No one was expected to know what to do or say on their social media channels, but that was okay. We all entered unchartered territory. Some companies made mistakes, others found new opportunities. What social media strategy we know now is going to be most valuable moving forward.
There is a newfound appreciation for the digital transformation and social media has definitely seen the effects of it. What you must remember about organic social media is that its purpose is for increasing brand awareness. Of course, you’ll see leads and quicker results when you start investing some money into your strategy, but like all great relationships, they develop over time.
The many lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic inevitably impacted the way we all use social media. Therefore, we need to change the way we use social media for business. Here are three ways you can use social media differently and optimize your strategy to thrive in a post-COVID world.
- People are looking to create connections. Our social bubbles experienced a major cut and as hard as it was, people went months without a meaningful in-person connection. This led to more frequent social media users taking advantage of certain platforms to stay connected. Users took one of two approaches to social media, join the conversation and show what real-life looked like, or endlessly scroll through content with nothing exciting to post about. This made social media rawer, and even for B2B brands. Consumers and prospects are placing more emphasis on authentic content, making it feel like there is a real connection between them and the brand is what will create more loyal customers. Stop posting about your product and share your story, why you do what you do. This is the content people are looking to connect with.
- Personalized content. People want to be seen, not filter through all the clutter online to get what they want. This expands beyond organic social media and should be considered in all aspects of your marketing strategies. At the end of the day, even a B2B marketer is speaking to another human being. Social media is informal so write as if you were speaking to a prospect in person, it will build that relationship faster. People know what they want, when they open social media, ads are the last thing they want to scroll through. When you speak directly to your audience by targeting your content, then it makes your content worthy and relatable.
- Informative entertainment. During the pandemic, social media wasn’t just another form of entertainment, it became a source for information and news. Rather than reinvent the old, create a new purpose and appeal to new expectations. Sharing industry insights is a great way to educate your audience while also highlighting your experience. Sometimes the best way to promote your business is by promoting what you know. You shouldn’t build your organic social media content expecting to gain leads, create content with the hope of building new relationships.
The social media landscape is rapidly changing. Marketers have produced so much content adding to the noise, therefore, brands need a strong platform to stand out. Luckily for B2B brands, social media followings tend to be smaller in size but greater in quality, this means that relationship-building can be done easier, but it still takes a lot of work. It’s up to us as social media marketers to adapt to the changes in the market.
The first step to optimizing your social media marketing strategy is to audit and analyze our existing content and strategy. Look for areas where you succeeded and where your content and strategy failed you. People made mistakes during the pandemic, but sometimes that is the better way to learn.
Contact us today to help you build your social media strategy, from audit to execution, and thrive in a post-COVID world. We are here to help and can’t wait to work with you to develop your social media marketing strategy.
By Jessica Steward, Communication Coordinator at Magnolia Communications – a B2B demand generation full-service marketing agency headquartered in Vancouver, BC. We focus on engaging, nurturing and converting leads with PR programs, paid social ads, email marketing, and marketing technology implementation.