Social media emerged as a mere platform for connecting people around the world. Initially, people used these platforms for finding old friends they had lost touch with and for making new friends. It was only a matter of time before marketers realized the untapped potential of social networking sites. And boom, social media marketing was everywhere!
However, it was only in 2020 when the global pandemic hit the world, the world simply underwent a transition, from physical space to digital. For the first time, businesses had to heavily rely on digital marketing strategies, and social media marketing came under the spotlight like never before.
Even five years ago, social media marketing was not this huge. People from marketing, public relations, and advertising naturally had shifted to digital spheres and social media platforms initially. But today, social media marketing has grown into a whole career option with multiple roles with multiple requirements.
As a marketer in 2022, you cannot afford to stick to just one platform, and for no good reason, you can avoid the influence of social media. Thus, the best thing to do is to stay on top of the trends and come up with strategies accordingly.
Scroll down and find out what are the five best strategies for a social media marketer in 2022!
Before you do anything on social media, just ask yourself what do you want from these networking sites? Simply put, you cannot start using social media platforms for your business before developing strategies to help your business’s growth.
The Sprout Social Index’s 2021 infographics show that 58% of businesses use social media for boosting brand awareness, while 41% depend on social media for enhancing the rate of engagement in the community. Thus, clearly determine your social media business goal before planning any marketing strategy. Then, once you are ready with your business goals, you can move to the planning and strategizing stage!
If you think you can read a couple of blogs and use a few paid keyword tools for finding your ideal target audience, your concept is pretty wrong. What businesses do not understand in this case is just finding out audience demographics will not improve your ad campaigns and enhance sales miraculously.
It is vital to understand that finding your ideal target audience takes time, and the process is much more complex than just using a couple of tools. In this context, you can determine your ideal target audience by finding out where your audience is hanging out. Once you know that, you can start focusing on the finer demographics.
One of the most crucial things that you must understand about using social media for marketing is that no matter what your goals are, you need to be driven by data and nothing else. This practically refers to focusing on metrics and key performance indicators that are relevant for your business - the ones that match your goals.
Thus, you need to establish your social media metrics. First, figure out which metrics are relevant to you - Reach or engagement or clicks or hashtags. Always remember that an effective social media marketing plan always originates from data-driven decisions and impactful infographics. Moreover, you can also consider human sentiment and paid as well as organic likes as metrics.
The two primary goals behind creating content on social media are as follows,
- Create content that’s original and authentic
- Create content that’s relevant and engaging
The ultimate success of your social media marketing strategies to help your business growth depends on your content. If your goals and metrics are already aligned, it won’t be much of an issue to find out what kind of content will work for your industry. Again remember that your content strategy is as important as your social media marketing strategy.
Here are a few ideas for your content strategy.
- Stories and posts that are time-sensitive
- Short videos
- Posts with a human angle - check out Humans of New York in this context
You might create authentic and engaging content for your ideal target audience, keeping your metrics, KPIs and goals aligned. But still, fail to use social media to your advantage. Most businesses do not stay consistent with their momentum after failing to perform well on social media platforms. That is probably the biggest mistake as a business on social media.
Optimization is your key to success. Make sure you are publishing your content at a time which works the best for your account. Moreover, timing is not the only way to optimize your posts. There are several other things that need to be done to optimize a post. Here’s what you most definitely should not miss,
- Edit your alt text
- Add location
- Write longer captions
- Use hashtags
- Use emojis
Social media marketing is constantly evolving, and the career opportunities associated with the field only seem to be expanding. The future of marketing lies in the digital world of social media, to be specific, and the faster you get here, the better for your marketing career. After all, in 2022, what’s marketing without using social media!