Marketing strategies evolve in different ways. For the past decade, social media has been dominating the marketing world as a prominent and effective way to showcase products and services to many audiences across virtually any startup industry. But as social platforms come and go, algorithms change, and users evolve their behavior and patterns on the internet, marketers have to come up with new and unique ways to make their social media strategies stand out in the saturated digital sphere.
Below, five top marketers from different industries share how they’re making purposeful changes to their approach in order to maximize their efforts on social media.
Shorter content
While some studies show that long-form content is reigning supreme in improving SEO and visibility, succinct storytelling is more prevalent on social media than ever. With consumer’s shrinking attention spans, social media users appreciate straight-to-the-point content that they can easily digest. Not only does shorter content appeal to people’s busy schedules, but it also allows marketers to get creative in how they spread their message.
Media company, Talon Outdoor, uses its social media platforms as a way of getting people out of their homes and into the world. They use short sound bites and descriptive captions to generate attention to their links, driving traffic to their long-form content on their blog’s website.
“We’re animating more and creating short-form video content because we realize that people digest content in different ways,” Nick Mawditt, managing partner at Talon Outdoor, said. “We’re conscious that people want shorter content that they can consume on their own time.”
Related: Social Media Strategy: More Than Just Likes and Follows
Video content
Video content is making waves as the new medium to garner stronger attention from consumers, improve SEO and generate overall higher engagement than written content.
Well-produced videos also help create stronger emotional connections with your audience. On top of the increased connectivity and improved traffic, using video content often translates to an increase in qualified leads and higher conversion rates.
Adam Davis, social media manager at Powtoon, a cloud-based animation software company, attributes video content to the majority of its engagement on social media.
“We have a huge following of people who use our product and want to hear from other fellow customers. We’ve been creating and posting videos of our customers projects which gives our audience an opportunity to engage with each other. It also gives our customers a two-way conversation among themselves and our team, which we’ve found very valuable,” Adam said.
Personalized messaging
Creating personalized content and messaging on social media allows brands to tailor their messages to their specific customers. It also enables marketers to reach individual segments of their audiences instead of appealing to a broader group.
To ensure high-level personalization in their content, brands should first solidify their content marketing strategy and how it aligns with their customer persona. Having personalized content that is relatable and speaks directly to your target audience will make customers more loyal and create a level of trust among your audience.
zipMoney, a payment software company providing an easy solution to online and brick-and-mortar shop owners, has worked hard to refine their brand’s key messaging and value propositions to attract customers that resonate with their brand.
“Once we started focusing on content personalization and audience segmentation on social media we were able to speak to our customers in a more relevant way that resonates with them and their specific needs for success. When we can help our customers succeed, then everyone is happy!” Karlie Taylor, marketing manager at zipMoney, said.
Audience targeting
Don’t make your audience an afterthought to your content creation. Along with creating hyper-personalized content, targeting the right audience will do wonders for engagement and conversion rates on social media. By creating personalized content, you’re able to not only refine your customer persona, but identify who your ideal customers are. Grouping audiences into different segments also allows you to compare behavior and patterns of different demographics and further tailor your content customization strategy.
“This year we’re really focusing our digital marketing strategy on high-level targeting. We’re finding that it offers businesses like ours an exciting way to make our efforts more cost-effective while promoting our services to the right people. Our team can now measure the results of our campaigns almost instantaneously and make tweaks quickly to get a good level of ROI. We’re excited to learn more about how to leverage this social media strategy and are taking it way more seriously now than in previous years,” Adrian Haworth, marketing director at Recycling Technologies, said.
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Focus on storytelling
Instead of creating content that’s purely to inform or educate, brands are engaging in dynamic storytelling to engage their fans and connect with their audiences on a personal level. Telling stories with a clear narrative structure helps create a more emotional and personal connection with readers. Some great examples of creative storytelling on social media can include giving followers a behind-the-scenes look at projects, triumphs among your team and sharing exciting company updates.
“We’re using storytelling and inbound marketing techniques to build trust with our audience and creatively answer the questions we’ve noticed them asking. And it’s been working! Through our storytelling techniques, we were able to generate even more revenue than last year, all through organic SEO from our social channels,” Sophie Wilson, CEO and founder of Tuesday Media, said.
The company uses its Twitter and LinkedIn channels to tell stories of their creative team, their clients and exciting happenings in their community.
With the unpredictability of social media, startups are being forced to step outside of the box and create content that stands out and makes a real impact on their communities. As social networks grow and change, there are some tried and true methods of creating engagement and building a social media marketing strategy that’s personalized, compelling and appeals to the human qualities of the people behind the screens.
Using strategies like video content, short yet hyper-personalized content, and making sure you’re telling stories that appeal to your specific target audience can make a huge difference in how your company breaks through the noise and stands out on social media.
