Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have always been an epicenter of community engagement and lead generation. With 2020 underway, advertising in social media is poised to become even more prominent in the eyes of businesses looking for ways to expand their reach and innovate in terms of advertisement. According to Social Media Today, 90% of social media users actively try to reach out to brands or retailers they are interested in buying products or services from, and with 3.04 billion active social media users worldwide, it’s easy to see the appeal of marketing your brand via these platforms.
However, coming up with a working concept for your social media pages that will perform well comes with a bit of preparation and behind-the-scenes management on your part. With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look at how you can create a brand new concept for advertising on social media in 2020 for the betterment of your brand exposure, lead generation and revenue growth going forward.
Audit Your Industry
The best way to start off your social media strategy planning is to simply audit the current state of your industry. Which niche and territory do your brand operate in? How fierce is your competition and how good is their social media game? What would you better about their marketing if you had a say in it?
While these questions may be simple on the surface, they will provide you with much-needed insight into what you will deal with within 2020. Make sure to keep pen-and-paper close-by and mind-map your findings, goals that come up, as well as potential strategies, audiences, and approaches to content creation.
Primary And Secondary Platforms
Once you set more concrete goals for your brand strategy and social media marketing concept, you can choose which platforms to focus on. Keep in mind that different demographics use different platforms for their online social activities. Likewise, individual platforms offer a variety of options for content differentiation, meaning that platforms such as Instagram are extremely visual-content oriented as opposed to LinkedIn which can offer blogging and networking opportunities.
Justin Bernard, Head of Social Media Management at Write Scout spoke on the matter:
You have to go where your audience is. If you run an e-commerce business with toys and apparel, go to Facebook/Instagram – the same applies if you offer cloud-based services that are used by professionals who use LinkedIn. Blindly marketing your brand on all platforms at once will mitigate its performance drastically.
Differentiate Your Content Strategy
Speaking of content – you can easily mix and match content types regardless of which platforms you opt to use in 2020. Status updates, blog posts, videos, audio podcasts, and infographics can all be utilized in order to appeal to your target demographic. While platforms such as Instagram won’t allow you to publish blog posts due to their nature, you can still make practical decisions on which content types work with which communication channel.
It will not only showcase your versatility as a content creator and a brand with valuable content worth a look but also make your business more appealing to B2B partners along the way. Allow your content creators, writers, and designers to flex their creative muscles and mix different content types for the sake of better exposure and brand awareness in the long run.
Utilize User-Generated Content
Depending on the types of products and services you market to consumers, you will have more or less access to user-generated content as a result. Whether small or large, the database of UGC your audiences generate can be used as social proof in upcoming marketing materials for great effect.
Jessica Simmons, Social Media Specialist at Subjecto, spoke on the matter briefly:
Your satisfied customers are sometimes your best content creators when it comes to appealing to even more followers. Make sure to set content standards for user-generated materials before publishing them on social media and allow users to participate in marketing your brand if they choose to do so. This will not only make your job easier as you gain access to more social proof but also stabilize your position as a trustworthy with loyal followers brand on social media.
Take Advantage Of Live Features
Modern social media platforms have expanded their lists of features to allow for more freedom and creativity on the part of businesses. One such instance can be found in live broadcasting features found on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram respectively. Simply put, you can communicate with your followers and interested bystanders directly regardless of time zones.
All you need to do is schedule live events and announce your agenda for the day ahead of time to let people prepare and join the chat. Events such as Q&A sessions with your staff, interviews with industry leaders, brainstorming on new projects as well as simple after-hour chats can all be used as live event content. Given that two-way communication is an important factor in ensuring your brand’s social media growth and exposure in 2020, making it a part of your marketing concept is a great way to start the year.
Give Something In Return
Lastly, a great way to incentivize loyalty, brand awareness, and lead generation is to run quizzes, giveaways, and surveys on your social media pages. While you don’t have to give away expensive gifts, small tokens of appreciation for their support of your brand can go a long way. You can encourage sharing, commenting and social interaction on your event posts as a means to gain legibility for the giveaway or prize pool.
That being said, discount codes, e-commerce coupons or even retail goods with your brand’s name on it will do wonders for brand advocacy and word of mouth. Most importantly, the costs associated with marketing your brand in such a way will pale in comparison to the performance they will generate in a short time-span.
Going Social in 2020 (Conclusion)
If you haven’t invested resources into social media marketing by now, it’s time to do so now and start reaping the benefits of doing so. It’s clear that social media platforms will continue with their disruptive influence on a brand advertisement and lead generation well into 2020 and beyond.
Approach social media advertising with an open mind and develop a concept unique to your business’ portfolio as you do so. That way, audiences will have an easy time differentiating your brand from others on the market, allowing your influence on different platforms to grow organically over time.
Guest Post Author Bio:
Angela Baker is a self-driven specialist who is currently working as a freelance writer at Studyker as well as other writing services and is actively trying to improve her blogging career. She is always seeking to discover new ways for personal and professional growth and is convinced that it’s always important to broaden horizons. That’s why Angela develops and improves her skills throughout the writing process to help to inspire people. Also, she writes for LiveInspiredMagazine, rounding out her professional writing career.
