Until and unless you have a superpower to predict the future, there are very few things that you can do to excel in the social media field. 2020 has taught us to live in the moment and stop maintaining a long-term planner, as anything can change your future, and long-term plans can go in vain.
So instead, prefer to focus on short-term things that you can do in 2021. Learn from the past and prepare for the worst. Social media marketers have a lot of things to share, from social media tips and tricks to posting ideas and calendars. But before getting into all these things, check data and incorporate trends. So here we have curated five things that you should keep in mind while planning your short-term social media strategy for 2021.
The social media do’s and don’ts for 2021
1. Don’t forget, it’s quality over quantity
With ever-changing social media algorithms, you need to ditch the mentality of publishing high-volume content every day. Social algorithms today prioritize relevancy over quantity so that posts that have been sharing are worth it to get full engagement.
Stop publishing at a high frequency as it can be harmful to your page. Too many posts on a daily basis can spam your audience, and people will start unfollowing you. This will be a stressful situation for your social media team, and to curb this problem, you need to figure out what your audience really wants to see and how they will support you. Choose wisely and experience your growth.
Do this instead: What we will recommend you is to open your ears while creating content. Search for tools that can help you understand better. Focus on what your audience really cares about and develop a social media plan that directly addresses consumers’ needs and expectations. Identify what topics are at the top of your audience’s mind, and then plan your marketing campaigns.
2. Move over Tik Tok
Tik-Tok is gone from India, and let it be. Today Instagram is where trends are born, and things go viral. Whether it is ‘bajre da sitta’ or ‘aurora’s runaway,’ brands should be aware of the trends and never miss a chance to produce content based on that. Social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram are emerging on a daily basis, and your policies should be based accordingly. These platforms are waiting for you to come and entertain their audience.
Do this instead: If you are a brand that is not ready to develop content on all types of social media platforms, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the network and do nothing. Follow emerging cultural trends and generate creative social media ideas. You can also repurpose your videos and post the same creative on different platforms. Take inspiration from other brands and develop a social content strategy accordingly.
3. Don’t be afraid to take a stand
Being a brand, you should not feel suppressed to speak out on social and political issues. With 70% of consumers understanding the importance of brands taking a stand, it is crucial for business owners to express their views on current social and political situations. Once you start communicating your views, people with similar values will get connected to you, and in this way, you will gain an audience that will turn into your customer.
Consider the pros and cons of taking a stand. Staying silent on burning issues can hurt your brand values.
Do this instead: Don’t ever push back from taking a stand and speaking up. Bring the data to the table that shows why you are supporting a social cause, and your audience will understand. Research shows that 40% of consumers want to be a part of relevant non-profit organizations, and 27% want the CEOs to Express their views through statements. Thus, don’t refrain from expressing.
4. Don’t lump your content and campaign reports together
Tracking your social media content and performance altogether can save a lot of your time, but in reality, it may complicate the situation even more. While it is convenient to be able to see an overview of how your social media content is performing, it’s the granular details that can help you adjust and elevate your social strategy.
You just need to test certain aspects of your campaign and compare your posts with others, and if you still don’t have a timely process set up, you are making a big mistake. Create a general report that can overlook the specific details, and your social media content strategy will rise from good to great.
Do this instead: We can tell you about a long list but here, what you need to initially do is to organize and tag your content according to the campaigns you are running so that you understand how each of them is performing individually. For instance, If you manage an e-commerce brand, you need to create a hashtag specifically for customer services to track the grievances and improve the customer experience. Or, if you are organizing an event and want to promote that specifically, create an event that you can monitor with social listening tools.
5. Don’t keep your data to yourself
Working in social media departments can often make you feel like working in a silo. But every department has its charms. Every department can collaborate with social media and can use their data to develop their strategies. Through social media handles, you can get valuable customer insights and social data that teams across sales, customer service, business development, etc., can utilize and improve their respective disciplines.
If you don’t like sharing data outside of marketing, then this might hamper the growth of your business goals. We always recommend sharing social data to help leadership and support the rest of your team to develop a mind-blowing social strategy.
Do this instead: Proactively, you need to bridge the gap by sharing social reports and keep them informed of the campaigns you are about to run. This may highly demonstrate the impact of social media. Social media marketing is a collaborative game. People come up with a lot of ideas, and you can use them to create a plan. You can tell your sales teams about the pain points of your customers. You can explain what queries you are getting on social handles to the customer service department. Thus, you have to share information with others to grow.
While we have a few things to expect this year, 2020 has taught us a lot of things that we can try on social media and tell what works and what does not. From taking a stand to sharing social media engagement, the new year has brought a lot of opportunities that we should try in order to improve our strategies. Follow us for more such social media do’s and don’ts and other unique topics. Do let us know what you want to read next.
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