Hello and welcome back to our weekly dose of digital stuff. It’s week 2, I am finally back in Glasgow and somehow I am already falling behind. I must have some kind of hidden talent.
Today we are talking about the future once again. It's difficult to predict the future direction of the various social media platforms, it can be interesting to note what strategies marketers are actually planning to implement.
How are marketers going to meet their goals in 2020?
Here is a brief list of content types that brands will focus their social media strategy on. One could wonder why it is important for us to know these strategies. The answer is simple: the type of content brands will support and share will dominate our social media landscape and will become more and more mainstream over the course of time. Knowing what big brands do is also a perfect opportunity to see an example of successful social media use and planning. It is good to take inspiration from such channels and recreate what has been successful for them and reflect on what hasn't been so effective.
So what type of content should we all keep our eyes on?
In-House content
First and foremost, to run a credible and successful social media channel it is essential to put out great organic content. This is simply content that a channel creates on its own. As we explain in our content creation workshops, content planning is fundamental. Starting a content calendar and thinking in advance are the keys to a good strategy.
Social Ads
Social ads are also considered to be somehow in-house content. They are paid adverts that promote the page itself. Whilst this is normal practice with big budget brands, it is not essential for smaller channels to spend money on promotion. It is better, in my opinion, to invest the time on building a strong online presence and overall good content before thinking about putting money behind promoted posts.
Influencer Posts
I have talked about the importance of the influencer marketing multiple times in my previous blogs, and new information just keeps backing up my statements. Influencer marketing is a form of collaboration. A business collaborates with an influential person to promote something. It could be a product, service, or campaign. The right influencer can reach your target audience, build trust, and drive engagement. They create original, engaging content. They won’t be keen to follow a template advertising style provided by your brand. If you think influencers are only worth your time if you are a big brand, think twice. I have explained before how the influencers market is heading toward micro-influencers, that have a more specific following and can target customers more accurately. One shouldn't think of influencers as just people with millions of followers on social media. In the higher education sector, it is good to look out for students who have a good presence and reach on social media and trying to reach out to them.
UGC
User generated content (UGC) is a modern-day digital 'word-of-mouth' that benefits both brands and consumers. This type of content is the most trusted by your audience: the content is authentic, credible (not sponsored), and free for marketers. Basically, UGC is any content (text, videos, images, reviews) created by people, rather than brands. And brands will often share UGC on their own social media accounts, website, and other marketing channels. UGC promotes authenticity, creates trust and drives purchasing decisions or user interaction as a whole.
If you are planning a social media strategy for the upcoming year, you should really consider including all of these content types. Curating a good social media channel requires time and resources, it is good practice to take inspiration from more successful pages (as Dan always said, for good content on Social Media follow Fast Food and Fashion!).
I hope you are looking forward to 2020 just as much as I do!
Todaloo!
Laura
