Social media is constantly changing due to new trends each year. The year 2018 is setting new social media trends to make businesses succeed with the inclusion of different platforms to reach different audiences. Keeping all your social media platforms up to date can be very difficult to do. Here are some tips to gain social media reach as well as incorporating the recent social media trends of 2018.
General points
- Tell a Story…
When posting on different platforms, there always needs to be a story being told about your company. If posting about an upcoming campaign, try telling a story behind it, so that it gains more interest and audience is engaged.
- Integrate Videos
Videos are getting more interaction and reach that it’s a good strategy to incorporate into your social media plan. On all platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are integrating live videos to reach your desired audience. As a result, posts are more likely to get clicked on if there is the use of a video or picture rather than just text content.
- Test social media ads
It’s the time to start to use social media ads, they boost your popularity on all platforms. As a result posting ads can get expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. The key is to drive your audience so that you are able to get favorable results.
Instagram is making it easier to gain followers and get exposure. With one of the newest updates, Instagram now allows you to ‘like’ comments on posts. Use this to your advantage and strategically comment on businesses that are similar to you. Therefore this will give exposure to other brands or businesses, and they will see what you post. Most of all when commenting make it genuine, so they know that you have their support.
Posting stories and live videos are vital, they can push your content to get more exposure. If your story gets enough exposure than it might be able to get featured in Instagram’s Explore section, imagine all the exposure you can gain from that!
Another cool update that came out is the ability to follow hashtags. This allows you to see who follows your hashtag as well as others have the visibility to see your hashtag. Take time to think of hashtags that are related to your business, and that will grab the attention of your audience.
Use Facebook as another platform to use live videos. I can’t express how important the use of videos are trending in 2018. Posts are more likely to get clicked on if there is the use of a video or picture rather than just text content.
Getting to connect with your audience is also another very important concept. With the use of Facebook Groups, you are able to connect more directly with your audience. As a result, more than 1.2 billion users are connected to Facebook Messenger. More than 2.5 billion people are using messaging platforms across the globe, use this to your advantage. Communication and reliability are key to make a community and connection with your audience.
Twitter again is another platform where posting live videos are important. When posting, it has the ability to be liked or favorited, meaning that it is getting more exposure. Take advantage of the 280 character update limit, it allows you to talk more about your content.
Another way to gain community is through Twitter chatting. This will grow your following and ability to interact with your audience. Furthermore, it will boost your impression and overall account stats. The more interaction that you have with your audience, the more likely you are to get more exposure and business towards your company.
The key to keeping up to date with all your platforms is to limit it, automate it, analyse it and time it out:
*Limit it, starting your social media and getting exposure and followers takes time, don’t start out doing every platform at once. Start slow to get a presence and then start to move to the next platform.
*Technology makes it a lot easier nowadays to automate when you want to create a post. You can create a post and set a date and time, as to when you want it posted. There may be a need to adjust the time you post depending on the engagement that you are receiving.
*Timeout how long you are going to spend on your social media platforms, it is very easy to get distracted. Social media presence is very important but should not be taking up your whole day.
Social media is changing constantly but staying on top of it will benefit your business tremendously. Remember don’t get frustrated and take it slow. Finding your audience takes time. Knowing the recent social media trends will help your business succeed.