Our guest post this week is from one of our exhibitors, Hurricane Social:
We’ve seen social media continuously evolve far beyond simple posting, replying and just “getting the message/post out there.”
Today, it’s a key digital avenue for brand awareness, increasing brand
engagement, growing engaged communities, and even assisting with new product development. Yet,
despite the growing demand, scope and the ever-growing influence of social media, many organisations
still treat Social Specialists as executors rather than strategic leaders, still leaving it to the Gen Z of the
office. It’s time to change that mindset.
Social Media is a Real-Time Customer Touchpoint
It’s no secret, social provides instant, two-way communication with your growing community, happy and
unhappy customers and people who are still sitting on the fence. Social Specialists are experts in
gathering real-time feedback, detecting trends early, and identifying pain points before they occur.
Ignoring their insights can lead to missing a valuable nugget of information in your growing market and
getting ahead of your competitors in such a busy space.
While on an everyday basis, it may feel small, it’s your Social Specialists who are often getting direct
feedback from your customers, tackling hard comments/DMs/conversations and advocating your USPs –
all of which influence how your brand adjusts course to be that next big thing (especially on TikTok).
Social Media Drives Business Outcomes Beyond Awareness
Modern social strategies impact all corners of your business, from lead generation, conversion,
retention, and even product innovation. Social Specialists are often the ones not only driving your social
strategy, but interpreting engagement data, analysing campaign performance, and tying social metrics
directly to core KPIs to show how the channel’s creating an impact and how you perform against your
competitors.
Armed with reams of insights and data connected to your brand, your offering and your audience, social
delivers the foundations for your next step. Happy customers shouting about your brand new launch?
Let’s see what else they’d love from you.
Beforehand, CMOs and Marketing Directors would run market research and surveys that could take
months to run, collate and dissect before getting to the end result. While right now, you get that
feedback quickly and honestly (sometimes with no filter at all), direct from your audience. No more slow
moves for you.
Cross-Functional Collaboration Requires Strategic Input
Social connects directly with a range of teams across brands like yours, from PR, customer service, sales,
product teams and more! Social Specialists often serve as the bridge between each of these functions,
providing a well-rounded perspective that improves overall brand consistency, tone of voice, digital
identity and customer experience.
When working in-house with a tanning brand, social was the gatekeeper for how they showed up, spoke
to their customer bases (both DTC & B2B) and increasing revenue (outside of wholesalers & direct phone
orders), driving the brand forward during COVID to flip their business approach on its head to become
DTC first and saw incredible revenue growth in such a quiet time for retailers and eCommerce.
Social Specialists Are Data-Driven Strategists
The social platforms provide a plethora of data, insights and analytics—reach, engagement, sentiment,
conversion rates. Social Specialists use these insights to unpack campaign performance, refine strategies,
optimise budgets, and justify investments, along with showcasing ROI.
This data-driven approach aligns perfectly with broader business goals.
Partnered with Paid Social, you can really see it fly – taking your social presence and the goals you’re
looking to achieve to the next level. When working with a high street beauty retailer, we leveraged
organic social on TikTok to grow community and reach, partnered with TikTok ads to assist in driving
footfall into stores across the country and increased demand for their in-store services.
Empowering Social Specialists Drives Innovation
When Social Specialists are empowered with strategic responsibilities, they innovate. They experiment
with new content formats, leverage emerging platforms, trends and sounds, and test creative campaigns
that can give brands a competitive edge.
Brands like Sisters & Seekers and Hair Syrup have seen incredible growth driven by TikTok, by stepping
outside of the traditional norm for eCommerce businesses, growing engaged and loyal communities and
making a name for themselves.
Social Media is no longer a siloed function that gets handed to the youngest person in the room; it’s a
key business driver.
By inviting social media to the strategy table, brands like yours unlock valuable customer insights,
data-driven decision-making, and cross-team collaboration that drives unseen growth. It’s time to give
them the seat at the table that they deserve and actually listen.
As well as Hurricane Social, we have some excellent exhibitors at marketingSHOWCASE – all experts in their field, offering the best of the best in tools for marketing. Check out our list of events for autumn 2025 here.
