2020 has been a roller coaster ride for everyone around the world. Adapting to new changes was needed and our lives had never been the same as before. Restrictions and regulations are practiced pretty much in all countries all over the globe in the hope that this pandemic will stop. Businesses surely are among those affected during this outbreak, big time. Even the government had allows businesses, slowly, to start getting back on track, still doing business all offline seems tough. As we move closer to 2021, the need to adjust our marketing strategies speaks even louder added to the need of recovering from the Covid-19 wave. Past experience of marketing businesses through social media has shown that these social platforms are powerful and can help build businesses alongside other marketing strategies. Hence, businesses need to utilize the use of these platforms in order to counter back all the losses.
Gone were the days where companies would treat social media as a second priority. Over the years, social media has proved itself to be valuable concerning how can a business establish a steady online presence and reinforce its message.
Social networks serve as platforms where people can ask questions, report complaints, and even offer valuable advice. Therefore, having a robust social media presence should be an essential part of your business plan.
So what are the ways where you can boost your business brand’s social media presence and engagement this 2019?
Table of Contents
Social Media Listening
Social media listening lets you analyze, track, and even respond to conversations about your brand, and specific industry online. A vital component here is audience research.
Ideally, social media listening is a two-step process. You monitor the mentions in your brand, competitors, products, or any relevant keywords that are related to your business.
Then, examine all these vital pieces of information as you look for creative ways on how to take action. Taking action might mean doing something simple as responding to a satisfied customer, or to something substantial such as changing your brand voice.
Every social media marketing strategy should have social media listening to their tasks.
If real people are talking to you in your industry, it helps that you listen to them. The process allows you to tweak your plan in real time, increase customer engagement, and even learn more about your competition.
Engaging Content Still Matters
People think that coming up with useful and engaging content doesn’t matter so much anymore.
But content will always be king.
Content helps build your brand. Coming up with concise and consistent brand messaging will help you leverage your self from your fiercest competitors.
Also, the best way to engage and establish deeper connections with your target audience is to give out valuable and engaging information. By delivering meaningful content that resonates well with your readers, it’s relatively easier to nurture stronger and long-lasting customer relationships.
Content also increases your brand visibility as long as you consistently produce valuable and insightful material. Not to mention, you gain stronger leads in your funnel and improve the quality of traffic coming to your site.
Well-Crafted Videos
Videos should play an integral role in your social media strategy. Today, many influencers and businesses are taking advantage of video marketing by utilizing powerful features on Snapshot, Instagram, and Facebook to grab an audience’s attention. With over 200 million users taking advantage of Instagram’s stories to feature each month, it’s crucial to come up with compelling, and high-quality videos that have the power to capture and grab a user’s attention.
Statistics record that 60% of customers tend to purchase a product after they watch a bunch of related videos because it gives them a bit of confidence about why they need the product. As we head to 2021, the fact that video marketing will be the backbone of digital marketers is hard to ignore. Through videos, you can change your customers’ mind from “I think I don’t need this now. Maybe later,” to “Oh I am sure getting this right now!”.
Believe it or not, sometimes, your customers don’t even realize they actually needed your product in their lives, or maybe not but you can just convince them anyway. A useful, interactive video is two steps closer to their trust. Providing good and valuable content in your videos can help it even more. Take DIY videos, founder narrative stories, styling videos, and funny daily update stories as well as tips and tricks to find a few ways to speak to your audience and catch their attention effectively.
The Growth of Social Ecommerce
Utilizing social media for eCommerce is currently on the rise. In fact, according to statistics, eCommerce sales from all over the world will increase by 246.15% by the time 2021 kicks in.
About 74% of consumers say they use social media in deciding their purchasing behavior. The comfort of not required to leave the social platform site to make purchases had increased customers’ interest due to its convenience.
That’s why, more than ever, social media networks and businesses are making it easier for customers to purchase products directly on these social media platforms.
More of Micro-Influencers
Influencer marketing is becoming more accessible more than ever to businesses and brands. It’s one of the most powerful ways of promoting a business, increasing traffic and engagement, as well as boosting overall sales.
Most brands would prefer to partner with big names on social media who have hundreds of thousands, or potentially, millions of followers. However, what if we tell you that you can get amazing results with micro-influencers, as well?
Technically, micro-influencers are people who have an audience between 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Although they have a much smaller following, their followers can be fiercely loyal.
Micro-influencers also tend to have a compact, target audience which is something that can be useful to you if you’re selling a product. As long as you’re in the same niche, and are continually engaging their followers on a regular basis, then they can be as useful as macro-influencer.
Personalized Marketing Campaigns
Another social media marketing that you should focus on this year is personalized marketing campaigns.
At this age and time, customers want you to embrace the personalization of all your activities in social media. Being authentic, and creating individualized messages can improve your business in the long run by:
- Boosting your social media engagement- Since personalized content comes across as more authentic and meaningful, more people will interact with it. According to eMarketer, 56% of CMOs have higher response and engagement rates on personalized content.
- Enhancing your relevance score on social media- When your messages are specifically tailored to your target audience, it generates positive feedback, and even receives a better relevance score.
- Generating more lead and conversions- More people will interact with your content if it’s more personalized. Meaning, there’s a higher chance that you will improve conversion rates.
- Building brand affinity and customer loyalty- Sending out personalized messages will make your audience cared for, thus, increasing customer loyalty in the long run.
- Strengthening brand awareness- Once potential customers develop a sense of connection with your brand, they’re more eager to share it with their networks as well.
Voice Search Interaction
Think of Google, Alexa, Siri, and other smart devices. There’s no denying that voice search integration is currently on the rise. Since talking is one of the most preferred ways of interacting, these tools are finally catching up. People are now using it to shop, search, and explore new things.
This aspect of digital marketing cannot be ignored now as people are using it more than ever. For instance, businesses can optimize their websites optimized for speech rather than the plain-text approach.
Aside from the convenience of not having to type the text for searching particular info or product, it is also quite easy to use. Statista recorded that around 3.25 billion people worldwide own a voice-activated search and assistance currently. This was predicted as the number of voice search uses would increase from 4 billion in 2020 to 5 billion in 2021. In 2019, 13% of households were recorded owning a smart speaker, and this figure projects increment reaching 55% in the year 2022.
The Rise of AI Integration
Artificial Intelligence, or also known as AI, functions to decipher data coming from the natural world. It often utilizes its cognitive technologies to understand, or even complete specific tasks that humans have taken on in the past. Aside from that, it analyzes data in a highly efficient and effective manner.
There will come a time that social media platforms will depend on Artificial Intelligence. After all, platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn needs to utilize AI to make sense of the multitude of information and data that’s coming to them.
Mail Up records a statistic that says 50% of people mentioned they prefer shopping at a company that communicates through messaging apps. Now, with AI-powered chatbots, it is even more clear that any company invests and with this evolution of technology will sustain longer. 63% of consumers cited their preference for online chatbots to be their communication funnel with businesses and brands.
There are ways businesses can utilize the chatbot technology. Check this How to Integrate Chatbots in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy to have a clear idea about it.
Brands and businesses can use AI to analyze data, identifying relevant hashtags, trending topics, and patterns that will better understand a consumer’s behavior.
In Summary
In a highly competitive market, businesses have to invest more than ever to social media to stay visible and relevant. Spending in it and applying these trends can take you and your organization a long way this 2019.
