Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? Since the growth of content marketing on social media shows no signs of slowing down, it’s time to put “Expand our social media outreach” on your 2022 list.
With social media still being the top content distribution channel for major brands, it needs to occupy the lion’s share of your content planning during the coming year. This guide to up-and-coming social media marketing trends can help you lead the pack in 2022.
Increase Your Video Production
By the time we ring in the new year, an InterDigital study predicts, at least 82% of all internet traffic will be videos. It’s no wonder.
Information that involves more than one of your senses is 2.8 times more effective in communicating your message than information that only engages one of your senses, research shows.
Whether it’s an explainer video, a case study, or a video testimonial from a happy customer, you need to take full advantage of videos’ popularity.
For people at the top of your sales funnel, use short, focused videos that help them learn something that will make their lives easier. They’ll showcase your expertise without sounding salesy.
Save more in-depth videos to woo those at the bottom of your sales funnel. Focus these longer videos on how your product or services can meet their needs. Case studies, too, are useful at this point.
Then, look at your social media and content analytics to see which social platforms your target customers prefer. You’ll get more bang for your content marketing buck when you post your video where and when your prospects are online.
Take Advantage of Facebook Ads’ Enhanced Performance
As Social Media Examiner’s Lisa Jenkins points out, Facebook has revamped its ads’ performance. Use Facebook Ads to hook your audience, but always link back to your blog content.
Then, link to related content on each post to draw your audience in even deeper. If they’re hungry for information, feed them well. You’ll earn their trust when you’re a dependable source of knowledge they need to solve a problem.
Use LinkedIn’s Creator Mode to Get Your B2B Message Out
LinkedIn is the social media of choice for business decision-makers. In fact, 80% of its users “drive business decisions,” as its internal research shows.
And, it’s getting even better for getting your message out to those movers and shakers. With its new feature, Creator Mode, you’ll be able to publish a LinkedIn newsletter, use LinkedIn Live to stream real-time videos, and use five topic hashtags to help people find your content.
Use TikTok to Reach Younger Millennials and Gen Z
If you’re trying to reach the cool kids, TikTok is the way to go – 48% of Americans between the ages of 18-29 use TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center study.
That number is likely to grow. As Hootsuite’s Katie Sehl observes, its audience has experienced incredible growth since it exploded on the US scene in 2018.
In only three years, it has grown eightfold. With plenty of room to grow in its target demographic, it’s a great place to post your young adult-oriented content.
Make Social Media a Vital Part of Always-On Marketing
Large brands usually have a large territory to cover. Different time zones and different cultures often characterize their market.
Certainly, content automation – timing social posts perfectly for each segment – is a part of always-on marketing for multi-regional enterprises. However, your regional content teams can take your content marketing for social media to the next level when they remember the original purpose of social media – conversations.
Your main office content team might not be up at 2:00 in the morning in Pittsburgh. But your London team is just arriving at their office, freshly caffeinated and ready to go.
Empower them to respond to those Pittsburgh followers who are up that late, stressed out about a problem that your brand’s expertise could solve. And, they could open up conversations with their early bird followers on that side of the pond.
Put the social back in social media to build relationships 24/7.
As Sean Callahan pointed out in his LinkedIn interview with Matt Heinz, “Our buyers are looking for information 24/7. We need to be where they are, whenever they’re ready for us.”
Not closed for the day, relaxing at home with some sitcom blaring in the background. But since we can’t be there in person, there’s no need for our marketing to chill out when we do.
That’s where always-on marketing comes in.
It’s much more than just having a website up 24/7 and social media feeds running ‘round the clock.
As Brad Wikstrom puts it, always-on marketing delivers “remarkable brand experiences at scale” wherever and whenever opportunities to deliver those experiences happen.
Use the Power of Story in Social Posts
For years, researchers have known about how the power of story drives purchase decisions. Stories evoke an emotional response in their audience.
And emotion drives purchases. In fact, an Unruly ShareRank study discovered that nearly 70% of people who had an “intense emotional response” to content were likely to buy the product featured in the content.
But a huge swath of content marketers – even in larger corporations – haven’t gotten the memo. At least, from the yawn-worthy content that we see on their blogs and videos.
Those who do embrace storytelling, however, can leverage its effectiveness in winning over customers from their lackluster competitors. Storytelling at its best turns your prospects into heroes, using your product as the sword that slays those worries that keep them up at night.
Use Your Owned Content to Extend Your Social Reach
As Danka Jankovic observed in a recent post, brands are more likely to use social media to boost their owned content, such as their blog and email newsletters. However, she points out, your owned content also can help you find – and attract – more loyal social media followers.
Chances are, when you delve into your numbers, you’ll discover that your top-performing content has earned a large percentage of your social shares. Likely, if your content was helpful, the people with whom your audience shared became your social followers as well.
The more valuable your content to its audience, the more often they’ll share it with like-minded people. So, encourage your email subscribers and regular blog readers to share your content with their friends and colleagues.
Repurpose Social Content in a Different Format
Just like you do with your owned content, it pays to repurpose your social media content in a different format.
Suppose you have a LinkedIn article that’s really getting traction in your target metrics. If you repurpose it as a video or podcast, you can reach those audience members who prefer to get information in those formats.
Repurposing content is a win-win for busy content teams. It saves you money and time on research – and it delivers more personalized experiences for your audience.
Having a single place where you can store past content, conduct content collaboration sessions, create new content, publish it, and analyze its impact is a must for social media success. With the DivvyHQ content marketing platform, you get all that and more.
It even integrates seamlessly with all your favorite social channels. What else could you ask for?
How about a 14-day free trial? Yup. You’ll get that, too. Start your free DivvyHQ trial today!