5 Things You Need To Know About Social Media

Our lives have essentially become dominated by the digital world, social media has evolved from being a unique competitive advantage to a necessity for survival in the market. If your business is inactive on social media, you’re falling behind and at risk of collapse—plain and simple.

But there is a lot more to maintaining an effective social media presence than curating an aesthetically-pleasing Instagram feed or gaining more followers than your competitors. In a space that is now cluttered by countless businesses trying to accomplish the same goals, it has become harder to gain traction and engagement. Therefore it is that much more important than ever to fine-tune your social media presence. Here is a list of five things you need to know about social media in the marketing world: 

1. Video is becoming one of the most imperative assets of social media

The digital landscape was graced with YouTube almost 15 years ago, which was one of the first predominantly video-centric social media platforms. Since then, video overall has transformed as the best performing content type not only on Facebook but on ALL platforms. Back in 2017, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg even said, “I see video as a megatrend,” which was an understatement. We believe the underlying reason why there is a character limit on Twitter is because of the diminishing attention span we have with reading content and consuming media in general. There is no mystery as to why video marketing is so successful—a video is significantly more engaging, entertaining, and requires less effort from the consumer. Just to give you a glimpse into its effectiveness in the media world, here are some statistics surrounding the video’s positioning:

• A video tweet is 6 times more likely to be retweeted than a photo tweet and experiences more than 10 times more engagement than text or photo tweets.
• Users are 20 times more likely to share a video on LinkedIn than any other kind of post.
• According to Statista, as of 2018, 85% of internet users in the United States consumed online video content monthly across digital devices.
• Pinterest users are 2.6 times more likely to purchase a product after viewing video content related to the brand.
• According to Forbes:
• •  88% of video marketers claim being satisfied with their ROI.
  • The average user will spend 88% more time on a website if it features video content.
  • Viewers are 95% more likely to both recall and go through a call-to-action after being exposed to a video. Only 10% if the CTA is through text.

Younger people especially respond more positively to video content, and with these individuals making up the future generation, it is essential to market effectively to them as a target.

2. Be intentional with your content, in every sense of the word.

As important as it is to be present and active on all platforms, it is vital to do research about your target consumers. This will help you specify which platforms you should prioritize with your time, energy, and content curation efforts. Also, make sure you analyze your different posts’ performance with analytics such as Facebook Pixels, Google Analytics, etc. You can even use a social analytics platform such as Social Report. Your data-driven results will help to identify which ones have a more significant impact on your audience. These results will reveal to you factors such as the most interactive times of day, days of the week, and other habits of your target that will be useful in determining a schedule for your content calendar. Understanding this data will facilitate future social media posts. You will have a better idea of messages, tactics, and types of content that perform the best.

Social media can cost money, as well. There is something called “wasted coverage,” which is essentially advertising where it is unnecessary and unhelpful toward your campaign goals. Understanding where your target spends time will eliminate the risk of this. Attention is currency, and consumers are selective with their attention in the ever-so-cluttered digital space. You will want to make sure you are serving content that matters to them, addressing their needs, wants, and other things that’ll make your posts relevant to them. 

3. Implement engaging social media content where and when you can

A huge benefit to social media is its power to spread information everywhere, even if you post that information in one single location, to begin with. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have the ability for users to add stories, share posts, and infiltrate posts with comments and tagging to attract more eyes. Such means of spreadability and circulation allow for increasing website clicks, followers/customers, and overall awareness of whatever business or service is being promoted. Examples of “engaging” social media content can include anything from a contest or giveaway to fun and playful interactive post relevant to the business. Inclusivity is a huge component of social media and advertising in general, so many companies are taking a personal approach to their positioning these days. 

According to MarketingCharts.com, in data collected in early 2019, 55% of brands like or respond to consumers on their social media platforms. Participating in this type of behavior will put you ahead of the curve and make consumers feel more cared for, increasing your perceived credibility by default. When it comes down to it, the ultimate goal of social media is to connect people. Consumers like when brands listen to them on these platforms. 

4. Create content with compelling visuals and copy that is to the point.

Based on the diminishing attention span of consumers in the digital space, it is essential to produce compelling visuals wherever you are implementing visual content. Especially on a site like Instagram, where every post is an image or video, it is easy for your posts to get lost among the clutter. If need be, post a little less frequently with photos or videos if each post is not executed with maximum effort. You want your posts to be profound and to attract viewers, whether it is for a call-to-action or pure awareness.

Your social media posts will include content in some form, whether as a caption, a headline, or a press-release. Copy is becoming widely overlooked on social media platforms. Therefore, it is becoming an even bigger priority for marketers to create text that is strategic in its ability to be short, sweet, to the point, and relate to the consumers. Think about how you read instructions: you likely skim the extensive text to find the one or two lines that you really need to read. This same methodology applies to copy in advertising. The content you will want to apply to your posts should be concise but still informative and compelling.

5. Do your industry research.

It is crucial to keep yourself up-to-date with current trends not only surrounding the industry your business is in but marketing in general. Publications such as Ad Week and Ad Age provide readers with successful social media campaigns, demonstrating what worked, what didn’t work, etc. Getting to the root of evolving consumer behavior will benefit your business in the long run, allowing it to stand out among others that might not be so caught up. For example, if countless publications revealed that Snapchat is a dying platform, you would not want to waste time and money advertising on it. That wasted coverage could have easily been avoided had you read up on trends. 

This information is provided by Grova Creative, located in Tallahassee, Florida: a creative agency that focuses on brand strategy, advertising, graphic design, digital, social media, and messaging.