Author: Helena Osborn, Account Manager at Protean Inbound Marketing
Social media platforms are a great way for businesses to reach a large and targeted audience, helping to increase brand awareness and visibility. It allows interaction with your customers in real-time, which can help to build relationships, improve customer satisfaction and allow you to easily respond to customer inquiries and complaints, improving your overall customer experience.
Social media marketing is generally more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods, making it a great option for businesses of all sizes. But, before you launch into major social media campaigns for your business, it’s important to define your goals. Do you want to increase brand awareness, improve customer engagement, drive traffic to your website, or something else? Having clear goals will help you focus your efforts and measure the success of your social media efforts.
The social media landscape can change rapidly so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest social media trends and to continuously experiment to see what works best for your audience.
Here are the social media trends that we expect will be popular for businesses in 2023.
Video content:
Video content continues to increase in popularity on social media and is a great way to engage with your audience. Video content tends to receive more engagement compared to other types of content and also enjoys a higher retention rate: viewers are more likely to watch a video until the end compared to reading a block of text. Videos are also more likely to be shared, which can help to increase the reach of your content and expose your business to a larger audience. Video on a landing page can increase the conversion rate by up to 80%.
Live streaming:
Live streaming allows your business to connect with your audience in real-time and can be a powerful tool for building a loyal customer base.
Influencer marketing:
Partnering with social media influencers can again help you reach a larger and more targeted audience. It’s essential to choose influencers who are a good fit for your brand and to have clear goals in mind for the campaign. Influencer marketing can also be time-consuming and costly, so it’s important to be strategic about how it fits into your overall marketing efforts.
User-generated content:
Encouraging customers to share their own content related to your business can help to build a sense of community and increase engagement. Seeing positive reviews and content from other customers can help to build trust and credibility with existing and potential customers. Using UGC can be a cost-effective way to create content, and at the same time can provide valuable insights on how customers are using a product or service & provide valuable insights and help inform future marketing efforts.
Social commerce:
Social media platforms are increasingly adding features such as shoppable posts and in-app checkout that make it easier for businesses to sell directly to consumers through the platform,. This can make the buying process seamless and increase the likelihood of a purchase. One of the key benefits of social commerce is that it allows businesses to reach consumers where they are already spending a lot of their time.
By harnessing these trends you can start reaping the benefits of this powerful marketing tool.