Using WhatsApp for Immersive Campaigns
One of our biggest strengths at Tandem Collective is our connection with our community of engaged content creators. Whatsapp has offered us another way to converse with our community in a fun, casual and simple way.
In the UK, Whatsapp is used by nearly 85% of people aged 26-35 - which is the most common age range within our community - as well as by 81% of women in total. With 94% of our followers being women, these statistics show us that the majority of our community are already using Whatsapp. Our Whatsapp offering encourages real-time interaction on a platform with which our community is already familiar.
In 2022, we began offering a Book Recommendations Whatsapp service. Our community can message us either their favourite book or something theyโve just finished and ask for a recommendation. They will then receive back at least one (but usually more) book recommendations from the team - with links to any Tandem content we have for this title, allowing our community to engage with previous campaigns!
We have also successfully used Whatsapp as part of our campaigns, detailed below.
The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
We ran a โplay-alongโ for Catherine Steadmanโs The Family Game in September 2022, where we had 30 participants split into two teams of 15. Each team received the same questions and challenges and were ultimately trying to solve the mystery of who the murderer in the Holbeck family is. Whatsapp was a key element of this, as one of the creative challenges we put to the participants was to send a message to the Tandem Whatsapp number and see which member of the Holbeck family responds to them with more information.
There is an extensive list of characters in the Holbeck family to choose from, so we had great fun impersonating different family members in our replies to the participants. We had 22 participants from the playalong who sent a message in, so almost a 75% uptake on this particular challenge. The Whatsapp element went down extremely well with the community, as illustrated in the one-line reviews below;
โLoved the different creative interactions with this campaign - especially the audio files & the WhatsApp contactโ
โLoved the interactive elements! Was very happy to be on the winning teamโ
โThe best Tandem readalong/ playalong I've been a part of. I really enjoyed how interactive it wasโ
โReally enjoyed the play-along, especially the WhatsApp elements.โ
The Reunion by Polly Phillips
We ran a signature Instagram Tandem Readalong to celebrate the release of The Reunion by Polly Phillips, with the added twist of a Whatsapp element. The story culminated in a party, and we used our Whatsapp business account to act as a fabricated character from the novel (complete with name and carefully chosen profile pic!). The character (Lavinia) was a party attendee and our participants were advised to ask her what they should wear to the party (The Reunion). Lavinia had a pre-approved script of wide-ranging replies to the question asked by our participants; they were incredibly excited when she responded, and even more so when they discovered that she was exceptionally two-faced and giving everyone different answers - cue lots of engagement by checking out each others Whatsapp screenshots on IG stories!
Below are some of the one line reviews specifically mentioning the Whatsapp element of the campaign -
โI LOVED the interactive part of the whatsapp number and then the excitement of the group when we realised we all were getting different responses!โ
โLoved the readalong, thanks for having me. Also loved the addition of the WhatsApp message!โ
โReally enjoy the creative tasks, it makes the experience even better. Loved it all.โ
โLoved the interactive element with the WhatsApp task!โ
Healing Through Words by Rupi Kaur
For our Rupi Kaur Writealong campaign, we created a WhatsApp schedule that was aimed at supporting and encouraging the advocates throughout the Writealong. We sent a message roughly every two days throughout the two week period. We included personalised messages from Rupi at the beginning/middle/end of the campaign, a link to Rupi's personal meditation playlist to encourage time for yourself, and links to specific Rupi poems with messages of encouragement. This worked well as a simple way to provide content across three different territory groups.
We are seeing that enabling our community to engage with us via Whatsapp is something creators find fun, immersive and meaningful. This leads to a high uptake in campaign challenges and a feeling of more spontaneous, authentic interaction. We know that making sure our campaigns feel as immersive and interactive as possible means our creators will enjoy our campaigns more deeply and feel more excited to keep returning to read with us. It also allows us to connect in a more personal way, as shown during our Rupi Kaur Writealong.
We also know that dark social - social media sharing which cannot be tracked via analytics software, for example within Instagram DM groups, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger - is increasingly important, with 84% of sharing activity online now happening through dark social. By including Whatsapp in our campaigns, we are not only placing ourselves within this but finding new opportunities to measure impact via dark social.
At Tandem Collective, we are constantly looking at new ways we can build, improve and quantify engagement during our campaigns. Whatsapp is proving to be a successful way to do this, with lots of potential that we are excited to continue to explore. Look out for Q&Aโs, Whatsapp Readalong cards, challenges and much more!
