Social media marketing is a nimble way to build relationships with clients and prospects. It offers small businesses myriad opportunities to foster strategic, hands-on interactions with friends and followers on the platforms they frequent.
Building and tending your presence via social media positions your business to play a role in your followers’ lives by offering them expert advice, tips and solutions to common problems they face. While it takes some savvy and skill to deploy, social media marketing is a natural way to generate interest in your business and to cultivate an audience that’s engaged with the content that you have to share.
The trends that defined social media marketing in 2019 stand to keep going strong in 2020. Use them to anchor your social media marketing strategy in the new year.
You are your stories
A good story demonstrates impact, plus, it engages your audience by highlighting a particularly exciting dimension of the work, culture or character that defines your business. You can do this through well-crafted posts and blog posts that alert your audience about important developments shaping your industry. Community outreach initiatives, like an annual holiday campaign to assist others during the holidays makes a great story; likewise, honoring an employee who has done outstanding work or who’s enjoyed an especially impressive tenure also make great features.
In addition to creating your own posts to chronicle your stories, Facebook and Instagram also have applications that help with story shaping. You’ve probably noticed that you get an alert on Facebook when friends add to their stories. Businesses can do the same, and it’s having tremendous impact. The State of Social Report by Buffer and Social Chain notes that over 1 billion Facebook and Instagram users, both individuals and businesses, are embracing the technology. The report explains: “57 percent of brands believe that stories have been ‘Somewhat effective’ or ‘Very effective’ as a part of their social media strategy.”
However you decide to tell your story in 2020, it stands to be a compelling way to bring your audience into the values and mission that drive the work you do.
Ambassadors inspire trust
We all love getting the insider scoop, and so do our friends and followers. When employees take on an ambassadorial role, helping to circulate special posts on behalf of their employers, audiences are likely to respond well. They tend to trust those in the trenches. Audiences are likely to read, believe and share posts about businesses that comes from people they know. Tag in your ambassadors. Their endorsement is likely to turn heads.
Authenticity matters
Social media marketing is all about communication. When it comes to how to communicate with your friends and followers, authenticity matters. Audiences respond to well-told stories, posts and interactions that seem real, genuine and sincere. They tend to gravitate towards businesses that demonstrate values they respect and missions they can get behind. “With the Internet offering consumers more ways than ever to discover, research and purchase products and services, people are looking for content and sources they can trust. As such, authenticity is what social media users want the most” explains content, communications and marketing specialist Ethan Schrieberg.
This is good news. When it comes to trying to communicate with friends and followers online, you don’t have to sound overly fancy or complex. Be authentically you. That’s what inspires trust.
Video is king
Isn’t it hard to resist watching those videos that pop up on your newsfeed? If you often find yourself digging into those video posts, you are hardly alone. Recent reports reveal that views of branded videos on Facebook have increase by almost 260 percent, and they’ve increased on YouTube by almost 100 percent.
Sharing videos is another way to shape your story and engage your audience. Consider working some video posts into the mix in 2020. For example, if you want to use social media marketing to hire more caregivers, consider posting video interviews of outstanding caregivers on your team. Your friends and followers are likely to respond to someone relatable talking about doing a job that s/he loves.
Shape your 2020 resolution
Now is the time to contemplate your social media resolutions for the year ahead. How will you tell your story in 2020?