In the height of a global pandemic and civil unrest with nationwide protests, social media has undeniably solidified its preeminence in the world. It’s no surprise that a date, June 30, has been established to celebrate social media and its digital fingerprint in our lives.
In recognizing the significance of social media, it is important that our social presence reflects our mission and authenticity as a brand, including harnessing our influence and creativity to inspire meaningful change. As social media evolves so does our agency approach. B|G has leveraged its collective voice as an agency to raise awareness about current topics and issues. Pillars like public health, social justice, mental health, and creative arts remain close to the heart of who we are.
In fact, it was a no brainer to spearhead a national PSA campaign in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the project was to inspire Gen Z and Millennials to follow safer-at-home orders but “Don’t Stop” doing what they love. B|G assembled a team to oversee creative direction on how to truly relate and connect with this target audience. The campaign strategy utilized the influence of social media to highlight collages of user-generated content, featuring none other than Gen Zers and Millennials as the stars of the campaign. Despite the harsh realities of being separated from friends and family during self-quarantine, the visual message empowered users to continue expressing themselves in fun, light-hearted videos. We wanted to help people adjust to a new normal by encouraging fresh and creative ways for them to share and connect with each other. The importance of social media gained deeper relevance as its real-time communication allowed virtual moments to become more tangible.
B|G has also overhauled its own social strategy, adapting our agency approach to meet the needs of how our team is adjusting to a different work life. We make it a priority to not only increase engagement on social media with our followers but also to identify creative opportunities that increase employee interaction within the agency. We believe celebrating our agency culture is more than a one-off event; it is a lifestyle. From award highlights, anniversary celebrations, and digital bingo to virtual happy hours and showcasing our at-home coworkers, we continue to digitally document the moments that bring us together with each other and our public audiences through our social channels. This strategy positively influences employee morale and participation and maintains a sense of connectedness and community. Our intentional showcase of both our work and the people of B|G has attracted more followers across all of our social platforms. From May 2019 to May 2020, we saw an increase of nearly 40 percent in our following, and engagement is up nearly 30 percent.
Led by subject matter experts from B|G’s creative, PR engagement, business development and accounts teams, this cross department collaboration creates a unique and highly tactical team of special social operatives fluent in Instagram stories, Facebook algorithms, and how to outsmart Twitter’s character count. In the ever complex web of social media, our team is happy to use our passion and expertise to share our collective voice with the world.
