Social media isn’t going anywhere and will continue to evolve. What was once a place for friends to share with each other, is now a place for businesses to reach their target market. Thus, it’s important for businesses to hop on the bandwagon and also stay up to date with the latest trends.
Who’s on social media?
In America:
- 88% of 18-29 year olds
- 78% of 30-49 year olds
- 64% of 50-64 year olds
- 37% of 65 and over
Where are they?
Find more statistics at Statista
Social media strategies need to evolve as social media evolves.
Implications to add to a Social Media Strategy:
Storytelling
Content that lasts for 24 hours is becoming very important to the social media strategy in order to humanize the brand and increase engagement.
For example, Everlane used storytelling to promote their jacket in an ice cave. They encouraged everyone to tune into their Instagram Story to watch a group of millennials show that they’re still warm in the jacket.
This created a fun way for consumers to learn about the product and connect with the brand.
Brands should add storytelling to their social media strategy by creating content that engages the consumer and ensure they are watching the whole story. If not many people watch the whole story the content is not interesting enough.
Brands can humanize the brand through stories and build strong relationships with consumers. Storytelling is less curated and more engaging then regular feed post content because you can use face lenses, GIFs, draw on the content to make it more interesting and feel more human.
Influencers
Influencer Marketing is becoming a 10 Billion Dollar Industry and brands should use them in their social media strategy to increase reach and engagement.
Influencers are very knowledgeable of social media and content creation. They can do unboxing videos, Instagram Grid posts, create stories, and more. Influencers give positive reviews when collaborating with a brand to recommend the product to their followers. Their followers typically trust their reviews/recommendations.
However, there are big influencers that can be expensive for some brands, thus the use of micro-influencers who have less followers, but could have a higher engagement and more trusting followers.
The word typically above is bold because followers now know big influencers are getting paid to promote a brand and might not trust their review since they could just be giving nice reviews about a brand because they’re getting money for it.
On the other hand, micro-influencers might promote in exchange for free product that followers will trust more knowing they are probably promoting the brand because they genuinely like it.
Kim Kardashian is considered a big influencer, but her followers are starting to become less trusting in her reviews/recommendations. They know she is getting paid a lot of money to promote products. This gummy bear company, SugarBearHair, partners with Kim often for her high following, however, many followers are skeptical on if the gummy bears will actually help grow their hair. Her followers know her hair has extensions and is taken care of by hair stylists, thus no longer trusting what she has to recommend.
Transparency
Transparency builds trust with consumers by respecting their privacy. 94% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a transparent brand.
To add transparency to a social media strategy brands should admit any mistakes, be honest, share behind-the-scenes, let consumers know their values and practices, answer customer questions, and post often.
Customers will be drawn to the brand, become loyal and trusting, and become repeat customers.
Human Behavior and Technology
Technology has evolved to allow consumers to tell stories through social media. They can share videos and photos easily with their friends and add GIFs and draw on the content. Technology made story telling fun and gave brands the ability to come to life a little more. Human behavior impacted this because of consumer’s enjoyment of storytelling, giving brands a new way to reach them.
Human behavior has made consumers to turn to social media to get honest reviews or recommendations. Thus, the rise of Influencers, however, as discussed earlier, consumers have caught on to influencers getting paid and don’t trust big influencers anymore, bringing the rise of micro-influencers. Technology has given consumers a new platform to get reviews and recommendations.
Human Behavior has effected how users feel about online privacy. A brand should ensure they are transparent with consumers when it comes to how they are using their data. Consumers want to feel like their privacy is respected and brands are not using/storing any data they don’t need. Consumers are learning more about the effect technology has on their data and that it can now be stored and used to reach them.
Jill's Thoughts 