Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
With more than 60% of the world’s population actively engaging on social media, it has become a bustling hub for over 4.95 billion individuals.
The significance of these platforms in today’s business environment is undeniable, as they offer unparalleled opportunities for brands and agencies to connect with audiences, cultivate relationships, and drive growth.
However, understanding the complexities of social media can be challenging for brands with new trends and practices popping each day. That’s why we have uncovered the 7 top social media strategies that cater to the needs of today’s brands and agencies. Let’s get started!
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1. Using Different Content Formats
Using a variety of content formats is essential for keeping your audience engaged on social media. Each format—be it images, videos, or infographics—serves a unique purpose and caters to different user preferences.
Videos, for instance, offer a rich, immersive experience and can convey complex information in an easily digestible format. Remember, the sheer number of views can be indicative of content popularity and engagement, such as when videos receive billions of views on platforms like YouTube.
Images are perfect for quick, visual storytelling. They’re easily shareable and can significantly enhance your brand’s visual identity.
Infographics combine text, images, and data, making complex information accessible and engaging. They’re incredibly shareable, often used to present statistics or processes.
Using these different formats, here’s how you can leverage them:
- Ensure consistency in visual style across all formats to maintain brand identity.
- Tailor content to the format that best suits the message you wish to convey.
- Use analytics to determine which formats resonate most with your audience.
- Incorporate calls to action to increase user interaction and conversion.
Nike, for instance, effectively employs a mix of these formats.
The brand’s compelling visual content, ranging from short clips showcasing athletes to catchy images on product features, underpins Nike’s social media success, driving both engagement and conversions. Emulating such a strategy can yield tangible benefits for your brand or agency.
2. Following Viral Trends
When you want to win on social media, staying on top of viral trends is crucial. This social media best practice involves identifying popular memes, challenges, or topics and integrating them into your brand’s content. It’s not about blindly jumping on every trend, but selecting those that align with your brand values and audience interests. Here’s how you can leverage this effectively:
- Identify Your Match: Quickly pinpoint trends that resonate with your brand’s identity and audience’s preferences.
- Timeliness is Key: Implement Just-In-Time campaigns to tap into trends before they peak and decline.
- Get Creative: Customize the trend’s narrative to reflect your unique brand voice and style.
- Audience Engagement: Encourage user participation to broaden the trend’s reach and appeal.
- Measure the Impact: Use social media analytics to track engagement and understand the effectiveness of your approach.
Consider the real-world example of Wendy’s Joins In With The Bear Memes. In September 2022, memes from the show “The Bear” swarmed social media platforms. These memes portrayed a skilled chef facing a chaotic kitchen situation, but social media users spun them into humorous brags about performing simple tasks.
Wendy’s, known for its edgy Twitter presence, adeptly capitalized on this craze. They crafted tweets that connected the “Bear” meme’s culinary theme with their iconic Frosty, exemplifying a clever way to stay relevant.
This approach not only put Wendy’s into an ongoing social conversation but also highlighted a popular menu item, showcasing the power of viral trends in social media marketing.
3. Leverage Influencer Marketing
As brands strive to connect with audiences, the influencer marketing industry has soared to a value of $16.4 billion in 2022, highlighting its massive appeal. To leverage influencer marketing effectively, here are key social media best practices you should consider to enhance your brand’s social media presence:
- Identify the Right Influencers: Select influencers whose audiences align with your target demographic. Quality trumps quantity—aim for those with high engagement rates rather than merely large followings.
- Authenticity Matters: Collaborate with influencers who genuinely resonate with your brand values. Their content should feel natural and honest to foster trust with their followers.
- Content Co-Creation: Work with influencers to create content that feels both personal to their style and true to your brand voice.
- Track Performance: Use tools to measure the success of influencer campaigns. Look at engagement rates, clicks, and conversion metrics to assess ROI and guide future social media best practices.
A real-world illustration of this strategy in action is Joybird’s partnership with content creator @ChrissaSparkles. They effectively promoted the Barbie™ Dreamhouse™ furniture collection, tapping into nostalgic sentiments with their target market.
@ChrissaSparkles didn’t just push the products but engaged with them, creating videos and content within Joybird’s showroom, offering a personal insight and connection that wouldn’t be possible through traditional advertisements.
This collaboration exemplifies the power of using influencers to create immersive, relatable content that drives brand engagement.
4. Share Behind-The-Scenes Content
Sharing behind-the-scenes (BTS) content humanizes your brand and strengthens customer relationships by giving them a peek into the processes and personal stories behind your products or services. This not only adds a layer of transparency but also engages your audience on a more personal level, fostering a stronger connection. Here’s how to leverage the behind-the-scenes strategy on social media:
- Share Your Workflow: Display how your product is made or what a typical day at your office looks like.
- Highlight Your Team: Introduce the faces behind your brand with short bios or day-in-the-life features.
- Engage with Stories: Use Instagram Stories or Facebook Live for real-time interaction while showing behind-the-scenes glimpses.
- Customer Involvement: Encourage customer questions during BTS reveals and answer them to boost engagement.
Krispy Kreme offers a brilliant example of BTS content in action. They regularly show the transformation of their classic glazed doughnuts into new seasonal treats. Through catchy visuals and enticing captions, they not only demonstrate the process but also nudge doughnut lovers to learn more and place orders through a link in their bio.
