In a field which demands strategic flexibility and an ever evolving expertise based on channel and vendor enhancements, social media strategy is proving to be more vital now than ever before. Consumer usage rates are spiking and brands have unprecedented access to a global captive audience for the first time ever; social marketing is no longer a luxury but a necessity in your marketing mix.
According to MarketWatch, Facebook has seen a +50% increase in messaging since COVID-19 emerged, with traffic to site skyrocketing +27% in one month. Even newcomers like TikTok have experienced a surge in usage rates, seeing an uptick in app traffic of 15.4% as of March 24, 2020.
These trends are not flukes; while ‘normalcy’ continues to evade us, brands cannot simply “wait out the storm.” Communities, advocates and consumers are clamoring for a distraction – and your brand can give them a much-needed break from the frenzy overtaking their feeds.
By leveraging a deeper social listening strategy, brands can begin to inform social content mixes with conversational trends surrounding contextually relevant topics. Not only will your engagement rates benefit, but your organic reach will increase due to enhanced searchability – in short, give your audience what they’re searching for on each platform.
Familiarize yourself with trending conversations daily, dive deeper into new and emerging cross-channel hashtags, and familiarize yourself with performance metrics to identify which content direction(s) resonate best with your audience given their “new normal.”
A technique Socialfly has implemented across the client roster is to go straight to the source; by utilizing native platform functionalities (e.g.: polling, open questions, slider scales, etc.), we’ve conducted micro-focus groups amongst our clients’ communities to identify the following month’s content direction. Not only has the content performed strongly but our audience now realizes the brand has genuine interest in supporting them at this time. The importance of authenticity and transparency still reigns true.
After effectively adjusting content strategies, you mustn’t “set it and forget it.” While this is poor practice regardless of the situation, social professionals cannot rely on last month’s metrics to inform next month’s content cadence. Focus on weekly performance with an emphasis on true engagement (e.g.: “Saves” metric on Instagram points to affinity, intent, etc.); you can begin to bucket pieces of content, helping to identify common themes in performance and leading to the refinement of your content cadence. During this time – quality over quantity is emphasized.
If you’re interested in discussing next steps to adjust and refine your social media strategy, we’re here to help. With multiple offerings developed to support any sized brand across their social ecosystem, specifically with COVID-19 in mind, we’re certain we can find a solution to optimize your channels and keep your brand top of mind. Reach out to get started at: [email protected]
