Social media trends change fairly often, especially from year to year. As we settle into the first two months of 2021, some strategies have shown to be more important than others. Here are some of the things to keep in mind when planning your 2021 social media strategy.
Quality Over Quantity
This is an important concept to keep in mind for any aspect of marketing, not just social media. Some brands think that they need to be pushing out a high volume of content so that there are more posts for people to see. There are several problems with this philosophy when it comes to social media.
By publishing, let’s say ten times a day, you will start to look like a spammer quickly to your audience, and they will stop following you and ignore your ads. Creating this much content will also make your social media team’s jobs harder as they will have to keep coming up with new content to publish so many times per day. If engagement on social media is what you are after, take the time to figure out what your audience will want to hear from you and focus on quality content in that area. Try taking a listening approach to your social media content to gain further understanding of what your audience wants to hear from you and spend more time curating content accordingly.
Humanize Your Brand
The time of the faceless brand is over. Brands need to give a more human appearance to their social media. You can feature employees, company functions, and even pets. This gives people a window into your brand that can help you build trust with your customers because it gives them a human face to connect to. Do your employees engage in community service? Take some photos of that service and share them to show that your team members are volunteering in your community. If your business is remote, you can still share this kind of content, and you might have more diversity to choose from with a spread-out team.
Take a Stand
Part of humanizing your brand includes things like taking a stand on issues your audience cares about. There have been many social and political issues in the last year, and the majority of consumers think it is important for brands to take a stance on them. Many consumers have a preference for supporting brands that have similar values to their own, to the point that staying silent can be detrimental to your brand. However, it is also important for a brand to know when and how they should enter the conversation. This is dependent on the specific stance, and what is happening with it at that moment, so it might be difficult for a brand to decide when to do so.
Live Streaming
Videos are wildly popular on social media, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. People enjoy live videos on social media because it lets them feel like they are there in the moment with you, even if they are across the country. You can also set up live streams so that your customers can shop during them, allowing them to get the products they see you use right when it is in their mind.
Influencers and Live Video
Influencers are heavy users of live stream videos, so if you employ influencers, they are likely to use your products during them. Often, we see influencers making live stream makeup tutorials so that customers can see your product in use.
Start Using TikTok
TikTok exploded in popularity last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the platform has over 700 million active users in the world (1). However, because TikTok is still an emerging platform, many brands are still hesitant to join it. Many believe that their audience either is not on TikTok or that it will not fit their brand. It is highly likely that your audience is on TikTok, based on the number of active users the platform has, and these audience members are simply waiting for you to join and engage with them.
If you are not ready to begin using TikTok for your brand, you should still keep an eye on the platform. Doing so will help you watch for trends as they emerge to inspire your other social media content. You can modify TikTok videos into posts for some of your other social networks, too, if a clip from one video stands out as relevant to your audience.
Make Customer Service on Social Media a Priority
For a brand to succeed, they need to build trust with their customers and show them that you care about what they have to say. People will often take their complaints and questions to social media, so your brand needs to be ready to respond to inquiries. Try to prepare resources and answers to common questions or complaints so that all you have to do is tailor your replies to your customers and respond. All of your current and potential customers will see how you respond to questions and complaints online, as well as how you respond to compliments. It is essential to keep that in mind when responding to customers.
Encourage User-Generated Content
User-generated content is some of the most valuable content that you can get on social media. Word-of-mouth recommendations have become online reviews and content shares, and gathering user-generated content can be highly beneficial to brands. It offers social proof that your customers are a brand that can be trusted.
There are quite a few ways that you can collect user-generated content. You can run photo contests, ask customers to share photos using your products through a branded hashtag, and more. There are countless possibilities open when it comes to gathering user-generated content. When you share this form of content, include one of the methods for collecting new content in the post; this can help encourage people to share content about your brand.