Something is about to change in social media. Are you ready for it?
This will completely change social media marketing in 2022 if it already hasn’t.
Seriously. look since 2020 with the pandemic, companies basically were forced to take digital marketing seriously.
So what do you think it is, that has really changed?
Let's dive into it. Lots of companies couldn’t rely on foot traffic anymore to generate revenue, because of the lockdowns and social distancing. This led to a huge explosion and demand for digital marketing and social media is one of the best channels for businesses to leverage.
Sprout’s socials 2021 index found that nine out of ten consumers will buy from brands that they follow on social. 86% will choose that brand over a competitor and 85% will buy from that brand more often.
So our competition is expected to grow, so as consumers’ willingness to use this marketing channel to make buying decisions. You can expect social media to get even more competitive over the coming year. And as companies start getting better and more competitive in social media marketing. You will have to compete for attention far more than before. So here are some things that you can do to complete on a level playing field.
According to sprout social, there are a few key factors that will differentiate you from your competition.
The first one is, respond to customer service questions in a timely manner. Don’t you just hate it when hit someone up and you have issues? And it takes them a few days to get back. You want to answer right now!!!
No one wants to wait, even an hour. Time is everything.
A lot of social media users are engaging with their brands beyond just following up. You need to demonstrate responsiveness and answer the customers in a timely fashion.
Next, demonstrate an understanding of what they want and need.
So what do people want and need? And as you go about creating content, you should keep customers in mind because it's all about servicing them and providing stuff for them. It's like I meet some people who are like, I got the best business idea. I am going to make more cupcakes. And I like, this is cool, but is there a demand for it? It may taste good, but if there is not really a demand for it, it won’t do well. And it is not about your brand. It is about how you can serve your customers and your audience. knowing what your potential customers want and need is going to differentiate you from all these brands and other brands that are just churning out content for the sake of highlighting their products, their services, and their own brands.
A good way to measure this is by looking at different content pieces and seeing which one gets the most engagement. whether it is the format, the message type itself, the content type, or whether it is a text, it is always good to see what stands out and gets more engagement.
As you discover the types of content, that tend to perform well, just do more of them.
But there is the thing that no one really talks about in marketing. For the ones that do not do well, do not never do them again. Every once in a while, whether it is a few times a year, or once a quarter, test them out again because trends change and people may like them again. And then if you do that, you will keep staying ahead of the curve, and you will start doing better.
Next, I want you to create more culturally relevant content. Today we can see more and more brands creating content around the cultural events, that mobilized people's attention like Black Lives Matter and Me-too movement, and even some mainstream sports events like the Olympics.
So, when you create content around some of these moments and events, especially the ones that you want to support and believe in as an organization, and as long as, you know, no one’s doing anything unethical it’s great to support events and different people and culture and genders. And what you want to do is leverage them and show that you are there, and if you can do anything, that ties your company into them. And not just leverage them to make a financial profit but leverage them to also help people. That will resonate with them and it will create a win-win situation, but you should only do it if you truly care. Do not just do something for marketing. Do something because you truly care.
You should be listening to what is drawing your audience’s attention and create content that resonates white those topics. That includes putting out user generated content, because user generated content is amazing. Do you want to spend all your time sitting in front of a keyboard writing content when other people can do it for you?
That’s the example user generated content. I also want you create educational content about products or services that you are offering.
This is where, this is the difference, between selling and showing up. Look selling is great but you want to show up and have that generate sales for you. What is about product? It should not just about, hi let me go and sell this. It should be about educating and putting things first for others. For examples, if you have some cool makeup products, and your product helps people, not just put on the makeup quicker, but just take it off really quick. Cause sometimes when I do video shots, they make I wear makeup, and then they will be like, oh here’s a wipe. wipe it off. And then when I go home, still touch it, I am like what the heck? These makeups still there. But if you can show how product can just get it off really quickly in one circular wipe, you are going to get so many sales. You should be able to show your product in a way that revolves around your customers problems, their needs and their wants, and not just try to sell them, but help them solve those problems.
One brand that does a fantastic job of this, when it comes to this type of content, in whole foods. They invest in visual content in the form of images and videos their audience with recipes and highlighting factual benefits and different type of foods that they are showcasing, and they are super responsive and engaging with their audience. So, it is like you want to people, hey engage with me. Just like I will tell you right now, check out my profiles. And this is obvious, but when you tell other people to engage with you and brands forget to do this, you will get way more engagement from your audience. And you should be actively engaging with them, by answering their comments, and their questions, even looking at their profiles and responding to and engaging their webs on Instagram or Facebook, or even adding stories or tagging people.
This will all help you do better.
