“New Year, New You, New Social Media.”
That’s a motto that small businesses should look to as 2015 draws to a close. The reason? Social media marketing is the perfect way to put you on the map and help get more people advocating your brand. Whether you are a brand new startup looking to take on the world in 2016, a Social Media Marketer who manages a selection of accounts, or an established company who has fallen into bad habits, you should always be working to improve your efforts…
2015 has been the year that advertisers have finally caught on and reallocated serious percentages of their advertising budgets to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The reason? The networks have finally cottoned on to what big brands want from ad channels and developed with these in mind. A perfect example is Facebook introducing TRP buying during ad week to help persuade TV buyers to boost their TV campaigns with Facebook video ads.
In this article released in September Facebook announced that the number of active advertisers on the network had grown by 25% since February. As this growth continues into 2016, Social Media Marketers need to work extra hard to overcome challenges, improve grey areas and ultimately exceed expectations with results.
Why social media?
Social media is the perfect avenue for the digital marketing of your business as far as active promotion, evolutionary market research and targeted advertising is concerned.
It allows you to build a network of real people who actively advocate your brand, and is unparalleled as far as targeted advertising is concerned. It gives you the opportunity to understand your market and grow with their needs in mind. But it takes time, effort and a willingness to listen to your audience.
Social media is constantly evolving – so even the most skilled Social Media Marketer needs to be always finding ways to improve…
Increase your response time
Social Media is an undeniably useful place to talk to your consumers and garner priceless market research, yet a shocking number of companies and Social Media Marketers don’t bother to follow up a considerable amount of queries via messages or allow public posts on their pages.
2016 is the perfect chance to make a new start and to turn this attitude around. Millennials want to advocate brands that allow them to have a voice, so make sure that you give them that privilege and you will naturally allow your network more free reign to grow.
Just do more video
This one is simple and important if you really want to succeed in 2016. Video content has become a massively important aspect to command the attention of users on social media. Video is generally received far better than other types of content. Obviously creating video content can also take more effort, but once you do so you will soon see how worth it it is.
From well-produced, professional YouTube content to amateur vlogs around your industry, Vine clips to live streaming on Periscope, if you want one simple resolution for big results, just do more video.
Make it a target to stop posting content for content’s sake and make it all count
Now more than ever brands are learning the value of balancing quality and quantity. Often the most successful campaigns aren’t over-zealous with their posting. With that in mind, the importance of sticking to a plan isn’t to be underestimated. Therefore, try to maximise the quality of your posts within your self-determined time frames.
Go past your Social Media calendar and get topical
Having a good-quality posting schedule can really help you ensure that you are up to date, and provide a steady stream of quality content for your followers. However, this year is your chance to go above and beyond that.
Social media moves quickly and everything is relevant to the here and now. If you want to command some proper results in 2016, make it a resolution to move with it. Alongside your normal content, get creating extra content that reflects what is happening and the join in with the biggest conversations across social media.
Analyse your data and pan your content in response to it
This is your chance to start paying attention to what does well and what connects with your audience. Once you begin to understand what is (and almost more importantly, what isn’t) being received well and being engaged with, you can take these trends and use them as a basis for future campaigns.
