There is no doubt that as we get closer to the end of the decade that the world of online marketing will continue to make drastic changes. Almost everyone and their mother’s dog is online nowadays, which means an authentic presence on social media is an essential piece of a successful marketing strategy for any brand.
Keeping up with various social media accounts and ensuring their content reaches their target audience has become increasingly challenging. With limited hours in the day and so much to do, it’s vital to have a few hacks up your sleeve to increase your efficiency without risking a loss in engagement.
Below you will find some great hacks that many social media experts utilize to maximize their efforts. These will continue to apply throughout the remainder of 2019, 2020, and beyond!
1. Create exclusive content and share it everywhere
People are putting out content constantly, so you can imagine with all that noise out on the web how challenging it can be for new brands trying to establish a presence online to stand out from their competitors. This is why customized content has become vital to any business that relies on the internet to bring in engaging customers.
Thankfully, there’s an exuberant amount of tools that can help you access necessary data to ensure your efforts are going into creating a customized user experience based on the clicks, likes, and preferences of each of your fans. Customization trends will only continue to grow as businesses of all sizes will serve ads and content on a silver platter that are handpicked specifically for each individual.
It’s also important to share your unique content among a variety of platforms all at once. This means a scheduling calendar or application is becoming a must-have tool to ensure your high-quality content is being spread around the internet’s most popular platforms.
2. Embrace the power of video and live streaming
It’s no secret that social video has taken the internet by storm, and for a good reason; videos are better retained in the conscious minds of consumers and are more self-explanatory and easier to engage with than written content. By 2021, it’s predicted that over 80% of the traffic online will be attributed to online video.
But many brands are not just stopping at video creation, but starting to implement more live streaming into their social media strategies. Streaming launches of new products, events, how-to tutorials, behind the scenes, etc. is allowing consumers and businesses to feel more connected to one another. As we step into a new decade, videos will become even more personal as brands continue to use them to establish brand awareness and create conversions.
You will see businesses begin to utilize video more for:
● 1:1 communication, such as personalized video tutorials walking potential prospects through the new features of a soon-to-launch product
● Networking to build a strong, growing community of loyal consumers and followers
● Visual content to aid in online shopping to allow their customers to view how-to videos, video ads, and social videos that allow fans to connect with the brand’s e-commerce strategies
3. Use emojis to boost conversions and connect with your audience
We live in such a fantastic time where anyone can order a delicious Dominos pizza with a simple click of the pizza emoticon via Twitter. In fact, 92% of those online regularly utilize emojis and you will find that more businesses are starting to connect with their audiences on a genuine level with these cute, colorful icons.
If a brand wants to get a message across, they can simply incorporate animals, smileys, hearts, and many more. There are unlimited options!
Adding emojis into your marketing strategy, whether on social media posts, email, text, etc. can help to automatically create a positive vibe between you and your customer or loyal fan. Even not-so-great emails sound not-so negative thanks to the addition of a smiley emoticon. So, you can imagine how the simple use of emoticons can greatly enhance your marketing and communication efforts.
4. Take advantage of ever-changing AI
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is on the rise and can really help to take those repetitive, mundane tasks such as performing analytics, offering recommendations, and engaging with customers right off your plate. Hundreds of thousands of brands are learning to embody AI and machine learning (ML) within their social media strategies. As we progress further technologically, you will find businesses leveraging AI to:
● Determine issues within their business
● Provide product and service recommendations.
● Build chatbots that can administer support to customers
● Utilize algorithms to create relevant and personalized messages
5. Build a presence on ‘niche platforms’
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are amazing platforms for brands of all shapes and sizes, however, niche platforms such as LinkedIn are made to make connecting with other businesses and potential consumers in a specific niche easier.
These niche social platforms are and will continue to gain more traction, making it simpler for marketers to tune into a distinct user base. This means that brands need to keep an eye out for emerging niche platforms, so they can actively build a presence on them and expand their target audience.
