Our Top 5 Social Media Trends

Our Top 5 Social Media Trends

The rise of interactive marketing content has made us responsible as marketers to ‘up our game’ to engage our audiences. To do that, we will need to create fast, easily digestible content regularly posted on our marketing channels.

Here’s our top tips on how to do that:

1. Plan your marketing budget by defining your audience around  personalization

Our budgets as marketers fluctuate each month, so you might find it a challenge to maintain promotion budgets. We believe it’s more about frequency, more posts lead to more results.

In the past decade, many brands have purchased followers which always led to poor results. After buying followers, they experienced initial growth; however, over time, they realized the followers were fake accounts generated by unreliable sources. Many platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram regularly have purged such accounts, which inevitably wasted the investment.

We’ve learned there’s no magic formula for increasing followers. You will see more ROI from your social media by using social personalization strategies. Studying analytics more closely will be the key to success.

Most effective ways to personalize content:

  • Facebook and Instagram now allow more customization for the distribution of your social media ads
  • A/B Split Facebook Ads to see which campaigns are most effective
  • Invest in influencers to review or create content for your brand
  • Generate quizzes or surveys to encourage interactions
  • Commenting back to your audience through social media posts will increase trust
  • Reward your audience with giveaways 
     

2. Post more frequently

Despite the challenge of coming up with consistent creative content, frequency is a must in the digital space. Accounts that post more than seven times a week on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube will gain and retain followers more likely than those that don’t. Follow the golden rule with daily content by keeping it simple. Piggyback on popular stories in the news, discuss local topics or national holidays.

Easy ways to generate daily content:

  • Celebrate National Days and Months
  • Show Behind the Scenes Content of Your Business
  • Share Articles Relevant to Your Industry
  • Share a Daily Quote or Meme

3. Use Ephemeral Marketing to help with Daily Outreach

Social Media engagement was dominated by ephemeral marketing at the end of the 2010s. Content, primarily photos, and videos, that are only accessible for a brief period of time, is called ephemeral marketing. The rise of Snapchat and the popularity of Instagram Stories has proved that this is an effective strategy not only to gain followers on your social channels but maintain them.

When we looked into Instagram – we saw that Instagram stories got 70% more views and reactions than standard posts. Audiences are more likely to stay with you if you appear on their daily feed and if you’re constantly feeding them information.

Effective Ephemeral Marketing Strategies:

  • Create a Snapchat and TikTok account for your brand
  • Create content regularly through Facebook and Instagram Stories
  • Generate Instagram Highlights

4. Create More YouTube videos

The 2010s showed us the power of YouTube, which has become the second most used search engine in the world. With over 3 billion searches a month, generating content for your brand is another essential for your success. Google has not flat out said that social media shares, likes, and interactions dramatically affect your SEO but it does affect your credibility and visibility. Generating simple videos at a regular frequency is guaranteed to increase your user traffic.

Tips for growing your YouTube channel:

  • Perform keyword research for your content and provide detailed descriptions
  • Create short energetic videos (15-120 seconds in length)
  • Repost videos on other social media channels

5. Don’t Underestimate LinkedIn

It’s becoming more common for top CEOs and executives to be more social, and the chosen space is LinkedIn. There has been a surge of top companies building their LinkedIn presence because of the environment. LinkedIn is a more trusted source to the viewer.

LinkedIn groups have become the new way to network in the business world, and by representing your company in these groups, it can generate more trusted business relationships.

Tips for growing your LinkedIn following:

  • Promote and create business culture by showcasing company events
  • Network through a variety of business related groups
  • Share industry-adjacent content
  • Make predictions on industry trends
  • Generate infographics for your industry
  • Job postings

The focus for 2020 should be on finding followers that are relevant to what you are selling – quality over quantity. Build relationships with your followers so they will come back to your brand.

That’s our social media wrap up! Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Bonus Tip:

Integrate Direct Mail with your Social Media Efforts

As some of our marketing friends are pulling away from print, our results show that Direct Mail is still thriving. In fact, advertising cards, catalogs, or flyers made 31% of baby boomers purchase a service or product in 2019. It’s proven that consumers are more likely to make a purchase with brands that they are familiar with.

Integrating content from your social media campaigns into quarterly mail pieces can effectively generate sales by making you more familiar with your audience. Direct Mail has always been a more personal marketing experience to connect with your audience. If you’re worried about costs we’ve noticed that small mailings focused on specialized leads can be very effective.

Effective mail strategies:

  • Generate a mailing based on an upcoming event or limited time offer
  • Select top prospects and create a memorable mailer with a gift / leave behind
  • Utilize USPS Informed Delivery
  • A/B split for lead targeting