Social media is ever-changing. What works one month might not work the next. That is why it’s important not to just keep up with the latest trends, but to have the foresight to know what is coming next.
It’s a new year, which means new trends in social media. Here are the top trends I expect to see in 2016.
1. Create Meaningful Content
There are now more than 40 million business pages on Facebook, meaning there’s a lot of noise and competition, making it hard to be seen by your fans and new customers.
To stand out and grab your customers’ attention, you need to create content that is interesting, entertaining, informative, and shareable. Before you post something online, ask yourself these questions:
- Would my perfect customer read/click/like/comment or share this post?
- Will someone reading this learn something they didn’t know before?
- Will this make someone laugh, cry, or rethink?
- Will this post make someone want to share?
- Will it make someone come into my store?
Meaningful content is the result of planning. It’s important to sit down with your staff and plan out your social media posts, e-mail, and other content. By creating a plan of action to reach your goals, you’re more likely to create effective campaigns, reach more customers, and earn more profits.
2. Use Video
From ads to interviews, customers love a quick video. A Forrester Research study found that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words!
In 2016, try to get more creative with videos. Branch out of creating videos that serve as ads. Share video customer testimonials. Do a digital store tour. Create a video to welcome people to your newsletter and send it via e-mail. Create a video slideshow of new product arrivals.
You can also decide whether you want to share live or pre-recorded videos. With new mobile video streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat predicted to be popular platforms in 2016, customers are becoming more comfortable with online streaming. Try a “live from the store” stream!
3. Run Ads on Social Media
Having great products isn’t enough to make you stand out from the crowd. Facebook users are only seeing, on average, 1-6% of your posts, and are inundated with information by every business from their dentist to their mechanic. Ads help your voice be heard in a crowd.
With ads, you can target specific users by their age, gender, lifestyle, or location but it doesn’t stop there. You can get extremely targeted on Facebook and Instagram, advertising to your current e-mail list, website visitors, fans of competitor pages or users with certain interests and purchasing behaviors.
This means that your posts will be reaching more of your current customers and new hot leads with increased chances that they will engage or come into the store.
4. Optimize on Mobile
Our computers have evolved to be tiny, powerful, and always on our hips. I’m talking about our smartphones, of course. The devices that we use to connect with others, play addicting games, research restaurants, and, yes, shop. Businesses that don’t think about mobile in their marketing strategy are doing themselves a serious disservice.
How do you optimize for mobile? Start with a responsive website. Responsive means that no matter the size of screen that someone views your content on, they can still easily navigate and get to the information they are looking for.
You can also become more mobile-friendly by allowing customers to redeem coupons by sharing them on their phones, or by creating a reward system that sends coupon codes via text.
If you’re looking to learn more strategies on how to increase exposure, traffic and sales using social media, video and mobile in 2016, visit socialedge.co to learn more about Social Edge, an online training website for retailers. Social Edge is the only resource you need when it comes to marketing your store on social media. RDI Diamonds pays for 25% of your yearlong membership, just use the coupon code RDIDiamonds to save.
Crystal Vilkaitis is the resident Social Media Expert at RDI Diamonds and owner of Crystal Media; a company dedicated to helping retailers integrate proven social media, mobile and e-mail marketing strategies into their businesses. Crystal started Social Edge, an online membership group exclusive to retailers looking to gain an edge over competition using social media, who need direct access to what’s important and relevant when it comes to marketing their store and products online. For more information and to receive free bi-weekly social media tips to your e-mail inbox, visit crystalmedia.co or socialedge.co.
