With over three billion people individuals utilizing social media daily, staying ahead of the game is crucial for your brand’s or your client’s social media presence.
However, this can be challenging with the constantly evolving landscape of social media. Throughout 2018 and into 2019, social media platforms have undergone numerous updates. Additionally, a plethora of new trends influence user engagement on these platforms. Consequently, businesses have been compelled to adapt their social media marketing strategies and tactics in response to these changes. To maintain a competitive edge, you must also adapt your strategy. And that’s precisely what this post will delve into.
7 Methods to Enhance Your Social Media Strategy
Let’s explore seven tactics that your social media strategy requires, along with practical examples of these strategies in action.
1. Prioritize Authentic Engagement
While manipulating the system to boost engagement has been a prevalent tactic, it’s a social media marketing pitfall to steer clear of. Some brands resort to posting content that simply prompts users to “tag a friend in the comments below,” aiming to inflate interaction metrics without fostering genuine conversation. However, algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and engagement bait won’t suffice this year as platforms crack down on spammy tactics used to garner likes and shares. With organic reach on the decline and more businesses increasing their social ad expenditure, content must be genuinely captivating and engaging to compel followers and broader audiences to participate. Whether it’s through witty banter in the vein of the MERL and Gregg’s, or by creating visually appealing vertical videos for Facebook, discovering your unique brand voice and compelling narratives has never been more critical.
How to Embrace This Trend: Move away from relying on passive social calls to action. Reflect on your brand voice guidelines and explore how to effectively integrate them into your social media presence. Utilize social media as an integral element of broader content marketing strategies, rather than treating it as a separate entity.
2. Collaborate with Micro-Influencers
Continuing the theme of genuine social media engagement, it’s no surprise that micro-influencers are gaining traction over their more celebrity-like counterparts. Beyond budgetary advantages, as micro-influencers often collaborate on a gifting basis or command significantly lower fees compared to big-name influencers, research consistently demonstrates that their audiences exhibit higher engagement levels and can be more niche-specific than those of versatile social media personalities.
Image Source Studies have even definitively shown that once a profile surpasses a few thousand followers, engagement rates on platforms like Instagram begin to rapidly decline. Partnering with digital influencers who possess between 1,000 and 10,000 followers is considerably more cost-effective than engaging traditional influencers, with a higher probability of generating authentic engagement. This can be partly attributed to a level of credibility that larger “influencers” may lack. While some brands were hesitant about micro-influencer collaborations in 2018, those seeking to produce authentic collaborative content this year should embrace these rising stars. How to Embrace This Trend: Dedicate time to researching emerging influencers within your niche. Utilize relevant hashtags to identify social media personalities who aren’t represented by agencies and boast smaller, more engagement rates audiences. Design influencer campaigns centered around relevance rather than audience size.
3. Eliminate Fake Followers
In keeping with the emphasis on genuine engagement and influencer marketing, it’s essential to address the issue of fake social media followers that gained significant momentum in 2018. Fake and spam accounts have existed since the inception of social media. However, it’s increasingly common to encounter so-called “influencer” profiles with millions of followers, where the reality doesn’t align with appearances. Even politicians and celebrities have been caught engaging in this deceptive practice. One compelling reason to scrutinize engagement rates before partnering with an influencer is that audience size doesn’t necessarily translate into views or activity. Fake followers and purchased likes can create an illusion of popularity. However, upon closer examination, collaboration could prove to be a futile investment of time and resources. 2019 is poised to be the year that fake followers become public enemy number one, with both sites like Instagram and Facebook declaring their intentions to eradicate fraudulent activity definitively.
How to Embrace This Trend: If you’ve been procuring followers from services that promise audience growth, cease immediately. Likewise, when collaborating with influencers, don’t shy away from conducting thorough due diligence. Tools such as Twitter Audit and HypeAuditor can prove invaluable in this regard.
4. Transform Your Social Profile into a Storefront
Shoppable social has already made significant inroads, from Pinterest’s buyable pins to Instagram’s Checkout feature. However, there have been substantial enhancements over the past year, simplifying and streamlining the transition from social media app to checkout page. Pinterest has upgraded ad pins to “Product Pins,” a tool that seamlessly directs shoppers to the checkout page for a chosen item on a retailer’s website. Similarly, Instagram now provides users with a direct path from product discovery to checkout without ever requiring them to leave the app. Even the “Explore” page now features a dedicated shopping tab—a development that paid search marketers should be cognizant of.
Pinterest reports that their Product Pins have resulted in a 40% increase in click-through rates to retailer websites. Since shoppers are prone to abandoning their purchases if the steps involved in viewing and paying for an item become too cumbersome, retailers should capitalize on the opportunity to generate instant sales that social media facilitates. With a significant portion of shoppers initiating their browsing experience on social media or Google, paid search and paid social teams must collaborate closely in 2019, maintaining a shared understanding of their respective tactics and desired outcomes. How to Embrace This Trend: Allocate resources to shoppable social media advertising where appropriate. Experiment with Facebook offer ads or selling on Instagram to determine the optimal platform and calls to action for your target audience. Furthermore, ensure that you adjust your PPC strategies and objectives to account for this shift.
