Wouldn’t it be great to have the magic formula for social media success? Yeah, we think so, too. In the process of defining that formula, we’ve been chipping away at defining what works and what doesn’t.
Research has shown that different types of content perform better in some industries than in others. That’s pretty obvious, right? What you may not be aware of is that different types of content also perform differently based on seasons. That’s right – the time of year seems to have something to do with how people interact with and share social media content. Mind blowing, isn’t it? While considering the dynamics of seasonality are important in any smart social strategy, we’re going to zero in on some of the easier to digest elements of creating content that performs.
P L A T F O R M S
When is the last time you evaluated the effectiveness of the various social media platforms you’re using? Just because something worked once doesn’t mean you should keep doing it until the end of time. What about your competitors? You have to be where they are, right? Well, yes, but only if you can do it “better”. And remember, things that work for one industry don’t necessarily work for all.
Define your customer, what they need, what they want, what they like, and where they spend their time.
Determine which social media venues will help you best serve your customers’ needs, and then rock those venues like no one else.
No one wants to miss a social media train, so it’s fair to say that we all feel the pressure to have a profile on every channel. It’s best, though, to prioritize the quality of your social media activities rather than trying to cover a large quantity of bases. While being the “jack of all trades and the master of none” might work for some areas of our lives, social media is an area that definitely requires focus and finesse.
T R E N D S
Keep your finger on the pulse of social media trends. Find reputable resources to follow and stay current on topics that affect your digital marketing efforts. Seemingly simple changes in algorithms, policies and practices can have a significant impact on how your content performs. Knowing how to transition from one social trend to another is beneficial, too.
If one of your social media platforms is headed for change, think carefully about how that’s going to affect your other avenues. You don’t want to abandon ship too quickly, but you don’t want to keep provisioning a sinking vessel, either. Whether it’s an update or two, or a complete social shift, you owe it to your brand to know how to adjust accordingly.
Marketing trends are certainly important to consider, but in order to market most effectively to your customers, you have to market for them by looking at things from their perspective. They may not all know about the marketing trends and stats designed to attract them, but they do know what they like when they see it. Content – be it still or moving images or copy, or a wild and crazy combination of both – needs to resonate with your customers. In order to resonate, it has to compete with everything else your customers are seeing out in the world.
That said, when designing your social media features, you might want to familiarize yourself with current graphic and web design trends while you’re at it. Good design is intended to attract attention, and the overwhelmingly image-centric trends currently rolling out are definitely achieving that goal.
To clarify, we’re not suggesting that every single one of your social media posts needs to be flamboyantly designed. A thoughtful mix of simple copy, beneficial links, and impactful images is always the best recipe. But, like good design, good content also needs to be “timeless” to an extent. Trends change and new information is being developed every day, but good content stands the test of time and is able to go with the flow.
S T Y L E
There’s a fine line between what your brand is and what it needs to fulfill for its customers. Your brand has to put its money where its mouth is, per se. But it also has to be malleable enough to respond to the people it serves.
In order to best serve its communities, your brand has to be real and personable.
What does that mean? It means cookie-cutter conversations and cut-and-paste engagement have run their course. It means focusing on personal attention. Your brand has to connect in real time. Automate wisely. While there is an undeniable convenience to scheduling the content that goes out to your audiences, there is also an unquestionable need to personally monitor what’s happening once it’s delivered. Your audience knows “stacked” content when they see it… Do you?
The guidelines available on when, what, and how to post are just that: Guidelines. Without personally “touching” your social media activity on a daily basis, you’re missing mountains of information that simply can’t be communicated with mechanical stats and analytics.
Be familiar with how each of your social media circles “roll.” Don’t push the same exact information out to every channel. Different people respond more or less to different channels for different reasons. Similarly, they subscribe to one or more of your channels for different reasons. Do some strategic A/B Testing. Give people a reason to follow more than one of your social media platforms, and you may find that it’s well worth the additional information you collect.
Like anything else done well, social media takes time and talent. It requires give and take. And, in order to create and provide content that really performs, you have to be personally involved.
Social media is taking some exciting turns in the coming year… Are you ready?
