Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an excellent way to reach a large audience, share your content and connect with your followers. It's also a great way to build your brand!
Social media has been around for quite some time now, but it seems that it was never really taken seriously as a viable marketing channel until recently. While some companies still have doubts about the effectiveness of social media marketing or find it difficult to understand why they should invest in such channels, social media can be one of the most powerful tools in any marketer's toolbox if used correctly. The following trends are already underway and are expected to ramp up even more in the coming months!
The importance of video-sharing platforms like YouTube, Instagram Reels/Live and Facebook Live will continue increasing year after year as we move through 2022 and beyond. This means more competition for video creators who want their videos shared by influencers or large brands like Nike or Coca-Cola (both big players already). If you’re going after other businesses' audiences then this might not apply directly, but if you're targeting consumers then this trend applies directly to you. More people will likely be watching videos instead of reading text articles! Having said that your social media pages are completely customised by you and should be authentic to your business, brand and its offerings.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-Generated Content (UGC) is content that comes from consumers. UGC is a powerful way to connect with your audience, get feedback and drive sales.
UGC can be used in many ways. It can be an image, video or text. This type of content allows you to get real people talking about their experience with your product. It also gives you the opportunity to tell people what they're missing out on if they don't use your product or service!
Using UGC will help increase brand awareness and drive traffic back to your website by giving people an easier way of sharing links across social channels like LinkedIn or Twitter.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing, which has been around for some time now, is all about partnering with social media influencers to spread your brand message. Research shows that people trust recommendations from their like minded friends and acquaintances more than celebrities, making it an effective way to build your brand and reach your target audience. The key is to find influencers that your target audience are following!
With the rise of social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter - these days everyone can be considered "famous" by virtue of having 100 or more followers on any given platform. By putting yourself out there as an influencer you create opportunities for brands to partner with you in exchange for free products or compensation (usually both). For example: Say I'm a brand new skincare line called Silkyskin! If I want my company's name/products out there I can find an Instagram influencer who has 100k+ followers and is interested in skincare who might be willing to post about their experience using our product if we pay them enough moola ($$$). They'll take photos showing proof of purchase (which should also include some kind of disclaimer), mention the product name and link directly back to the Silkyskin website where potential customers can click through for more information about the products being featured on their feed. The key here is finding the right influencer for your brand!
Micro-Influencers
One of the rising marketing trends is micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are social media users with a small number of followers, but who have high engagement rates. They tend to have a niche audience and focus on being authentic, which makes them seem more like experts in their field.
These influencers can be found all over the place, from Instagram accounts with only 200 followers to YouTube channels where one person’s videos have been viewed by 1000 people or less. It’s all about engagement with the micro-influencers. A great starting point if your interested in exploring influencer marketing. Find the right micro-influencer and you could create a pretty exclusive brand offering!
Interactive Content
Interactive content is a big deal in marketing. It’s everywhere and you can use it to interact with your audience in many ways.
In social media, interactive content can be used to provide useful information, ask questions or engage with your followers in polls. In email marketing and web design, interactive elements such as quizzes or surveys help people learn about your company and make decisions about future purchases. Interactive ads are also very popular for brands that want to increase engagement with their consumers by showing them more information than just a static image or video clip could provide. And finally, print ads have also started using interactive elements like QR codes that link users directly back into mobile apps when scanned with their smartphone cameras!
Shoppable Posts
A shoppable post is a blog post, article or video that gives your audience the option to click on an item and purchase it from your branded store, this is amazing if you have a business that sells a product. Typically, this functionality is enabled by the social media platform you're using (say, Instagram) and its app store. For example, if you upload a video about your new line of signature T-shirts, jewellery, or skin care and then tag them in relevant hashtags on Tiktok or Facebook, users will be able to tap through to see photos of each product (T-shirts/jewellery/skin care) with pricing information included in real time with no need to leave the app! Convenience in underrated online!
Video Content
Video content is one of the most engaging forms of content out there. It's an effective way to tell a story and it's also an effective way to show off your product or service in action. Video also works well as a form of storytelling because it allows you to give your audience an experience, rather than just reading about your brand and its different services.
If you're looking for more reasons to use video marketing in 2022, take a look at these:
Videos are the fastest growing type of content on social media and YouTube accounts for over half of all videos watched online. Facebook says that users watch 100 million hours per day on their platform alone! (mind blown)
More than 4 in 5 consumers say they would rather watch a video than read an article when consuming content online, according to MMGY Global research study "The Power Of Visual Storytelling". This makes sense because no matter how long you've been alive, we've all been wired with this innate desire to see things before believing them!
TikTok and Reels
TikTok is a app that allows users to create videos of up to 3 minutes. Users can add text and music, as well as other media such as GIFs and images.
While TikTok has existed for some time now, it exploded into the mainstream world by being the first short-form 'video-only' platform, launching with 15 second videos that featured a song in the background.
While Tiktok videos have a cap of 3 minutes per video, they have proven very successful in terms of engagement. Reels are also great for businesses because they allow companies to be creative while also reaching out to their audience in an authentic way, something many marketers struggle with because they feel like they need to make things look professional or fancy all the time when it comes down to it, no one wants boring content!
The future of marketing
The future of marketing is in digital content, video, social media and UGC (user-generated content). The future of marketing is in interactive content, no matter which platforms you choose. The future of marketing is micro-influencers, and there is still a big space for macro-influencers.
At the end of the day, authentic, original content that provides value to your audience is what's going to build a community of followers that love your offering!
How’s your Social Media presence going?