We often talk about what small businesses should do or not do in social media, as well as current trends and the hottest fads. This time around, we want to talk about what trends we see coming down the pipeline, and how a small business should take advantage of them! Some of these ideas may not sound very different from past trends, but the reasons why are the crux of this conversation. One thing that is always an imperative: owning unique and original content that delivers an answer to someone’s pain will always be worth the investment to create it.
Invest More in Short Form Video Content
We have been hyping up video content for years now, commenting on the fact that users are prone to purchase when they can easily see the product in action. Video is essentially the entirety of TikTok, and Instagram has leaned into its reels more and more. Of course, YouTube is nothing but videos, and Facebook has more videos than ever before. But there is a difference when it comes to high performing videos versus run of the mill videos, and much of it has to do with how it connects to the viewer’s attention span and where it delivers the call to action.
Short form videos are typically 10 minutes or less in length, though most content creators try to make their point in 60 seconds or less. If a video takes too long to make their statement, it will lose the attention of the viewer and underperform. This is also why platforms like TikTok and Instagram have limits on their video lengths – while some can go as high as 3 minutes, the vast majority are 60 seconds or less. Grabbing the viewer’s interest as soon as possible allows for a higher conversion rate. And don’t forget to keep it vertical – vertical videos have a 90% higher completion rate than horizontal videos.
Get Involved in Social Media Commerce
While the platforms may not change in 2023, how we use them will. Connecting social media to shopping opportunities has never been in question, but current technology has now allowed for immediate access to product information and the ability to purchase within the social platform. Shop feeds are already starting to dominate social media, allowing product information to be searchable on reels and posts in order for viewers to shop as they view.
Shoppable posts and advertisements keep it simple for the viewer by allowing the process to happen within the platform, whether it’s on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or TikTok. Storefronts and Influencer content are also easy to curate and bring potential conversions without spending too much of your budget. Certain features of social commerce have removed the disconnect that many shop owners felt when they first went online – instead of an e-commerce site that simply lists products and allows for purchases, now there is a social interaction within the messaging bot that engages with the viewer and immerses them within the store itself by the conversion happening within the platform.
Narrow the Social Platforms You’re Focused On
Another idea we have often supported is focusing on the social platforms that work best for your business. This doesn’t mean to only use the one you’re most comfortable with, but rather focus on 1-3 platforms that offer the most direct line to your audience so that time and budgets are efficiently used. This is not to say that organic posting to all platforms isn’t a good thing, rather, it’s about focusing the advertising budget on the right platforms to get the most bang for your buck.
This of course begs the question of how do you know which platform is right for your business? We’ve discussed this previously, and still feel the information rings true. One thing to always remember – social media platforms are basically a rental property. Anything posted there can go away without warning, so be sure to always house your content on your website while cross posting that content to the social platforms. If you do not have a website, contact us today so that we can help get your business set up on solid footing with a quality website!
Use More Localized Social Media Targeting
Unless your business provides services world-wide, best business practices show that targeting local in social media is the most effective use of the marketing budget. Targeting a specific region where people can realistically purchase your products and services will help cut through any of the noise from those who cannot. While it may look great in the analytics that the company’s reach is far and wide, how does that actually help sales? Localizing the marketing will offer more opportunity to make a conversion.
This doesn’t mean to ignore the potential of a far reaching marketing or social strategy, but instead it’s about the reality of who will make a conversion. Understanding who your audience actually is will help adjust the targeting to those who will convert, so focus the ad budget in this manner and allow a larger reach for organic posts to help support word-of-mouth.
Use SEO Strategies in Social Media Posts and Ads
A future trend that is just now starting to gain momentum is for businesses to create social media content that will show up in social searches. But what is that exactly? Social SEO is basically including text-based features like keywords and closed-captioning within a social post to increase the chances of the posts showing up when a viewer searches a key term or phrase within a social media platform. By optimizing the social profile, using hashtags and key terms within the post, applying alt-text details, adding subtitles/closed-captioning and creating relevant content, this can help social media posts show up in a search within the platform.
Optimizing the SEO within the social platforms will also help your business to connect to new followers, which can only lead to a more organically grown audience. This will allow your business to focus the ad budget where it needs to, while gaining more footing in the social community organically.
If you want help using social media to promote your business online, call us at (941) 548-9950 or reach out to us via our webform below. We look forward to hearing from you!
