Another new year is upon us, and it’s time to start on those resolutions – for your social media strategies, of course! The social media industry is fast-paced and constantly changing, upgrading, and expanding. Your business’s marketing techniques need to do the same. Here’s our list of ways to revamp your social media strategies to improve your brand’s online presence.
Revamping Your: Social Media Plan
Making sure you have a yearly social media strategy plan in place is vital. This doesn’t mean you must have your entire calendar managed down to the day already, but you at least need to have the big ideas assigned to certain times of the year. Of course, you can break it down more succinctly by season, fiscal quarter, or month – however, it works best for your business. Whichever way you and your team choose to schedule your campaigns and content themes, be sure it’s realistic timing for your behind-the-screen operations and lines up with whatever big company or industry events are relevant to your brand (conferences, product roll-outs, major consumer holidays, etc.). For a deeper dive into planning your social media calendar, check out our 10 Minute Marketing podcast on the topic!
Revamping Your: Social Media Audit
Once you know where to go with your social media strategy, you need to check in with where you are. Audit your current social media presence to see what content and platforms are performing well and which you may need to rethink. This is also important for ensuring your branding is consistent across platforms, including your social media voice, imaging, and messaging. It may even be an opportunity to rebrand! That could be particularly useful if there’s been a shift in your customer persona – internally or externally. Finally, do an updated analysis of your target audience, especially compared to who your most highly engaged audience members currently include.
Revamping Your: Social Media Platforms
Having assessed which social media platforms your brand should focus on, it’s time to double down on optimizing for them. Here are our considerations on how to best do that for the top social networks:
- Facebook: Be intentional. Analyze your audience on this platform and utilize Facebook’s audience targeting tools to expand your reach accordingly, especially for your Facebook Ads campaigns. Video marketing is also gaining popularity on Facebook, so don’t forget to cross-post such content here and use the Live feature. This is also a key place to utilize DM marketing through Messenger, especially if you’ve integrated chatbots.
- Instagram: Be active. This is a crucial platform no matter your industry, and especially if you’re an e-commerce business. There are so many ways your brand can get noticed on Instagram: posting with optimized hashtags, Stories (including features like polls, Q&As, photo challenges, and more), going Live, creating Ads like shopping campaigns, direct messaging, and their most engaged feature, Reels. Check out our blog for more on how to use it!
- LinkedIn: Be visual. As with everything, video content is king. This is also the perfect platform to share infographics on, as well as other engaging images that will grab your audience’s attention to your post or LinkedIn Ad. LinkedIn is also a key network for growing your personal branding as a business or marketing leader – connect, engage, and share your business posts to your personal profile and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
- Twitter: Be on-trend. We know there is a lot of drama going on with Twitter right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to jump ship. In fact, it’s rather time to lean into what Twitter does best: trends. This could mean weighing in more on popular topics, lightening your post tone to include memes if you’re not already, or starting fresh (or even divisive) conversations in your niche. It may also be time to update your keyword research so you’re using the best hashtags to get seen by a wider audience.
- YouTube: Be short. By this, we mean start using YouTube Shorts! This short-form format is comparable to TikTok or Instagram Reels, offering your audience snackable – and cross-postable – video content like quick business updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses into your company culture, and product teasers. Check out our blog for more details on how to get started implementing this feature.
- TikTok: Be there. If your brand doesn’t already have a TikTok account, and especially if your target audience are Millennials and Gen Z, you should be on this platform. Like we mentioned for Shorts, there are many opportunities for video content to post here. One of the easiest ways to get ingrained in wider audiences’ “For You” pages, though, is using trending voice-overs and stitching with viral videos.
- Tumblr: Be committed to the bit. Tumblr is a great platform for brands with a casual or humorous tone. To optimize your brand content for this website, your social media team may need a Tumblr native to stay on top of both the high turnover rate of niche memes and to be well-versed in the website’s lore for connecting with the numerous long-retained users.
- Hive Social: Be a trendsetter. Though this app has been around since 2019, Hive has only recently seen a large uptick in user growth due to the current mass-exodus from Twitter. So, now is a prime opportunity to get in the ground-floor of brand popularity on this platform.
Oh, and a blanket statement for all of these? Never forget to engage, engage, engage!
Revamp Your: Collaborative Social Media Marketing
One way to encourage higher engagement on your social media is collaborative campaigns. Absolutely integrate forms of user-generated content into your strategy. This might include having a specific hashtag for your brand that your followers can use, setting up digital branding assets like Instagram Stickers or Snapchat Geofilters, resharing customer posts praising your business products or services, and more. You can collaborate with your audience for content in other ways, too, like hosting giveaways and conducting polls.
Conversely, you can collaborate in your marketing in ways to appeal to your audience’s other interests that relate to your business. For example, if you have a podcast or video series, you could invite key industry thought leaders onto it to interview, or guest-star on theirs. This may overlap with another form of collaboration: paid partnerships. You could partner with another (noncompetitive) business for a promotional event, partner with an influencer to advertise your products, or partner with a charitable organization to fundraise for a good cause.
Revamp Your: Social Media Culture
To really transform your brand on social media, you’ll need to take a look at your company culture as well. Most modern consumers want to give their business to brands that align with their values, especially around sustainability, diversity, and being a positive place to work. Make sure that your efforts internally are transparent to your audiences. This will not only foster productivity and satisfaction in your employees, but will also build trust with your followers.
Revamp Your: Social Media Analytics
On July 1, 2023, Google will discontinue its Universal Analytics format and ultimately migrate to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). While Universal Analytics certainly got the job done, Google has its eyes firmly set on the future, as you should be. GA4 has enhanced user journey mapping, better data visualization, and data roll-up. The best part is that it futureproofs data collection in an increasingly privacy-conscious world. So, if your social media analytics team hasn’t made the switch already, it’s time. If your team needs help navigating this change, contact us for a “Converting to GA4” training!
Want more tips for optimizing the future of your social media strategy? Check out our blog, 10 Minute Marketing podcast, and YouTube series! Let us know if you have any questions around certain topics by messaging us on our socials or contacting us on our website. You can also join our newsletter list for the latest Go Getter updates.