TRENDSPOTTING, Tactic and Talking

...lots of talking

Get ready for a big and juicy post that is all for you if you are looking for some social media direction! We've been talking trends all February with clients and at public events, so it's about time we shared the highlights right here with you.

Dig in, ask questions and be sure to spend some time indulging in our brilliant Digital Ready coach panel where we delved super deep into digital marketing for 2018.

We all know there have been massive changes to social media algorithms, processes and requirements. How are we supposed to get ahead without losing our heads and submerging ourselves in overwhelm?!

We've delved into the trends and done the research into what's going to help us with our marketing efforts. Concentrating on Instagram and Facebook, because - well, that's where the majority of the Dandy folk are hanging out and finding value - we hope you find this post will help define your goals, maintain your focus and lighten up those notifications.

Let's take a look:

Big Picture Themes for Social Media  

Topics

you can't ignore

1. Video! Get onto it - it's just going to keep growing.
2. Organic Content for Businesses is hitting 0% reach, so planning and strategy is GOLD.
3. Live Streaming
4. Create better connections with your customers 
5. Honesty - get real with your audience and have proper conversations.  Add genuine value and provide quality over quantity.
6. Email marketing - remember, you rent space on social platforms. Email addresses allow you to speak directly to customers. Don't ignore the importance here. 
7. Collaborate - partner with like minded businesses and hustle together!

INSTAGRAM

• Instagram Stories are where it's at. They are the new norm, and with over 300 million active daily users there are plenty of opportunities to grab the attention of people who could translate into collaborators, colleagues, customers and clients. NOTE: The first 3 seconds are crucial, so grab them with a truth bomb or something of instant value. Instagram stories highlights mean there is greater focus on your profile and opportunities to drive traffic (those who use Shopify will benefit with the new partnership between the two platforms), key points to doing this will be tagging yourself, products and their location (whether physical or online)
• Curate your content, use Instagram archive to hide old posts to better manage and craft your brand aesthetic, consistency is key. While I'm not a massive fan of an overly curated feed, at least try and consider the look so that your style of post is easily recognisable HINT: Get yourself in some photos if you are part of the brand. 
• Use Linkin.bio or Bit.ly to create links from your profile to website, these will be useful for publishers, bloggers and anyone driving traffic to specific pages, your profile is your new business card, make sure it's easy to understand who you are and what you do.
• This year also sees a big shift in content management and permissions to use and share content (visual or otherwise) of other users whether brands, products and services or UGC (user generated content). 
• Micro and macro influencers are continuing to reign supreme, however research shows that we're more inclined to levitate towards the words of someone we can relate to, and this has been identified as people who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, after that they're considered to be a 'celebrity' and therefore likely to be doing endorsements for money. If you're planning to work with an influencer, make sure you have clear goals and expected outcomes, and align yourself with someone who compliments your brand and vision, don't just choose someone because they have a lot of followers. 
• Set your targets and measure, measure, measure! Get into the habit of looking at your Insights (only available to Business Profiles) Some common performance metrics you can use are: engagement rate (likes, comments, shares), brand sentiment (how people are talking about your brand), foot traffic (customers visiting your physical store), website traffic (customers clicking through to your website), sales (conversions and generated revenue)

FACEBOOK

• Invest in advertising. If you are serious about growing your business, stop using Facebook like a blog.
• Invest in photography and great video. Upskill yourself and use the amazing (often free) tools we now have at our fingertips. (Let me know if you need any good leads)
• Know your audience! Nothing new here but please be sure to check your Insights and be clear about who your page is attracting.
• Live streaming will be rewarded but only if it adds genuine value to your audience. Fundamentally, if there isn't a good reason to go live, don't. No one likes to have their time wasted. 
• Always keep your content moving, interesting and engaging, plan for failures or glitches and roll with them, done is better than perfect.
• Include a CTA (call to action) asking people to join your email marketing database, your Facebook group, your event...

And, the most important thing to remember, is to be yourself, all the time. Because that's what people are buying.

LIVE VIDEO? YES PLEASE! 

We used Facebook Live to record our Digital Ready coaches panel this month. This not only added value to our content offering but can be repurposed and broken down into chunks for lots more content development. And it was free! So grab yourself a tripod, a good wifi connection and hit record!

Our third Social Exchange Session with Digital Ready was held this month in Hobart. We talked trends with Ionata Digital, Polly McGee, Kingthing Marketing and CAPTAIN + CO. Enjoy!