An entire discipline is dedicated to digital marketing on social media. 2020 cemented the crucial role of social media in advancing businesses into the era of profitability. While the economy was shaken, many businesses soldiered on, with newfound knowledge of social media and how SEO enhances the process.
Hootsuite’s 2021 report on social media trends reveal an avalanche of new information that can help digital marketers this year:
– Instagram leads in terms of marketing spend at 61%. Facebook (46%), YouTube (45%), and LinkedIn (45%) bagged the next three spots.
– 78% of marketers choose Facebook as the platform that resonated the most with their business goals, followed by Instagram (70%), LinkedIn (42%), and Twitter (33%).
– Marketers who don’t want to spend on ads tend to use Pinterest and Twitter more. These two channels are considered the most effective for generating organic interest.
– The three top goals are customer acquisition, driving brand awareness, and driving different conversions, like product inquiries, purchases, and leads.
While the year 2020 was a year of tribulation, brands also made plenty of realizations about marketing and the social media landscape:
– Enhancing the digital experience will lead to a more stable, long-term relationship with customers. As brands improve how they market and transact on the internet, customers gravitate and stay longer.
– Targeted marketing and advertising can help businesses attain short term goals.
– It is important to find where you are in the conversation. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many brands realized that they should be spending more on crisis response rather than advertising. Customers were focused on trying to rebuild their lives and not really connecting with brands.
– Baby boomers are beginning to embrace social media. The boomer generation is becoming increasingly dependent on the internet, and there has been a 66% increase in baby boomers discovering new products on the internet (specifically, on social media).
– The pandemic has made people more digitally savvy. Social media is accessible, so it’s not surprising that people are trying to get more out of social media than ever before.
– More social data and customer data integration are necessary to demystify the connection between the customer’s identity and social media engagement.
– Data gathered from social media can be used to solve problems and address the public. Social media data can make businesses more focused. There is certainly a shift in values as well – the idea of building a safer world for all has become commonplace in marketing.
– Advocacy isn’t a bad thing on social media. People want brands to stand for something and do not want brands to be insensitive about important issues. If brands like Ben and Jerry’s can be vocal on their Instagram account, other businesses can certainly harness their voice and networks the same way.
Your Social Media Blueprint
- Begin by identifying your target audience. Who is your ideal audience? Build a customer avatar and make sure that you include in the data where your ideal customers hang out on social media. Create accounts on those platforms and start being active on those accounts.
- Consistency and regularity are crucial for social media. Signing up for social media accounts would be of little help if you can’t post regularly. The bare minimum is once a week, and you have to thoroughly engage your audience, so they warm up to the brand. Unlike the internet of two decades ago, social media also requires consistent engagement and dialogue with people who follow your accounts.
- Putting your business on Google My Business is essential. Our effective management services for GMB help businesses by amplifying their visibility on Google and their entire online presence. The proper management of GMB can increase your leads and skyrocket conversions with due diligence. Many small businesses suffer from a lack of online engagement. The remedy, of course, is GMB. In the process of building your presence, you can also begin improving your online reputation. Claim your crown in local rankings and outdo your competition – even those who have been online longer. Businesses that serve local markets need to be on GMB. Your business needs to show up on the map. Geo-specific SEO and social media marketing are unbeatable tools in maintaining a leading position in your city or town.
If your business doesn’t have a strong need for local marketing, GMB will continue to enhance your online presence by allowing you to feature promotions, events, and product collections. In short, GMB will be the foundation of your social media presence, and it is a great place to start indeed.
- Do backlinks matter in SEO? Yes, they do. While Google has certainly evolved in terms of how it scores backlinks, these remain crucial in site optimization. Social media posts bearing links to your site can enhance your SEO. However, how regularly can you post, and what will be your overall strategy for engaging customers on social media?
LinkedIn offers a big boost to SEO as it can feature up to three links in the section where contact details go. LinkedIn page posts and personal posts (including articles) help your SEO even more. Be sure to add all relevant links to your social media profiles.
SEO and Social Media
The goals of SEO and social media aren’t that different. Both help surface your site and brand in search results. Both also work hand in hand to increase brand engagement and keep your brand at the top of people’s minds.
While the connection isn’t immediately apparent to many beginning digital marketers, SEO ensures that people can find your site and pages to connect or follow you on social media. It’s like a never-ending process of building bridges just so your customers can reach you faster. And as you master this new landscape, you can begin maximizing positive interactions on different accounts to maximize your social media reach.
