Social media continues to become part of everyday life more so than ever before. It’s not surprising to notice that some grandparents even have their own Facebook profile. What this essentially means is that the possibilities, in terms of the target demographics, the possibilities are seemingly endless.
The social media marketing landscape continues to change as fast as social media itself. To successfully design a brand’s presence online, you, of course, need captivating ideas. However, just as important is the ability to adapt.
If you’re not allowing your brand to be dynamic, you’ll be missing out on exposing your brand to users of both emerging social networks as well as even the outdated ones. With that in mind, it’s critical to understand the landscape of social media as it is currently, especially if you’d like to see your online marketing efforts become fruitful.
1) E-Commerce and Social Media
With the exponential growth of social media use, the most logical move to make would be to integrate social media and e-commerce. As obvious as that may seem, surprisingly it has only been implemented as of recently and despite being a great monetary asset, the idea hasn’t been universally adopted just yet. Nonetheless, people are now, for the most part, used to the idea of shopping and ultimately making a purchase through the use of smartphones and tablets.
Implementing an e-commerce component to your social media presence can promote sales and engagement as well. Twitter, having added a “buy” button, is a great place to start. Selling a branded t-shirt through Twitter is a pretty simple way to begin integrating e-commerce on social media platforms. Soon enough, other social networks will follow suit and begin integrating e-commerce as well.
2) The Importance of Adjusting to Trends
With content and information so readily available, it is essential as a web marketer to be able to adjust their campaigns to cater to the newest trends. That’s not only up to the marketers, but their bosses as well. Superiors must offer them the freedom to incorporate agile marketing into their campaigns to remain relevant among your competition.
Agile marketing basically means that you have the ability to adapt your marketing approach to sudden changes or fleeting topics and trends on social media. Although this may seem rather obvious, it should also be pretty obvious that your consumers will appreciate the effort and are even more likely to engage with a brand that is keeping up to date.
3) Content Over Everything
Online marketing may as well be referred to as content marketing. Content is king and there is absolutely no denying that. While it’s always been an integral part of any online marketing campaign, its value continues to grow exponentially. The content you should aspire to create is the kind that will inspire other users to share it on their social media profiles. Whether that be a YouTube video, a Tumblr post, a tweet, a photo, an infographic or any of the other various types of content, it is turning into perhaps the most important aspect of marketing.
Before you dive head first into your content creation, take a moment to observe what’s being shared across the wide array of social media platforms. You can check out a site like Buzzfeed. They’ve got a really good grasp on how to make content go viral.
Obviously, you’d like your content to go viral. This can prove to be quite difficult when everyone else has the same goal. Pay close attention to what people want to engage with. Even more important, is to consider what people would like to share with others.
4) Direct Messaging Versus Direct Marketing
One thing that most marketers have not taken complete advantage of yet is private messaging on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and all the other ones that offer this feature.
These days, users expect to receive a custom, personalized experience from even the biggest of brands. Fortunately, some of the bigger brands have yet to do this. So, here’s your opportunity.
The message doesn’t even necessarily need to be private. A public message catered to a specific user can be just as, if not more, effective. Take the multiple humorous responses in reply to a user. That can benefit you by displaying your brand’s ability to be relatable. People will appreciate that.
5) Mobile Capability & It’s Vitality
More and more users are using their smartphones and tablets to browse the web. In some cases, people do their shopping on these devices. With this in mind, you must make your brand’s presence prominent on mobile devices. That includes an app or just make your brand’s website available and easily navigable on phones and tablets.
If you happen to sell products online, a platform in which allows for mobile payment can be an enormous convenience to your consumers.
6) Wrapping Your Head Around Social Media Continuous Alterations
The rate at which online marketing, and social media in general, is continuously changing, it can be a daunting task to even try to keep up. In order to succeed and stand out from your competition, it is imperative that you put your best foot forward and try staying ahead of the trends. Being able to see which trends and new innovations will be the next big thing to go viral could be the difference between a boom or bust period for your brand.
Digital media has made starting your own business simpler than it’s ever been before. With good content, personalized marketing and a good sense of what’s to come next, your brand can ultimately thrive more so than you envisioned from the start.