5. Integrate Dark Social into Your Strategy
Dark social encompasses the realm of social networking that marketers struggle to track; it refers to the exchange of information via platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and other similar apps. We are all becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that our online interactions contribute to our digital footprint, and that posts we like or comment on will appear, along with this information, in our friends’ newsfeeds. This, combined with an aversion to eerily-tailored advertising and a growing distrust of social media sentiment in general, has created an environment where a substantial amount of social sharing transpires beyond the purview of marketers. Direct messaging of posts and products might seem detrimental to brand visibility, but this isn’t necessarily the case. While these types of interactions might elude tracking, they cultivate valuable engagement. Facebook’s Messenger app boasts 1.3 billion users who send a staggering 8 billion messages per month. When you factor in WhatsApp, WeChat, and Skype, the total number of active monthly users reaches approximately 5 billion. This figure surpasses the combined user base of traditional social networks, underscoring the significance of “dark social” as an avenue that marketers can’t afford to disregard. It is estimated that 75% of consumer sharing occurs on dark social platforms.
How to Embrace This Trend: Incorporate dark social into your social marketing blueprints. Does your brand have a presence on these channels? Could it? From Facebook Messenger chatbots to exclusive WhatsApp groups, think outside the box of traditional marketing objectives to encourage sharing among a more receptive demographic. How strong is your online presence? Find out in 90 seconds with the free LOCALiQ Website Grader!
6. Leverage FOMO through Live Video
Fatigued by discussions about millennials? Good, because this year, your focus should shift to Generation Z. Generally defined as individuals born between 1995 and 2015, segments of Generation Z are entering the workforce and contemplating how they’ll allocate their disposable income. For this demographic, FOMO—the fear of missing out—fuels a desire for experiential marketing and user-generated content campaigns. In the context of social media, this means that digital marketing efforts need to encapsulate the same sense of urgency and exclusivity associated with pop-up shops and limited-time events. Live video and brief, time-sensitive contests are just a couple of ways to evoke FOMO among an expectant audience. Platforms such as Instagram’s IGTV, Facebook Live, and others can be instrumental in this regard.
Live video offers a distinct advantage: followers on various platforms receive notifications when someone they follow initiates a live stream—a clever way to circumvent algorithms designed to restrict the organic reach of content. How to Embrace This Trend: Refine and implement a comprehensive live video strategy. Conduct thorough audience research to understand their preferences and leverage themes such as behind-the-scenes glimpses, insider interviews, and giveaways to maintain engagement.
7. Experiment with Augmented Reality Ads
AR is already making waves in the realm of customer experience, finding applications in apps that allow customers to virtually try on sunglasses and makeup, or visualize how a particular paint color would look on their living room wall. Facebook has been testing AR-enabled advertising, enabling users to interact with product ads and experience the item virtually without leaving their newsfeed. However, Snapchat has been at the forefront of this trend, offering brands the opportunity to target consumers with branded selfie filters and stickers. Augmented Reality has been touted by some as the future of digital marketing, although its impact (at least initially) will hinge on your specific industry. Beauty and fashion brands are naturally early adopters, with companies like NYX, Sephora, and Michael Kors already experimenting with Facebook’s new AR functionality.
However, homeware brands such as Wayfair aren’t far behind. Just as Pinterest’s shoppable pins allow users to transition seamlessly from inspiration to checkout, AR advertising on social media appears poised to create an environment more conducive to impulse purchases. How to Embrace This Trend: If your budget permits, it’s time to delve into the development of AR ads and apps. However, if these technologies remain financially out of reach, now is the opportune time to observe, learn from both successes and failures, and brainstorm ideas for a future date when AR technology becomes more widely accessible.
Elevate Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Social media isn’t merely a tool for amplifying brand awareness; it has the potential to drive revenue growth, enhance customer retention, and contribute to the creation of a captivating customer experience. “Breaking through the noise” can feel like an insurmountable challenge in today’s saturated digital landscape. Nevertheless, by employing niche targeting and adopting a trustworthy, relatable approach, it is achievable. Instead of casting a wide net, marketers should invest time in analyzing detailed insights and developing a nuanced understanding of the subtle distinctions within their target audience. Where do opportunities for micro-marketing exist? How can we inject a personal touch without appearing insincere or excessive? A successful social media strategy is fundamentally grounded in the recognition that audiences are not merely statistics on a screen. They are individuals with a spectrum of emotions and interests. By capturing their attention with something genuinely valuable rather than resorting to cynicism, campaigns can establish a foundation for enduring success rather than becoming just another fleeting trend. Learn more about effective social media marketing strategies for small businesses.