Social media changes constantly so it’s essential that digital marketers stay on top of the trends to maximize results. Being relevant with your strategy and content is imperative not only for survival in the world of social, but to set your brand apart from the competition. Here’s how you can make your social media marketing strategy successful in 2020 and beyond.
Staying Relevant
The key to social media marketing is “staying relevant.” Not only is important to stay ahead of functionality, such as platform or algorithm changes, but also the type of content available per social media channel. Social media platforms and best practices will keep changing and this may feel overwhelming at first. However, adding a social media strategy to your tool belt – with flexibility to adjust your plan for changes - is essential for audience growth and building an authentic brand representation online.
Making it Personal
Sometimes we must take a step back and remind ourselves what the intent of social media truly was from the beginning: connecting like-minded people to one another. While our commonly known platforms have evolved over time, the craving for creative and personalized content has never wavered.
Consumers seek brand loyalty and reassurance through their social media channels. They strive to connect with their brands and look for authenticity within their social media strategy. It is important to try and create a communal bond within your following. Take advantage of personalized data to truly know your audience, and then speak directly to them. Your content should be meaningful and encourage engagement among your consumers.
Capturing Attention with Video Content
Personalized, customized and relatable content is important. But what about how you are delivering that content? In the next few years, it is predicted that 80% of online content will be video.
Video takes the spotlight in the world of social media for its ability to grab attention and deliver the desired message. Furthermore, video content can be used beyond just social messaging and communication. Product demos, informational videos and even transparent information and insights from team members are all examples of content that can help build and maintain a brand’s authenticity on social media, on a website and other channels.
The landscape of video content is also adapting to stay in line with today’s trends. Video can now offer personalized information depending on who the view is, such as their name, occupational title, and other useful information.
Engaging Audiences with Ephemeral Content
Ephemeral content is limited content that disappears after 24 hours. These can be found in Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat stories and can be leveraged in a lot of valuable ways. This type of content is traditionally low budget and quick to produce since its shelf life is not very long. The messaging within ephemeral content is personal, relatable and feels “exclusive.”
Although this type of timely update is commonly used for retail brands, other industries can take advantage of the benefits of ephemeral content, too. For example, employee takeovers and event coverage are two highly engaging ways to create a bond with your followers, stay on brand and show a bit of transparency.
Focusing on Current Measures of Success
A social media presence is not just about number of likes on a post or comments on your feed. These platform metrics do not tell the full story of whether or not your social media marketing is effective. What really matters is how your social media strategy is helping to increase your bottom line. Producing quality content is still more important than chasing “likes,” as popular platforms, such as Instagram, have already started to remove that standard metric. This pivots the psychology behind posts by taking away the assumption that more likes equal better content. As a brand, you should continue to focus on quality over quantity, as these valuable engagements are how loyalty and trust is built. Additionally, these kinds of changes in metrics could lead to shifts in strategy, as influencer marketing may need to be supplanted with paid advertising if “likes” are no longer the leading indicator of success.
As marketers, we must keep up with updates to social media metrics and how we interpret these numbers over time. As the tendencies of users and the available interactions with content continually change, so must our approach to social media marketing and analyzing their built-in metrics. While the specific indicators may need tweaking over time to provide more useful reporting, measuring the success of social media marketing efforts should always align with your brand’s overall business goals and marketing objectives.
Automating Customer Service with Chatbots
Chatbots have seemingly taken over our customer service channels to quickly resolve frequently asked questions. Tools like Facebook Messenger can be used to instantly (and artificially) connect with your followers. These bots can be used to resolve customer service issues, book appointments, or discover new leads – all while showcasing a human-like personality.
The technology behind AI chatbots is so advanced now that they can even monitor and manage basic financial transactions. Chatbots offer consumers a more personalized experience online, rather than navigating a website to complete a task on their own.
From personalization through video content to exploring new territories – staying ahead of the social media curve in our digital world is more important than ever. If you think it’s time to take your brand’s social media strategy to the next level this year, contact us. We are here to help guide the way.