As we embark on another year in business, it’s important to take stock of pertinent changes in the social media atmosphere as you develop your brand’s social media marketing strategy.
Here are four social media trends coming into the new year that you will want to keep in mind:
- Long-Form Content is In
Usually referring to written content, long-form content is being utilized by brands in conjunction with social media in higher levels than ever before! By pairing snackable content (content that can be consumed in short doses) such as social media posts and stories, with links to long-form content on blogs or through email blasts, brands are reaching users in a variety of new ways that have a greater impact by increasing impressions and leveraging multiple channels of engagement.
2. Less “Salesy” Product Placements
While brands have been using influencers to promote their products for quite some time, there is an increasing trend for these partnerships to take on a product placement form that is less “salesy.” People are tired of seeing product after product advertised! Gone are the days where a user might get behind the camera and record a video specifically reviewing a certain product and showing you how they use it. Instead, an influencer might use a product in a video and comment on how much they like it, but not verbalize the product or brand’s name. How does this generate sales for the brand? Well, for one the creator can tag the brand’s product in the shop catalog, so the product is there, but it’s subtle. Another way is that when users inevitably comment and ask “what was that lip gloss you were using?” The creator then tags the brand and mentions the product by name. The creator can also then pin this comment to the post so that it is the first thing users see. This is a sneaky way of advertising for the brand, without turning viewers off to another “sales post.” It may seem like these posts aren’t advertising, but actually a lot of thought has gone into analyzing the psychology of the social media user and how best to display the product without “bothering” the viewer.
3. Varying Your Content Mix is Key
As a business you want to ensure you’re varying your content “mix” to include a variety of content from reels, carousel posts, single image posts, etc. a recent trend by users on Instagram as been to “photo dump” or include several photos from a period of time. Brands can get in on this trend by sharing “behind-the-scenes” content comprised of photos taken during a recent project timeline, new product development process, or office party.
4. Gated Content
What is gated content? Essentially, it’s content that requires an additional step of inclusion to view or is made available to a smaller subset of the public. For instance, your favorite author might release a new chapter of a book to her email subscribers 24 hours early before posting it to her public social media feeds the next day. The email subscribers have passed through an additional “gate” to get the content. This serves the brand by expanding their subscriber base and also increases the chance of engagement with their content. The idea here is that gated content is “exclusive” and thus more highly-sought after because users who gain access to it are part of an “in” group. Brands can leverage gated content on social media by promoting early access to sale if users are email subscribers, adding certain creators to their close friends list on Instagram so that some stories are only available to select users, and providing early access to links and discounts if you are a social media follower or in a Facebook group.
Not sure you’re ready to navigate the social media world by yourself? Email us at hello@oliverandco.social! We’ll be more than happy to help consult with you on your page and talk about what these trends might look like for both your personal profile and your business’s social media across all platforms.
Oliver and Co. Social 