Whether you are a new business or an established one, you’ve got to have a social media presence in today’s time. It helps you connect with your customers, engage with them daily, and build stronger relationships.
However, social media is a continuously evolving space. If you are not on top of the trends, you can lose out on opportunities.
As a business owner, you probably have a lot on the plate already. You may not want to add one more task to your to-do list. However, if you want to utilize social media effectively, here’s some effective strategies to help your brand’s social media informed, trendy, and effective.
Social media is not just a space to advertise your products and services. In fact, it is a great platform to listen to what your customers want and are saying.
The simplest way to do this is to solicit customer feedback. Feedback is an effective method to understand your target customers’ needs and serve them better. Ask them what they think of your products and services, and encourage conversation in the comments.
You can also use surveys on your brand’s social media accounts. When doing so, ask the right questions to get actionable insights. For instance, if you are engaged in offline marketing, post photos of your banners and backdrops and create a poll on which ones they prefer.
Along with more research focused activities, listening to customers also requires listening to unsaid insights: impression data. By getting quantitative feedback through views, likes, and clicks, you’ll get insights into what types of content your audience prefers. This also allows you to single out the platforms where you should focus your efforts.
Finally, analytics are necessary to formalize your findings and make better decisions. Organize your data using tools such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics and identify the ways you can use the feedback constructively.
Did you know there are content creators who not only follow social media trends but also educate their followers on social media? By following SM content creators focused on the B2B space, you can keep up with the latest trends while getting insights on how to utilize them strategically.
Generally, they have podcasts or Youtube channels where they talk about this. These are conversational shows where each episode focuses on one of such topics in depth. Such shows are informational and can give you all the knowledge you need in one place.
Some of the most popular social media podcasts that you can follow are Lifehacker, Social Media Today, and Six Pixels of Separation. On Youtube, you can follow channels like Ignite, Social Media Agency, Mashable, and Social Media Examiner.
If you prefer to read about the trends, you can also subscribe to newsletters that send you the most talked-about trends every week. Some popular newsletters you can check are Social Media Current, Streams, and The Sociality.
Do you have any people in your inner circle who seem to be always on top of trends? Perhaps they are constantly uploading videos on TikTok, making reels on Instagram, or running their own Youtube channels.
Follow those friends to know the latest trends, and start conversations with them. Ask them who to follow on social media to stay on top of the pulse.
Along with friends, family is another resource to utilize, especially the younger members of your family. Teens and kids are digital natives, and have important insights into what’s contemporary. Ask them what’s needed to keep your brand page up-to-date.
It’s easy to lose track of your social media subscriptions and notifications. If you’re not a frequent user, streamline the feed and move your alerts straight to your inbox through Google Alerts.
Google Alerts sends new posts and content from your followed SM pages straight to your email. Just set up an Alert through your google account and let the content flow in. If you want to avoid cluttering your inbox, select only the most important influencers to follow, or set up a consolidated alert to push all your information into one digest.
Along with marketing to customers, it’s important to build up your B2B relationships: prospects for hires, supply chain connections, and other members of your industry. This is where LinkedIn Groups get involved. Joining LinkedIn Groups is an excellent way to develop connections and keep an eye out for new trends.
The advantage of LinkedIn is its professional platform: you can keep your LinkedIn separated from your personal accounts, and present a professional image. Likewise, there’s a wider array of business connections already present on the platform. It’s also a great way to keep up with Social Media as a whole, through groups such as Social Media, Search, Mobile, & More.
Use the platform to ask your peers what they do to build trust with their customers on social media. Learn from their experiences and apply them to your own strategy. In addition, these groups also offer quick access to webinars and in-person conferences. Through these events, you get the most up-to-date information about SM trends and advice from industry experts.