This transparent, interactive approach makes customers feel included and excited about limited-time offerings.
When you share your brand’s story, it helps create a narrative that customers want to follow and be a part of. Remember, the key is authenticity—your audience can sense when content is genuine and when it’s staged. Keep it real, and let your brand’s personality shine through your BTS content.
5. Encourage Social Listening
Social listening is an essential strategy that allows brands to monitor, analyze, and respond to conversations about them on social media. When engaging with brands on social media, 40% of consumers anticipate a response within one hour, while a majority, 79%, expect a reply within the first 24 hours of reaching out. This highlights the importance of timely and efficient communication between brands and their audience on these platforms.
To leverage social listening effectively, follow these pointers:
- Identify Relevant Keywords: Focus on keywords that align with your brand and products. Regularly update your keyword list to adapt to evolving trends and topics.
- Employ the Right Tools: Utilize social listening tools to help you track conversations and analyze sentiment around your brand. Combining them with paid search engine intelligence software can help you create more targeted and timely campaigns.
- Engage with Your Audience: Don’t just listen; interact. When customers mention your brand, engage in a timely and constructive manner.
- Learn and Adapt: Use insights from social listening to drive improvements in your products and customer service.
An example of social listening in action can be seen with HubSpot. On Twitter, a customer commended the customer service team. HubSpot promptly responded with gratitude, thereby strengthening the customer relationship.
By encouraging social listening, you enable your brand to stay tuned into the voice of the customer, helping to foster better experiences and ultimately drive loyalty and growth.
5. Take Advantage Of User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful asset for social media engagement. In fact, research shows content created by users can result in 28% higher engagement than standard company posts. Leveraging UGC can help you build a more authentic and interactive online presence.
Here’s how to make the most out of UGC:
- Encourage Sharing: Prompt your audience to share their experiences with your product by hosting contests or using branded hashtags. This not only increases visibility but also provides you with a wealth of content to feature.
- Feature Fans: When fans take the time to create content related to your brand, showcase it on your platforms. By highlighting their efforts, you’ll incentivize further participation and show appreciation for your community.
- Maintain Authenticity: Use real and relatable UGC over overly polished media. Authentic content tends to resonate more deeply with audiences, fostering trust and connection.
- Create Community: Develop a dedicated hashtag or forum for users to share their experiences. This can transform individual customer stories into a collective narrative that reflects your brand values.
An excellent example of UGC done right is the social media scheduling tool, Buffer. Buffer doesn’t just promote its service; it builds community through the #BufferCommunity hashtag.
Users around the world share pictures showcasing their workspaces, daily routines, or personal achievements. These images are not directly promotional, which is precisely why they’re so effective: they represent the diverse faces and places behind the #BufferCommunity, encouraging others to join and share as well.
6. Prioritize Short-Form Videos
With attention spans shrinking, short-form videos have become a critical tool for social media engagement. An eye-opening statistic reveals that videos up to two minutes long get the most engagement. Your brand needs to capture and retain the audience’s attention quickly and effectively.
Here’s how you can leverage short-form videos:
- Know the ideal length: Platforms like TikTok favor videos that are 11 to 17 seconds, while Instagram prefers 7 to 15 seconds.
- Stay consistent: Regular posting can improve your brand’s visibility and follower count.
- Humanize your brand: Showcasing real employees or behind-the-scenes content can make your brand more relatable.
- Embrace trends: Being aware of current trends can help your content feel fresh and relevant.
Take the example of Soy Yo Candle. Their video content succinctly presents a problem and elegantly offers their product as the solution within seconds.
Not only does this approach serve to introduce the product to new customers, but it also reinforces its value to those familiar with the brand, extending organic reach across different audience segments.
Keep in mind that it’s not just about being brief but also about delivering quality content that resonates. Short-form videos when executed correctly, can be a powerful strategy to grow and engage your audience.
7. Ready To Boost Your Social Media Efforts?
Effective social media best practices are essential for enhancing your brand’s presence online. Adhering to best practices can offer significant benefits; below are the key takeaways:
- Establish clear brand guidelines to maintain a consistent and recognizable presence across platforms.
- Invest in social media reporting to gain insights and measure the ROI of your efforts.
- Understand the importance of social listening to optimize your marketing campaigns and engage with your audience meaningfully.
- Leverage current trends in digital marketing and advertising to reinforce the impact of your social media best practices.
Your approach to social media can have a transformative effect on your digital marketing efforts. As trends continue to influence the landscape, it is crucial that you stay informed and agile. To learn more about how these trends are shaping digital marketing, consider studying how social media trends have become integral to the digital marketing domain.
In closing, apply these social media best practices to bolster your brand’s online identity, and don’t hesitate to refine your strategy as new trends and insights emerge. Your proactive efforts in social media marketing will aid in achieving faster growth and a stronger connection with your audience.
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Author’s bio: Shikha is a content marketing specialist with experience in creating compelling and effective content for SaaS businesses. With 5 years of experience, she has a proven track record of developing content strategies that resonate with target audiences, drive website traffic, and generate leads.
Gravatar ID: shikha@saasbuy.com
