How social media consistency drives business results
In 2022, Figo Pet Insurance went all-in on their organic TikTok strategy. They started posting four to five videos a week on the platform (an impressive goal for their scrappy team!) and their efforts led to audience growth, multiple viral videos and revenue-driving ads.
@figopet Just some beach tippy taps to brighten your day ☀️ #tippytaps #dogtippytaps #dogsoftiktok #beachdog #yesfigopets #cutedogsoftiktok #seratoninboost #dogs #tippytap
If you’re wondering how social media consistency can help you improve your social strategy, build your audience and contribute to revenue growth like Figo Pet Insurance, you’re in the right place. In this piece, the team behind Figo’s social media presence shared their tips for maintaining a regular social cadence and translating results to larger company goals.
Why social media consistency matters for brands
Consistency on social media isn’t just nice to have: it’s a non-negotiable for long-term success. Here are the four leading reasons why social media consistency matters.
Practice makes perfect
Bridgett Colling, Director of Marketing and Communications at Figo, saw the opportunity to expand her brand’s TikTok presence. But she knew success on the app was only possible with volume and consistency.
“The most successful brands are the ones who create a lot of video content. They get the reps in and make content all the time. It’s a numbers game. So, that’s the approach we took to TikTok.”
Though posting up to five times per week was a stretch for her small team, Colling said it paid off by allowing them to hone their craft and really go for it.
The consistency allowed Cheyanne Rains, Figo’s Social Media Coordinator, to develop her own social media video template to make video creation more efficient. Many of the videos she creates—including their highest performing video—take 15 minutes to develop from start to finish.
@figopet We know its hard to resist thise puppy dog eyes, but here are 10 foods you should always avoid feeding your dogs 🚫 #yesfigopets #pethealth #petsafety #petfood #dogsoftiktok #dogmom #petparents #fyp #foryou
Outperform your competition
Sprout’s data science team analyzed posting frequency across more than 30,000 Sprout customers and found that the industry average is 11 posts per day across all social channels. And on TikTok, providing your audience with fresh and diverse content daily is the best way to crack the algorithm and end up on the coveted #ForYouPage.
Bridgett saw this play out firsthand. “Even as a smaller, younger pet insurance brand, our consistency sets our performance apart from more established competitors.” She says Figo often matches or surpasses its competitors’ views, engagements and share of voice.
To track those metrics, Cheyanne uses Sprout’s Competitive Analysis Report (see image above) to compare Figo’s results side-by-side with competitors. The findings help Figo reinforce the value of social at their company and pulse-check brand health.
Make space to experiment
As Cheyanne puts it, experimentation was the theme of Figo’s 2022 video strategy. By posting every work day, she could identify which content types generated the highest impressions and engagements.
Cheyanne explains, “Trending sounds and memes related to pets and pets insurance drive the highest engagements. Listicles are also high-performing videos.” She returned to these formats again and again to produce a pipeline of successful content.
Even with solid success from these formats, Figo’s consistent posting cadence left space for new ideas, too–like their “Ask the Vet Tech” series, which amplifies their internal thought leadership and provides unique value to their community.
@figopet Head to the link in our bio for more details about coverage for hip dysplasia in pets 🐶🐱 #hipdysplasia #petinsurance #figopet #askavettech #vettechtok #pethealth #doghealth #vetbill #fyp
A regular posting schedule empowers your team to never stop testing and learning. If you’d like to see another example, in Sprout’s TikTok testing strategy we analyze our highest- and lowest-performing videos to reveal how we should adjust our content moving forward.
Build an audience
Going viral on TikTok was an impressive milestone for Figo. But Bridgett pointed out virality wasn’t their number one priority. What’s more important than going viral is finding and building a genuine community on social media.
For Cheyanne, connecting with people required understanding the culture of TikTok. “People use TikTok to watch videos that average people make with their phones. Keep your videos as authentic as possible. Talk like a real person behind the screen and avoid a sales-y approach.”
The TikTok algorithm delivers a niche, personalized experience. To reach your audience, you must dig into the topics they care about and put out relevant content consistently. Cheyanne explains, “Stay on top of trends within your community. Not just trending sounds and memes, but the topics people are talking about. Pay attention to how you can relate them back to your brand.”
Sometimes relating to your audience can be a challenge. Cheyanne revealed a well-kept secret that will surprise Figo’s followers: she doesn’t have a pet. Gasp!
