A Recap of Our First Roundtable Breakfast: Insights on Reactive Social Media from L’Oréal, Skyscanner, John Lewis and more

In June, MG Empower hosted the inaugural edition of our Roundtable Breakfast at The Groucho Club in London, bringing together social media leaders from top brands like Paramount+, Skyscanner, John Lewis, L’Oréal and more to discuss the topic: “Reactive Social: How to Have Your Finger on the Pulse with Culture & Trends.” The event sparked in-depth conversations about the challenges and strategies behind staying relevant in today’s social media landscape – and here are the key insights we got.

The Power of Reactive Social Media

Reactive social media, at its core, is about agility – responding to cultural moments, trends, and audience behaviours in real-time. However, it’s not just about being fast; it’s about being strategic and staying aligned with your business objectives. While being culturally relevant is valuable, it must be balanced with a broader strategy and positioning. But how can we make it happen?

The Challenges of Being Reactive on Social Media

Speed is one of the common barriers to social media teams’ work regarding being reactive to trending movements. The challenges of internal journeys—from production to approval—were discussed at the roundtable. Guild Esports addressed it from a global brand perspective regarding consistency, as well as Paramount+, whose strategy to solve the speed issue has been focused on repurposing existing assets to ensure their reactive strategies remain cost-effective while maintaining their established audience perception. 

The audience is, indeed, a key element of any social media strategy – and it shouldn’t be any different when it comes to being reactive. For global brands, such as L’Oréal, it’s important to create these authentic connections through content that resonates with microcultures and acts as a way to humanise the brand. The company has established autonomy and freedom to local teams to ensure a timely response to regional trends and ease the approval processes. Building on the concept of global reach, reputation is also an important consideration for larger and more established brands. This is why balancing reactive and proactive content is at the core of communication for companies like John Lewis. While their heritage positions them as a trusted brand, they rely on data to ensure their reactive efforts are effective and aligned with benchmarks.

Is It Only About Trends?

Although reactive social strategies have been centred around quick responses to trends and cultural movements, being reactive on social goes beyond that. The session also led marketers to reflect on what being reactive means and how much the focus on the audience can help brands activate more effective reactions to different touch points. Skyscanner, for example, focused on the importance of being reactive to audience insights, particularly in addressing pain points – in their case, the complexity of travel search. For them, being reactive should also extend to showing up for your audience and reacting when things go wrong.

On that note, alternative channels and tools can be used by brands as significant support when it comes to nurturing relationships with the audience and getting real-time feedback about whichever topics are buzzing at the moment. The Grace Beverley team pointed to how Instagram group chats and a bank of reference content allow them to be highly reactive, focusing on thought leadership and educational content rather than just following trends while maintaining a close connection to their community. 

To boost the conversation, we introduced the Adoption Curve, one of our proprietary frameworks at MG Empower. Not all trends are created equal; some will last only a day or two, while others will evolve into long-term cultural movements. The key is identifying which trends align with your image and whether they contribute to your long-term strategy. A careful understanding of the Adoption Curve allows brands to adjust their strategies to meet emerging opportunities. 

Creating an Effective Reactive Social Strategy

Reactive social media isn’t just about speed; it requires a thoughtful process to ensure that the content is timely, on-brand and effective. At MG Empower, we’ve developed a framework to support brands in creating reactive strategies rather than treating them solely as a tactical tool. While each case is unique, this journey has been successful in guiding our clients during these trending moments – offering a perspective on the priorities to be considered.

Here’s a glimpse of it:

1. Research: Understand the cultural context, consumer habits, competition, and sector trends. This allows you to identify which trends are worth tapping into.
2. Identification: Identify the intersection between brand positioning and trends, considering credibility and relevance, along with the risks and rewards of jumping into a specific topic.
3. Ideation: Brainstorm creative ideas that are unique, ownable, and capable of standing out in a crowded digital space.
4. Creation: Ensure your team has the capability and resources to produce high-quality content quickly, with a streamlined approval process.
5. Activation: Execute the content across the appropriate channels, testing and learning as you go. Consider different ways to extend the content beyond social media.
6. Optimisation: continuously measure the performance of your reactive content, gather community feedback, and evolve your strategy to maintain consistency and relevance.

In addition to that, incorporating Content Squads has proven to be an effective way for brands to be reactive on social media. This strategy – which we’ve successfully implemented for Bumble – involves small, agile teams of influencers who can quickly create and adapt content in response to trends. Integrating these squads into the brand’s broader strategy enabled Bumble to participate in cultural moments authentically, joining conversations without feeling forced or out of place. 

General Takeaways: Insights on Reactive Social Media

• Psychographic Targeting: the shift from demographic to psychographic targeting means understanding your audience’s behaviour and preferences is more important than ever. For example, Gen Z is a highly nuanced generation, so brands must determine what deeply interests them.
• Community Management: as audiences spend more time in direct messages (DMS) rather than publicly engaging with content, the focus on likes and comments has shifted. Brands must create content that encourages sharing and keeps people engaged for longer, making sure they’re reacting to the audience’s pain points – not only trends.
• Avoid Unfocused Content Production: it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating reactive content just because everyone else is doing it. Ensure your content is connected to your business objectives and really adds value to the conversation and to your brand’s positioning.

At MG Empower, we’re committed to helping brands navigate the complexities of reactive social media, ensuring that every piece of content resonates in the moment and contributes to long-term business goals. Our Roundtable Breakfast was just the beginning of an ongoing conversation about how to stay ahead in an ever-changing digital landscape. 

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