6. Work smarter with conscious multitasking
Do you find yourself spending much of your time engaging with your audience? You certainly are not the only one. You should look at that time you spend engaging differently - it’s all about working smarter, not harder, of course.
Stop spending hours at a time checking Instagram and replying to Tweets and direct messages and multitask. Instead, spend those hours engaging with your followers when you are doing other tasks, such as listening to an informative podcast or walking your pet. This will help you to not succumb to the mind-numbing rabbit hole that social media can become.
7. Become an expert at story-telling
Marketing in the digital age has provided many businesses with more opportunities to tell a story, which has undeniably become one of the most prominent and engaging tools online. Plus, it’s free! Modern consumers no longer have the patience for corporate brands that choose to do things formally. They yearn for a personable connection with a great personality that is relatable, sprinkled with a little pizzazz.
To ensure that your product or service stands out, you have to slice through the noise of your competition and tell your story in such a way that garners trust and enthuses your audience into what you have to offer.
A great way to implement this is to tell your brand’s story authentically using video and embedding that video into your website’s ‘About’ page. Don’t overthink it - just share some aspects about how your business came to be and about your employees.
Here are some quick tips to creating a great brand story:
● Told using a brand persona and personality
● Keep it simple - problem, solution, success!
● Answer the question of ‘why does your business exist?’
● Needs to connect with your customers
● Your customers should be buying into a part of the story, not just what you have to sell
● Ensure that it’s highly shareable so other people tell it for you
8. Encourage engagement with memes
Memes are great pieces of visual content that you can use on social media to promote engagement with your brand to spread around the web like wildfire. This virality can assist in boosting awareness of your business with ease.
One of our favorite examples is the ‘Zoom In’ trend started by Denny’s (a casual diner chain in the US). The meme asks users to zoom in on parts of its image to reveal a hidden message. It’s not only hilarious, which helped to make it very share-worthy, (over 122,152 retweets, to be exact) but imagine how many social media users saw, thought, and purchased food from Denny’s?
Don’t stress about capitalizing on the continuing meme trend. You can use websites such as Meme Generator to craft engaging memes of your own that work for your brand’s niche with ease! We recommend placing your business name in the corner of the meme so when reposted, you will get credit on the personality of the meme.
If you are feeling even lazier, you can also repost already existent memes as well, which allows you to take part in viral social media conversations and hashtags. Who doesn’t love a splash of wit?
9. Make the most out of current events
Social media has become a natural place to turn not only to interact with their favorite companies, but also for seeking the latest information on news and current events. A great hack to grow your following exponentially is to pair both of these elements together. While you engage with your audience, ensure that you track trending hashtags and conversations.
Hashtags have simplified the process of joining in on discussions on events, which can increase awareness of your business. Using appropriate hashtags at the right time is important, which is why tools such as Hastagify are great to assist you in finding popular hashtags that are related to your niche and your brand keywords.
Another recommendation is using a tool called Social Mention, which publishes trending topics and their relevant hashtags in real time, so that you can post messages using these hashtags to reach out and attract more people.
You should also incorporate the use of Facebook Trending Topics and Google Trends in your efforts to remain tuned into relevant conversations. These kinds of tools can assist in brainstorming content that is based on current events, which can boost buzz about your brand on social media.
10. Tap into your competitive side
Creating competition is a fantastic strategy to encourage engagement and social following:
● Have your current followers give their opinion about your content
● Host a sweepstakes where visitors who land on your website can enroll in a contest to win a giveaway
● Ask followers to post selfies of them using your product
● Use a contest hashtag that competitors must use to enter
The key is to place limitations on the contest, which entices your followers and future fans to take action due to the sense of urgency you create. Competitions are amazing ways to engage with new faces that can lead to potential buyers in your business.
In conclusion
All great social media strategies need planning, participation, and effort to create. Every bit of effort you place into these campaigns. We hope that the hacks discussed in this article will assist you in building a strong social presence that will spread the word about your brand, product(s) and/or service(s).
Get in touch with us today.
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