worked on the summer campaign for Valero Energy, #Fueledby. It’s a strong campaign they pulled together around the idea of fuelling personal excitement. From TV to social media, this campaign was fuelled by the content itself. From Ballerinas to a family being fuelled by friendship. Oil does play a role in that, and Valero Energy is at the heart of it all. The campaign had a really hard UGC play going for it, and the real reaction from the fans played the best part in its success; it’s really designed sharable remarks and experience between the brand and its fans that has evolved since the launch of this campaign.
But off the back of that, we also discussed what brands and agencies really need to consider in terms of successful social media strategies, and it was simple: Know your top-line goals. Don’t just know your goals for social media. What are you, as a brand, trying to succeed with ALL of your efforts, and how your social media attempts can affect it.
Additionally, if you want to involve your audience in a particular way i.e. ‘like or share to win prize xyz’, keep it simple. One thing she is fixed with her team is keeping that efforts simple. Don’t divide your audience’s consideration, by asking them to do more than one thing.
So what’s up with measuring achievement? What’s the most important KPI for Tierra and her team? She believes in the idea of shareability. As explained earlier, it’s all about the added value, and if that value exceeds expectations (i.e. hits a desired point) and they want to share it with you, their friends or even share their time with you too. That’s important when it comes to knowing the success of your content.
Breaking away from the content-aspect of social, we discussed the future role social media will play in the marketing mix and the outcome was clear, the idea of centralizing social media insights can do more than increase your social media game. Tierra believes it can have an impression across the board. While there still may be a disconnect between certain organizations on how to ‘socialise’ social media content, ironically. The data pulled from social should be shared across the organization, to help better understand our users.
This will enable not just certain teams, but the WHOLE organization to be on the same page when it comes to scaling and optimising the achievement of various campaigns.
One BIG question of the night though, was the BIGGEST obstacle we face in social media as marketers. Tierra believes the ‘tunnel vision’ of the use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for social media campaigns will ultimately fade away – if it doesn’t, they will modify to the needs of their users. That said, one of her main points is that this is a Gen Z world! Platforms like Musical.ly and Snapchat are modifying to the needs of their users, As for the industry – at the moment – it’s the prime conditions for the underdog.
Looking to join the industry? She has some tip for you! While you may ‘know’ social media; how it works and multiple tactics – something that we the “crazies” had to acquire through practice, get to know how social media can impact more than social media. Learn the impact social media can have on the other departments within your organization and how you can work together to design a cohesive, overall, social media strategy with the corporation and its counterparts in mind.
And ultimately! before the fun fact of course… what does she think of the ad format of the future? Fierra believes the ad format of the future is people themselves! There’s no eventuality that influencer marketing is advancing to rise for brands. While science may tell us otherwise. i.e. seeing an ad 7x will make you more likely to purchase something, nothing is more motivating than seeing someone you love and respect recommend a product! Hence why reviews and recommendations are EXTREMELY strong when it comes to social media. The idea of the ‘walking billboard’ is dying, we have now people that we can use them as brand ambassadors – and who act as digital billboards, scary or not! Platforms and ad setups will always be a revolving door. They change. But people are regularly connected. And the evolution of people is consistent. People have audiences now, and we as advertisers need to respect and understand their influence.
Last but not least, want to know a fun fact you WON’T find on Tierra’s social media profiles? She loves… and I mean LOVES the masterworks, Forest Gump, and The Five Heartbeats!
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