Over the past year, social media leaders have dealt with a lot of controversial matters such as the global pandemic (Coronavirus), the controversial US elections, and many natural disasters. Because people are now forced to sit most of their time at home, they spend more time on social media. It’s what makes social media leaders do their best to always stay in touch with their web audiences. And many of them have changed their marketing strategy to suit the current situation.
Although 2020 is one of the years we want to forget, it has been an opportunity for many brands to grow across the web even if it is done in a stressful manner at times. We also came out with several lessons learned in terms of electronic marketing strategies.
Successful marketing strategies will social media leaders use in 2021
1. Listen
Lindsay Bruce- marketing manager of SMB at Twitter – emphasized that listening is an important tool that should be used in 2021. Marketing through social media means working in a fast environment, but sometimes it is necessary to slow down to look around and see what is happening.
“It’s always a good idea to read what you’re writing before posting it to social media. Before every tweet, you should look at today’s trending events, popular headlines, search for competing brands, and see if they are interacting with their audience today or not.” Lindsay said.
2. Social media leaders say “Risk but cautiously!”
Austin Brown, social media manager at the University of Colorado College of Engineering and Applied Science, says, “The year 2020 proved that social media leaders and distinguished marketing experts are the ones who can think quickly and make the decision to risk and cautiously following it. Whether that is by stopping writing specific content in times of crisis or a change of direction in your work to another specialized field. That means that trusting your intuition in order to protect or strengthen your brand is invaluable and requires sufficient courage.
You should also critically review what you will present on the web to make sure your audiences understand the style, personality, and message of your brand the way you want it to.
3. Take care of your community
One of the most important features of social media is its ability to combine your brand and your audience to form a single community. This is in order to listen to each other and take care of their needs. Brianna Foster, the social media manager at Pinterest, says – “The year 2020 made me and my fellow social media leaders really focus on managing our communities across the web.”
This year has proven to us that the strategy of listening to your audience and monitoring their trends and movements toward your brand is more important than any other strategy. when Listening to them you will know very well how you can serve them better.
4. Take action on what is happening around you
(2020) was a strong arena for many brands to take a clear and candid position on the social issues of their communities.
Jayde Powell, head of social and community at Sunwink says “Digital marketing based on clear values is one of the most important lessons we learned from 2020. Using your social media platform to talk about issues of social injustice, marginalized communities, or raising the voice of vulnerable people is crucial to your brand. This is the future of social media marketing, and if you don’t, your audience will go to another brand.”
5. Interactivity isn’t just your brand
You can definitely promote your services and products on your social media profile. But watch out, your audience will get bored with your posts if they are all just about your brand.
Pat Timmons, the social media associate at Drift, said that Your audience not only wants to hear from you about your brand news and developments, but they want to feel your participation in their problem and their notable events.
6. Let your brand speak from its heart ” Advice from social media leaders “
2020 was an explosion of emotions for many, and it underscored the importance of empathy for our audiences. As for the brand, you can empathize with your audience by sharing their difficult times and the crises they are going through.
Brianne Fleming, a marketing instructor at the University of Florida says that empathy is one of the most important things to keep in mind while planning your e-marketing in 2021.
He also emphasized that empathy is the true essence that we learned in the year 2020. Despite the great development in social media, the public still responds better when sympathizing with him and speaking to him from the heart.
7. Idealism is not required
It might be a good idea to have a regular presence on social media, but will this be effective enough for your brand? It takes significant time and money that can be spent on higher-quality, more impactful content to get stronger results from your audience.
Christina Garnett, the senior insights strategist at VIZIT, shared with her fellow social media leaders some tips on brands and how to improve their online business. She said that social communication is’nt done through permanent presence on social networking sites. but through distinctive content that your audience feels that you understand.
8. Don’t neglect yourself
With audiences using social media more than any other year, many digital marketing experts feel that 2020 is one of the most stressful years. They didn’t take a rest from last March. Others feel a real crash!
For this reason, it is imperative to take care of self-rest and take breaks as needed. Jenn Crim, the acquisition marketing manager for social media at Opry Entertainment Group says that all social media leaders should know when they need to rest and turn off their laptop and phone. You definitely can’t give the best when being tired or not at your best.
