Refinery29 exec attributes success to segmented approach to social media
NEW YORK ? A Refinery29 executive at the MMA Mobile Marketing Leadership Forum detailed how the publication is able to thrive in an overcrowded marketplace by segmenting content for specific social media, mobile platforms and audiences instead of trying to appeal to everyone at once.
During the CMO Connect session, the executive explained that as social media platforms such as Facebook continually release products and initiatives that keep consumers in, it has become harder to get the audience to go to the marketer?s properties. However, Refinery29 is flourishing in the mobile-centric era, as it has created teams of executives from all spectrums of the industry such as marketing, analytics and social media, to focus on a specific platform and cater to niche audiences.
"When I think about what has really contributed to Refinery29's success, it is that we have done a really good job of not trying to mean very little to a lot of people but we have done a great job of trying to super serve very specific audiences and segments of audiences, as opposed to trying to speak to everyone," said Patrick Yee, chief marketing officer at Refinery29.
"When I think about what has really contributed to Refinery29's success, it is that we have done a really good job of not trying to mean very little to a lot of people but we have done a great job of trying to super serve very specific audiences and segments of audiences, as opposed to trying to speak to everyone," said Patrick Yee, chief marketing officer at Refinery29.
Refining social moments
Refinery29 is able to retain a significant audience on a wide range of platforms on mobile and social because it knows that in order to matter to these individuals, content needs to be created for each respective platform. Instead of trying to get users to come to them, marketers need to work on reaching them where they are spending most of their time, which is social.
Refinery29's Snapchat discover content from yesterday
Refinery29's Snapchat discover content from yesterday
Individuals from various departments at Refinery29 as part of a small team work together to develop specific content for its Snapchat Discover channel. The ?swat team? idea works to create native experiences that authentically represent the brand in way consumers would like to interact with.
Refinery29's native article on Snapchat
Refinery29's native article on Snapchat
Snapchat Discover is now allowing Refinery29 to reach a demographic previously unavailable to the publisher, the age range of 18 to 24 year olds. The channel allows Refinery29 to tap into a user base of more than 150 million.
Owning distribution
As Facebook increasingly owns distribution and curation, it becomes harder for marketers and publishers to be effective. Embracing the various segments in a completely native way can really help build a database of loyal and engaged readers.
"We are trying to curate experiences, whether they are home pages or landing pages or product and story recommendations at the end of an article," Mr. Yee said. "What is happening because Facebook is increasingly own distribution is that they are also increasingly owning curation, which means our ability to be able to select what people are seeing is becoming less and less effective.
"Once of the things that has happened over the past year is that media companies have been focused on content that is very top of the funnel, high reach and very general conversations because that is what is working on the Facebook newsfeed," he said. "The problem is what is happening with the general conversations is that they are not very interesting like 'look at this cat on a skateboard' or how is the weather.
"Those types of conversations do not have a lot of impact."