By Ric Hayes, Group Strategy Director, SocialChain
Why rethinking where you start can transform where you end up
Every brand needs a reset moment from time to time. This reset needs to be more adaptive, more audience-led, and more culturally in tune. And this can only mean one thing: starting on social. The most dynamic, data-rich, and creatively demanding space there is. It’s not about wiping the brand planning slate clean but changing where we start.
Start somewhere different: why social belongs at the centre
Too many marketing plans still treat social as the last step. The place where an idea gets “cut down” and “rolled out.” It’s backwards, not just because by the time a campaign hits feeds, the scroll has moved on, but because Social isn’t really a marketing channel; it’s a context in which people live. It’s where people go to be entertained. It’s where they decide what matters, who to trust, and what to buy. And it reaches billions of people every day shaping habits, sparking culture, and driving choices. So, brand planning should start from where people already are which leads to communication that’s more relevant, more contextual, and more likely to land.
A social-first strategy flips the process. It starts where your audience is already living. It designs with scale, relevance and participation in mind and not as a channel. Not as a bolt-on. But as the foundation of how brands are built, communicated, and grown.
Build for insight, not just output
Social thrives on conversation. It’s not just about talking at audiences it’s about hearing from them. People ask questions, leave comments, share opinions. And smart brands listen. When social is your starting point, strategy becomes informed by rich, relevant audience information and data. You see what people care about, how they express themselves, and where your brand fits in. It tells you what your audience cares about in real time. It surfaces new behaviours, emerging tensions, untapped desires. These are the signals that should drive strategy from brand positioning to product development. Planning from social means you don’t have to wait six months and a focus group to find out if something has potential. You’ll know by lunchtime.
More effective creative
Social-first strategy means developing work for the most competitive creative environment. In a feed, your brand doesn’t just compete with other brands, it competes with everything. Friends, memes, news, creators, culture. And it never stops. It’s always-on. That means commercial creativity needs to be just as engaging, and just as native to the space it lives in. It means thinking in franchises, formats and creating IP not just “big campaign ideas” that buy their way in.
To help us win, social gives us something other channels can’t: live interactive feedback in real time. It’s a data-rich, always-on environment that doesn’t just show us what worked, it shows us what’s working. That means the job doesn’t finish when creative is published. That’s when it really begins.
So, social first planning means running test-and-learn roadmaps, not pre-set, inflexible rollouts. And it means valuing data not just as a reporting tool, but as a creative driver. If people aren’t engaging? Pivot. If a format is flying? Scale it. It is the speed and agility of social that enable the type of creativity that keep brands relevant while building trust and credibility with audiences in a dynamic world. Every post, comment, creator collab, and community reply becomes part of a strategic feedback loop.
Culture moves here. your brand should too.
More and more people are now discovering brands and products through social because its visual, intuitive, and up to date. That gives brands a powerful opportunity to be found in the moments that matter. But more than that, social shapes what people care about. That makes it the most powerful cultural engine in modern life. For brands, that matters. Because relevance isn’t something you declare, it’s something you earn. By starting with social, brands can stay closer to emerging mindsets, mirror the mood of their communities, and move in step with the culture they want to be part of.
And when it comes to creators? They’re not the cherry on top. They’re the catalyst. Embedded early, aligned properly, creators offer access to communities, credibility with audiences, and ideas you can’t fake from the outside. But for them to land, they need to be baked into strategy from the start, not briefed in as a media line item once the creative is finalised.
Distinct. scaled. measurable. future-fit.
The best social strategies don’t just look good in the feed. They deliver for brands and businesses
So ask yourself:
- Is your brand distinct in social?
- Are you reaching enough people to matter?
- Can you link your social performance to impact?
- Do you know what to improve while it’s live — not after it’s over?
- Are you using social to innovate, or just maintain?
Don’t follow the feed. lead it.
Your social presense, the signals, stories, platforms, and people that link you to your audience, is your commercial advantage. But only if you build it intentionally. So, in a world where discovery, influence and purchase all start in social, why would you build your brand from anywhere else?
