9 Social Media Tips for Your Business in 2021

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

The world of social media is always changing. What worked on Facebook or Instagram in 2015 probably isn’t going to work as well in 2021. If you’re not on social media or regularly changing your approach, you’re going to be left behind by your competitors. Follow these tips and you can be successful on social media in 2021 without spending a bunch of money on ads.

Create a Persona

Decide who you want to be on social media and the type of voice that you want to use. You want to make sure that you properly represent the brand, but don’t be afraid to take some risks. Wendy’s has established itself on Twitter as one of the biggest trolls on the internet and Slim Jim is bro HQ on Instagram with irreverent memes created by their social media team. This doesn’t mean that you need to get into the mud, but you can make your brand whatever you want it to be on social media. Your identity can even vary between platforms.

Influencer Marketing

Whether they’re movie stars, athletes, models, or just regular people who have a large social media following, you can leverage social media influencers to push your product. The term “influencer” is used to describe those who have large followings because they have shown to be incredibly influential in the purchasing decisions their followers make. If you’re not sure where to start, you can join influencer platforms that will do the heavy lifting and product placement for you.

Establish Which Metrics Matter

Different metrics matter at different times during your journey through social media. When starting out, you might only be concerned about your reach and look specifically at the number of impressions that you’re getting. This wouldn’t include any interaction such as likes or shares. However, as your reach grows, you’re going to definitely want to take into account interactions. Know what you’re watching for during a specific period of time then change it accordingly.

Know Your Target Audience

Keep an eye on what meets your targeted metrics and what doesn’t. Your audience will let you know what they do and don’t like based on overall interaction. Get familiar with these trends and stick to them.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t try new things. In fact, you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. The world of digital content is always changing and what was popular last week might not be popular next week. Dare to be a little different and you might be the one to start a new trend.

Create Engaging Content

The key to successful social media campaigns comes down to how engaging it is. Create something that catches the eye, makes your followers laugh, appeals to certain emotions, or promotes interaction. You can do this by using trending memes in your posts or making videos that draw attention quickly.

Make Videos

Speaking of videos. Make short videos. Social media used to be ruled entirely by text posts sprinkled with photos, then the landscaped shifted to photos, but video now rules social media platforms.

As you scroll through Facebook and Instagram you’ll notice that more and more frequently videos are taken from TikTok. This platform allows users to create up to one-minute videos with the help of basic editing software embedded into the app itself. You can easily make a quality video in under 30 minutes then share it out across other platforms. One minute is the shortest allowable time for a video clip on any of the major platforms so that one video can be shared across all your accounts.

Know Your Platforms

It seems obvious that you would need to be aware of the social media platforms that you’re using. However, this is more along the lines of knowing how each platform works and what kind of content succeeds. You might be great at one-line jokes or inspirational thoughts and terrible at making eye-popping graphics. This means that Twitter is best for you and maybe somebody else should take care of Instagram. Understand the approach that you need to take with content when it comes to a specific social media platform in order to get the maximum value from your content.

Social Media Shopping

As a business, it’s important to consider the customer experience on the path to making a purchase. If you’re promoting products on social media, it only makes sense that it should be easy for your customer to buy them. Introducing social shopping. Apps like Instagram and TikTok have partnered with e-commerce companies to integrate features into their platforms that allow your followers to buy products without even navigating away to your website. This makes the journey to buying much shorter than it used to be.

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