The year 2013 is almost upon us, and if you haven’t already been seriously assessing your social media strategies, now is the time. Social media is constantly evolving, and 2013 is going to show that consumers are increasingly dependent on social media to make their purchase decisions. In order to capitalize on these shifts, you need to come up with some social media strategies that will help your business keep up with a stronger Internet culture. Here are some tips that will help you improve your social media marketing efforts this upcoming year.
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Enhance Employee Education
The importance of social media is going to span across an entire business, and it’s no longer restricted to the marketing department. It’s so important for everyone to understand social media, so one of your main strategies should be educating your employees. Formal training on social media techniques, policies, etc. will be beneficial for almost all employees, regardless of their primary job descriptions. Invest in more company-wide employee education.
Find Your Niche
Social networks are becoming increasingly narrow in focus. While general networks like Facebook and Twitter still reign supreme, niche social networks are going to be sprouting up more and more and also becoming more and more important. Part of your social media strategy for 2013 should include seeking out networks and sites that are specific to your niche and becoming active in them. Niche networks will only increase in popularity, and they’ll become more effective as a marketing strategy that reaches your specific target audience.
Integrate Your App
In 2013, apps will be increasingly important as a business and marketing tool. If you can design an app for your business, or if you already have, now is the time to popularize it by integrating it with social media. Automatic posting to Facebook or Twitter, for example, is great. Cross-promotion of your app content and your social media content is also great. Also, people want to download apps that have lots of downloads and high ratings/recommendations. Make an effort to increase the functionality of your app and encourage people to review it online.
Boost Your Visuals
Photos are the number-one shared type of content on social media, so now is the time to begin increasing the visuals you offer to consumers. Photos should become a larger share of the content you post online, and you should increase your utilization of sites like Pinterest and Instagram. Strong visual branding is also important, so capitalize on the opportunities you have to improve brand recognition via photos and images on social media networks.
Become More Relatable
As people more commonly interact with businesses online, they’re looking for more personal connections. It’s a good idea to start dropping the corporate speak and popular marketing language that consumers will recognize as purely promotional. Make more of an effort to connect with consumers on a personal, individual level. For example, individual employees should be visible on social networks, so that consumers know exactly who is talking to them.
What social media strategies are you going to use in 2013?
on
This is a great post Cecillia, it has actually taught me a thing or two that I usually used to take for-granted.
on
Agree with markt. Educating the employees of the company keeps the company moving forward towards the vision of the company. The knowledge base of the company depends on the knowledge of the employees starting from the head to the first line employees. As internet marketing field is an ever changing/growing one, its important that they have to keep them with the phase of the change/growth.
on
Thanks for the list.
I like the personal idea. That’s why I include some slices of my daily life on my blog — it’s important for your readers to know who you are and what your like. Your posts may be godly, but are you?
on
Excellent post! Social media marketing is an area that I’ve struggled with as it goes against my natural inclinations. Everything seems to move so quickly that I feel overwhelmed so I tend to avoid social media. I know that’s a mistake, though, and I mean to improve in that area for 2013. The two points mentioned that I plan on using the most are the visual elements and finding more niche specific sites.
on
The end of the year should also indicate an opportunity to assess how your social media strategies in 2012 have spelled out. Did it work? What have we done? What have we not done? What new things in 2013 could we try out?
on
I think that educating employees, for big and small companies alike, can yield great results.
I see so much opportunity lost for most small-mid sized companies, opportunity to gain business or reputation just by teaching their employees how to differently word the things they tweet/ post to Facebook/ Instagram or any other social network.
Thanks for the list, I agree with it all, just find that companies have to benefit the most from educating employees on social media interaciton :).
on
Integrating an app is something that I find to be appealing. I am not a programmer but based on what I have learnt, it seems that apps can be created without having to become a programmer.
I believe that being relatable is one of the elements that could lead an audience to know, like an trust a business. However, I think that it can require some effort to be able to share personal information on a social network.