Social media management has gone through significant changes throughout the COVID-19 crisis and the increase in online business. For instance, findings from The CMO Survey’s 2020 research show that businesses have spent 74% more on social media marketing during the pandemic. But at the same time, the survey found that social media has helped companies perform 24% better since February 2020.
Social media platforms have introduced new ways of buying products, as well. For example, it’s now possible to shop through posts, stories, and live streams, making consumer purchases much easier.
As social media continues to open up new ways to make virtual purchases, shopping has never been more convenient. Customers are also free to engage with their favourite brands on social media, giving businesses more opportunities to build lasting relationships.
As social media evolves, keeping up with these emerging trends entails taking a new approach to social media marketing. With the right approach, you can make your small business grow and expand its online reach.
That said, take a closer look at these 15 helpful hacks to maximise your social media campaigns.
Choose the Right Platform
Each social media platform caters to specific audiences, which makes targeting the right platform and people easier.
Let’s take Twitter and Instagram as examples. As of Q1 2021, Twitter has 199 million daily active users and Instagram has one billion monthly active users. This makes them ideal platforms for businesses that want to focus on reaching bigger audiences.
Facebook, on the other hand, is the platform of choice for older adults. This means you can reach this demographic group if you plan to set up your own Facebook shop.
However, the details above won’t tell you the exact audiences that you should reach. So make sure you come up with a buyer persona that will identify your target audience and tell you their age, gender, education level, and income level. From there, it’s much easier to choose the right platform and create a social media marketing strategy that resonates with your target audience.
Post Content on the Right Channels
People on social media love looking at and consuming various entertaining and useful content. But some content formats — like photos or videos — can be a hit or a miss. Real success lies in sharing the right type of content on the right channel.
If you explore different social media networks, you’ll find that users on those platforms consume specific content types.
Facebook users love blog posts, questions, videos, and other curated content.
Instagram users will check out high-quality photos, pictures with quotes, and stories.
People on Twitter share news, GIFs, and blog posts.
So post the right content on the right channel for the best results.
Share Your Most Popular Content
Since we’re on the topic of content, consider what’s popular. Conduct an audit to gain insights about what makes your most popular posts shareable. Ask yourself: are they seasonal content or address a specific pain point?
But a word of caution once again, though: make sure that your most popular content is appropriate for your preferred social media platform. For example, if you’re posting video reviews, YouTube is the best platform. Blog post links, on the other hand, are ideal for posting on Twitter or Facebook.
Talk About What’s Trending
Share trending content on your social media accounts whenever possible. Consider the 70-20-10 rule for social media posts. In a nutshell, this means that:
Brand-building posts should make up 70% of your posts
The other 20% should be content from other brands or sharing interesting articles
Only 10% of your posts should have commercial intent, like informing your audience of sales, discounts, and new products
Keeping up with what’s trending is a great way to keep your audience engaged. If you can come up with a way to make your posts more promotional and personal on top of being relevant, then you might get more people flocking to your business.
Stay On Topic
Social media engagement and website or blog engagement are two different things. Most of the time, your target customers go to your website for solutions to their pain points or needs. Thus, sharing relevant visual or written content is your best bet.
When crafting social media posts, be sure that those posts don’t stray from the topics you talk about on your website or blog. Off-topic posts can decrease your likes (or followers), limit your reach, or even lead to spam reports.
