Monthly Marketing Update : All Things Social Media

This month we take a look at what is happening in the world of Social Media Marketing, including new and upcoming changes to popular platforms and top tips for creating an effective social media marketing strategy.

What’s New across our Social Platforms?

Over the last month the social media platforms have been busy implementing new changes to improve their platforms for both businesses and users. Here are some of the key highlights.

Linkedin gets a new look

Linkedin have announced some exciting new features on their Company Pages to help organisations stay connected to the communities that matter most to them. The latest updates help page admins connect their employees, highlight upcoming events, and gain invaluable insights about their brand’s followers.

The “My Company” tab provides a new space for your employees brings your workforce closer together by helping you celebrate key accomplishments, increase engagement within your employee community and connect colleagues with a single click. It includes new features like employee milestones, so you can celebrate promotions, anniversaries, and company new hires. It also surfaces trending content from your coworkers and recommendations to connect with people you may know at your organisation.

As more events move online, organisations have found that virtual events offer incredible value, because they keep our industries connected as we all work remotely. But, discovering these virtual conferences, panels and webinars and keeping track of them can be tricky.

With the new "Events" tab, your Page automatically pulls in a view of your past, present and upcoming events on LinkedIn. The tab appears on the left-hand navigation of your brand’s Page, making it easy for your followers and visitors alike to find and attend the events they care about.

Previously, page admins could only see their aggregate number of followers and their general demographics, and lacked the tools and insights they needed to fully understand and grow their follower base.

With that in mind, Linkedin have introduced a new “View Page followers” feature that allows page admins to see the individual members who are following their page. Enabling to better understand audiences, you can share more relevant content and build your LinkedIn community around the conversations that matter most.

Restrictions to be removed on Facebook Ads

Facebook is removing its restrictions on ads which includes allowing more text within the main advert image.

Previously adverts with too much text in their images would not be approved, they claimed it negatively affected the user experience because users on Facebook and Instagram opposed ads that were text-heavy.

But Facebook does encourage advertisers to stick to the ‘<20%’ rule claiming: “Keep your text short, clear, and concise in order to get your message across effectively.”

The user tends to notice images and headlines before anything else in the ad so adding CTAs to your ad photos, and compelling words like “free,” “you,” and “limited-time offer,” will be read more often than the actual post text.

Instagram launches new Reels updates

Instagram is making changes to their Reels, to be more in-line with their competitor, TikTok, after the feature has been criticised for its design and it is reported that it was failing to gain traction.

TikTok popularised the short 15 second video, with the app allowing videos up to a minute in length. Reels was launched with support for only the 15-second video and it’s latest update will not be giving users the full minute, opting for 30 seconds instead. The update is likely to force users to create original content for Instagram Reels, rather than repurposing their longer TikTok videos.

Our top tips for developing an effective social media marketing strategy

Do you know how effective your current social media marketing is? With an individual viewing between 6,000 and 10,000 adverts and messages a day, it becomes increasingly difficult to make an impact in such a cluttered space. With this in mind, it is important to fully understand your audience, across all the platforms and view these as individual strategies.

1. Create a specific strategy for each social media platform

Each platform has its differences and best practices for generating engagement. Your brand may not need to have a presence on every platform, but for your posts to be targeted, you need to have a strategy that is specific to the platform you’re using.

2. Consistency is key

How often you post should be specific to each individual social platform. Twitter and Instagram Stories require you to be active multiple times per day to get the maximum potential from your audience. While regular Instagram posts and Facebook updates, don’t have as much urgency and can be used less sparingly.

3. Focus your messaging

Although there will be some overlap with the type of audience you are targeting across each social platform, each will have its own unique demographic. To have the most impact it is essential to understand your demographics so you can tailor your messages.

When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can count on your social media posts to always be relevant to your audience.

4. What’s trending?

Once you have determined your key messaging, keep an eye on popular trends emerging across each platform. If you notice a pattern rising in popularity and it aligns with your messaging, then it’s a great idea to capitalise on it to drive engagement.

5. Measure and analyse results

Over 40% of businesses don’t accurately track their social media ROI, meaning they have no way of knowing whether or not it is working. Identify key metrics that are important to your brand and report on these on a regular basis to understand what is or isn’t working and make the required changes.

6. Use video content

With the rapid growth of the likes of YouTube and Facebook Live, social media users are consuming more video content than ever before. In the past three years alone, Facebook has seen an increase of 258% in video views and Twitter reports that a post containing a video is 6 times more likely to be viewed than one containing an image.

7. Interact with your audience

Keep an eye on each of your social platforms and ensure that you are engaging with your audience by answering any questions that come up on your posts, handles or hashtags. Your audience wants to know that there is a real person on the other side of the computer and that it’s not just a robot.