The online environment absorbs more and more of our life. People spend more time on social media and as a brand, you need to be where your target audience is.
Sure, offline campaigns are still important, but a proper online promotion can make a difference.
What would be the impact of a well-done video without a social network to distribute it to? Would it be able to go viral?
What are the social media trends you need to know about right now? As a brand that’s in for a kick ass 2017 strategy, you have to bare in mind 2 components: ENGAGEMENT & CONTENT.
First of all: What’s Your Voice on Social Media?
Your “online voice” is about real-time engagement and messages that evoke some specific and powerful feelings.
Regardless of platform, stay connected with your fans. Show them you’re more than a robot.
The concept is social media, as in you need to be social and communicate with your audience. Respond to private message, interact through comments, extend the conversation.
When they tag your page in a post, follow up and show them that you care. It’s annoying when you PM a page and they don’t reply back. Or when they reply months later. Statistics from Search Engine Watch show that 53% of Twitter users expect a response from a brand within one hour.
Something else worth considering is user feedback. When a user takes the time to write a review or a testimonial, it’s the best gift you can receive.
And since this is a gift, you need to accept it, whether positive or negative. If it’s positive, then you are doing a great job and you should keep doing the same thing.
If it’s negative, though, it only means you need to improve some processes in your business. We all have weak points, but knowing these, we can take action and address them.
Create Killer Content on Social Media
If you are thinking about the best content to post on social media in 2017, here are some pointers.
- 2017 will be all about Interactive & Niche Content.
As you might have noticed already, brand content is free from cats pictures, good morning messages or recycled content. We have detailed information on Interactive Content here, in case you want to take a look. *wink
The hype is user-generated content and brands are doing their best in encouraging fans to get involved in their content creation process.
- In 2017, video becomes the king!
When I say video, I mean both videos we load on different platforms and “Live sessions”. It’s hard to miss it, but in case you did, Snapchat registers 10 billion daily views on its video content alone. This has even exceeded YouTube – a platform built FOR videos.
- Influencers become Brand Ambassadors
Influencer marketing has always been a trend, but over the last year, it escalated pretty quickly. More and more bloggers and video bloggers get involved in various promo campaigns from different brands.
What social media networks should you focus on in 2017?
- Facebook – “66% of adults log in to Facebook every day”
- Twitter & Linkedin
- Instagram & Snapchat
Considering that we’re 7+ billion peopleon Earth, as a brand, this is YOUR huge opportunity. Remember the old saying „If you’re not on Facebook you don’t exist”? Well, in 2017, a brand without a Facebook page will pretty much be invisible!
When interested in company reviews or simply looking for information about an existing offer, a user’s first reflex is to search on Facebook. Accessing a company website becomes their second option.
These two platforms focus more on businesses. Their content is mostly made up of news and useful information. Linkedin is perfect for recruitment purposes and building/consolidating the company’s image among other businesses. Twitter is mainly used for collecting or distributing information from different fields.
In my opinion, at this moment, these two are new generation platforms. They address young people who have a lot of free time and the ability to produce incredible content, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Since Snapchat surpassed Facebook with regard to total video views, it’s time we take notice of its importance.
Key Takeaways for Your Social Media Strategy in 2017
Brands need lots of good content to stay active on social media. What does that mean?
To improve content distribution, you may want to write something original or special. Keep your message designed to entertain or educate.
You want to get to the subject quickly and offer your reader useful information. When preparing your content plan, focus on creating more videos, doing more live-streaming and getting ready for augmented and virtual reality.
As far as the social networks of choice during 2017, it’s simple. Brands that will adapt in bringing the newest technologies to social media, will lead the trend. I’m talking about augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