So how does Figo churn out so many adorable fur baby videos? By tapping into another important audience: their internal team. Cheyanne uses an internal messaging channel to source participants. The footage her coworkers provide helps her stay consistent and humanize Figo’s brand, like this meet the team post demonstrates.
@figopet Introducing just a few of our amazing team members here at Figo 💙 #tvintros #meetourteam #fyp #foryoupage #petsoftiktok #petinsurance #meetmypet #dogsoftiktok
Use social media consistency to grow your revenue
Once you’ve mastered social media consistency, use it to strategically increase your revenue.
These are the four steps the Figo team followed to launch their TikTok account and translate channel growth into revenue gains.
1. Get leadership buy-in
You can’t build a presence on any platform overnight. You need the long-term support of executives behind you—even before you start seeing results. Bridgett describes her CMO’s support as “vital” to her brand’s success.
Apply it: If you want to branch out to a new network or experiment with emerging technology, pitch your vision to leadership. Show them how opportunities on social media can drive long-term business value. Get them on board to allocate time and resources to your strategy.
2. Repurpose content efficiently
For a small team like Figo, repurposing successful content from their blog and other social networks was key to staying consistent on TikTok. This year, they’re expanding their focus to YouTube using the same method.
@figopet Links to all products can be found on our blog! 🔗 in bio 🎁 #greenscreen #wishlist #giftguide #giftguide2022 #giftideas #petparents #giftsforpets #giftsforpetparents #gifttok #holidayshopping #fyp #petparentlife
Apply it: When you’re trying to stay consistent on social, you don’t need to start from scratch. Maximize your existing assets and draw on the success of other platforms. You’ll save your company time and money, and increase your ROI (more on that soon). Plus, you already know the content resonates with your audience. Just be sure to meet community expectations on each platform.
3. Turn organic performance into paid amplification
As an experiment, Figo started running ads on TikTok in late 2021. The initial returns were minimal. Bridgett says, “TikTok didn’t start pushing people down the funnel until the organic presence took off.”
By 2022, Figo earned credibility and built a following, which made it possible to identify their best-performing videos and put money behind them.
Apply it: A consistent, organic posting strategy goes hand-in-hand with running successful ads. You need to post regularly to attract your audience and test what works (without blowing your budget). A hybrid paid and organic social media strategy drives long-term results.
4. Measure ROI and share your results
For Cheyanne, whose primary focus is increasing brand awareness, understanding the complex digital buyer’s journey is important. In her role, she uses Sprout’s reporting tools to demonstrate the fruit of her efforts. She combines her brand awareness metrics with paid ads results and revenue gains to tell the complete story of Figo’s success on TikTok.
Apply it: With a tool like Sprout, you can access all your social media analytics and generate reports to share with your team in one place. For example, the TikTok Profile Report captures how many posts you published, how many views you received (including paid) and your total engagements.
Use these rich sources of social data to calculate your ROI and socialize your results internally.
Streamline your publishing and reporting with Sprout Social
Even though consistency is key to growing your presence (and your revenue), we know you face barriers to posting regularly. Limited time and resources. Lengthy approval periods. Uncooperative algorithms.
Sprout’s publishing and reporting tools empower you to streamline your internal processes, keep up with best practices and simplify social media consistency. Just as our tools are Figo’s secret sauce to accomplishing their posting goals, you can use them to power your posting strategy.
Social Listening
Sprout’s Listening tools help you build a deeper understanding of your audience and competitors. Learn what’s trending in your industry and how you stack up against your top competitors when it comes to sentiment, share of voice and engagement.
Publishing Calendar
The Publishing Calendar makes quick work of drafting, approving and scheduling social content so your team has more time to focus on fine-tuning your strategy. Like Cheyanne says, “I schedule posts in Sprout so I don’t have to worry about it the rest of the week.” Sprout gives you the tools to replace time-consuming tasks—like logging into the native apps—with automated ease.
Gain insights from social data
Sprout’s Analytics tools speed up data collection and distribution so brands can focus on the KPIs that matter, inform strategy and prove ROI.
Use data to enhance your strategy and craft effective paid and organic campaigns. With analytics alongside publishing and engagement tools in the Sprout platform, you can easily turn insights into action.
Now that you are well-versed in the benefits of social media consistency, learn how real brands combine insights from Listening and Premium Analytics to drive powerful results with their social data.
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