Social Media Resolutions to Live By… For Now

2019 is here and with it comes a whole new social media marketing plan. It’s time to move onward and upward in the ever-changing digital world and below we have some tips to help you make the most out of the changes that we are currently seeing on the various platforms.

1. Transparency – According to Hootsuite’s findings, 60 percent of people do not trust social media companies anymore. As a result, businesses and brands have to work harder to earn consumers’ trust. How do you achieve trust? There are a few ways to achieve this. Engage with your consumers, go live on the social channels, host a Q & A session, work with micro-influencers to name a few. Be open, be public, and let your true colours shine.
2. Algorithm Changes – The new algorithm is chronological and shows you more of what you want to see. You need to therefore be optimizing your posting time to be viewed by the maximum number of followers possible. ‘New’ content will be prioritized, and you need to leverage your own personalized best time to post on Instagram (which is a neat new feature on Later.com) so you can increase your reach, get more engagement, and increase your following.
3. Social Shopping – the newest up and coming marketing trend on social media is shoppable social posting. This new sales strategy is becoming more and more seamless as time ticks on and it’s time to throw your hat into the shoppable post ring. How? Show your products to the consumer and show it in action so they know exactly how it works and create the need for your product. Promote through live streams, contests, augmented reality, micro-influencers, etc. Make your product easy to approach and make it available to your audience with shoppable posts or stories so you can direct their interest to a sale.
4. Competition – Close the gap between you and your competitors by producing high-quality content and understanding your target audience fully. Be sure to deliver value and understand how your campaigns are performing and make adjustments if needed. Experiment with split-testing and use the right tools and content for your audience. The social media world is a competitive space for advertising, so you want to be sure you stand out amongst the sea of look-alikes!
5. Stories – Use this feature to its fullest potential. Shoot frequently, shoot raw and shoot in portrait mode. Be creative, tell a story and use all platforms to reach more of your audience. This links back to transparency, if you’re constantly showing your audience what you’re up to, they will want to tune in more often and will feel a greater connection to your brand.
6. Messaging and Customer Experiences – again, linking back to the transparency point, be reachable. Enable messenger platforms add plugins to your site, use Facebook messenger advertising, use bots if necessary. You want to be readily available any time a customer or potential customer reaches out to your brand. If your customer feels like they received prompt and accurate service, they are more likely to buy.