For a small-sized business, gaining visibility online can seem extremely difficult. This is particularly true for social media where platforms are so cluttered with similar products and service offerings. To add to it, the constant changes being made and the new trends that each platform favours are rapidly changing too.
Hootsuite’s ‘2022 Digital Trends Report’ specified that 71% of small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media to market themselves, and 52% post once a day. This is why, as hard as it may seem and irrespective of what business you have, if you want to compete, you need to get online.
This same report stated that there are 4.2 billion active social media users. That is almost twice as many as there were just five years ago, in 2017. These users spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social channels every single day.
As marketers, we understand it is not often easy for small business owners to carve the time out to understand digital marketing, particularly to keep a tab on the changing social media trends.
This in addition to the constraints of limited marketing budget, often causes small business owners to turn away from social media. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this article, we highlight five social media key trends from 2023 (that will dominate 2024 as well) that your business can start to leverage at the beginning of your social media journey. These are easy to follow and implement:
Trend 1: Content personalisation
Personalisation of content has been and continues to be a dominant and winning marketing strategy for years now. What this means is when creating content, brands need to think of their audience- buying habits, likes, dislikes, what is it that their customer is looking for and tailor content based on that need. This includes understanding what your customers are searching for, where they are searching, and how they search.
Tip to personalise your content:
When picking a platform for your business, think about your end goal. Is it engagement? Is it conversion? or Is it brand building?
Picking the right platform based on your end goal and leveraging different content types for different platforms can help achieve what you hope to.
Trend 2: Using video for your business:
According to a Wyzowl report, 87 percent of marketers say video boosts web traffic, and 82 percent say it increases the time visitors spend on a website.
Using video content can help make your brand more personable. It allows both the brand and the customer to interact with each other in a way that no other content format allows
Tips on how to use video for your brand:
1. Showcase your brand story through video talk about your founder’s vision, showcase testimonials, throw a spotlight on the team behind your brand, and more.
Detail struggles as well as successes and use compelling language to capture viewers’ interest.
2. Address customer problems through an FAQ format. There are many ways you can do this
– Address all the questions you receive from your customers via a static post.
– Go live on Instagram stories and respond to questions that customers bring up.
– Ask your customers what is it they would like to know more about and develop content based on that.
Trend 3: Leveraging Influencer Marketing on a Small Scale
According to the State of Influencer Marketing 2023: Benchmark Report, influencer marketing has grown into a $21.1 billion industry. This is a significant increase of 29% from $16.4 billion in the year 2022.
Tip on how can your business adopt influencer marketing as a strategy
Building long-term relationships with local influencers by nurturing partnerships for sustained credibility might be the answer. Think of it as a long-term strategy where you nurture a relationship with the right influencer for a period of time. It shouldn’t just be a quick smash-and-grab approach.
Identify the right influencer for your brand, reach out to them, and let them know that this will be a long-term partnership that you are willing to invest in for your brand. Clearly articulate what you would like out of the partnership, set key goals and objectives, and work towards it as a partnership.
Trend 4: Purpose Driven Marketing Strategies
In a world where customers are extremely aware of ethical and non-ethical brands and show their loyalty depending on what brands stand for, having a strong purpose-driven strategy is extremely important.
Showcasing your local community involvement to your customers will ensure you can build brand loyalty that might not give you immediate returns but will provide positive returns in the near future.
Tips on using purpose in your content
Talk about the initiatives you have both in-house (employee initiatives- hiring practices, team building activities) and externally (charities you support, personal work done by owners that helps elevate local communities).
Showcasing your brand as one that ‘cares’ will help foster a positive relationship between your brand and your audience.
Trend 5: Consistency
Pick a platform and stick with it. Irrespective of what platform you decide to choose, you must post content on a consistent basis. Lack of consistency on a social media platform will lead to lower visibility of your content and as good as your content might be, you will not be rewarded by ‘follows’ or ‘likes’.
Tips on creating consistent content
Create a content calendar 3 weeks in advance. Have a clear idea of what you want to post and when. Then, create the post, decide on a media (video/ photo) to go with it, and schedule it to be posted in advance.
Social media and marketing can seem complex, but when broken down all it takes is a few simple steps to start the journey and build upon it.
As a content marketing agency, Nimble Marketing works solely with small-sized businesses. We understand what goes into running a business without having expert help. Our blog and social media are a means to educate small business owners and offer insights into the latest content and social media trends that will help them get started on their marketing journey.
If you would like to schedule a free call where you get access to a social media plan for your business, ideas for creating content, and more, ‘Contact Us’ today.