Category "Social Media Marketing"

For years, consumers have had the option of buying in stores, online, via mobile apps or (in some rare cases) mail-order catalog. Meanwhile at my house, we’re excitedly looking forward to the Zingerman’s Mail Order summer sale and our annual order of Ortiz tuna by the case. https://t.co/sJCHshzPqa
— meredith kahn (@m_kahn) June 14, 2021 The latest option in the mix? Social commerce.
Numbers show 43% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials have purchased products or services directly from social media platforms. This is big for brands vying for the attention of younger consumers. And they’re taking heed: Research conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of Sprout Social found that 73% of businesses are currently selling on social media platforms, and another 79% plan to within the next three years.
How are they doing it? By turning social posts into shoppable content. Doing so shortens the sales funnel and converts customers right when they’re inspired to make a purchase.
Let’s explore this more.
What is shoppable content?
Shoppable content is a digital asset, such as a social media post, image, video or ad, that consumers can click through to make a purchase.
There are instances where the customer has to complete their checkout process on the brand’s website, but some shoppable content enables transactions all in one place. Shoppable content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok that lets users buy without leaving the app is the backbone of social commerce.
Benefits of shoppable content
The shift away from physical stores to social shopping was always coming. But thanks to the pandemic, it accelerated by roughly five years. In the US, the volume of social commerce sales is expected to reach over $100 million by 2023.
This is a grand opportunity for brands to capitalize on these emerging trends. But be careful: Millennials and Gen Z only want to buy from brands that are authentic and transparent.
As you would with your campaigns, website or physical locations, be sure your shoppable content demonstrates your brand’s values and humanity. If you can create content that connects with your audience, it will become easier to attract and convert them.
Integrating shoppable content into your digital marketing strategy can yield numerous benefits:
Shorter sales funnel
With shoppable videos, social posts and ads, you help buyers get what they want when they want it. No hiccups or delays to extend the sales funnel.
Better customer experience
Millennials and Gen Z already use social media to search for products. So why not meet them where they are?By creating content that is not only discoverable, but shoppable, you minimize the disruptions that lead to an abandoned shopping cart. In other words, an enhanced customer experience.
Increased brand loyalty
The best way to build trust and loyalty today? Storytelling.
Shoppable content is an opportunity to showcase real stories about real people who’ve used your product. The goal is to show off your product’s value while educating potential customers.
Improved conversion rates
Being in the right place at the right time is what marketing and advertising are all about. With targeted and personalized shoppable ads, you can increase the odds of a conversion.
But how do you make the most of your shoppable content campaigns? There are three key techniques brands can use to get better ROI: Hyper-targeting by partnering with small, but niche, influencers
Investing in engaging shoppable content (e.g., Stories vs. static ads)
Choosing affordable items to showcase Tommy Hilfiger and a few others are capitalizing on live streaming shopping events (especially since the pandemic). The brand partnered with celebrities and social influencers, including model Elias Riadi. During the event, viewers could add items to their carts for checkout after.
Walmart has gone all-in with live shopping events, hosted on their Walmart Live platform, YouTube channel and TikTok account. The retail giant regularly partners with influencers and celebrities to showcase new product lines and seasonal favorites. The takeaway: Team up with relevant influencers, host a live event and make the checkout process seamless to maximize ROI.
Better competitive data (especially if you’re using a tool like Sprout Social)
The best way to start building shoppable content is to study what works. You do this by analyzing your past campaigns, along with those of your competitors. With Social Sprout, you can identify what posts, hashtags and topics resonate with your audience (based on historical performance).
This performance data, combined with social listening insights, can give you the context needed to build higher-converting social commerce campaigns.
The 4 main types of shoppable media
It’s time to build a shoppable media campaign. Which formats are the best to use?
As with most things in marketing, it depends.Who’s your target customer? What are you selling and in what industry? For example, a video may be better if you’re looking to entertain (while subtly showcasing products). And an Instagram carousel post is ideal if you want to make a collection of outfits or accessories front and center.
There are four common types of shoppable media. Consider testing a mix of each to see what resonates with your audience.
1. Shoppable social posts
You can publish shoppable posts on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest. It’s an excellent way to offer a product without disrupting their browsing session.
These posts contain shoppable images, similar to a product catalog—except clickable and immediately obtainable.
But the question is: Do they work? Simple answer…yes. Already today, at least one in four consumers uses social media to purchase products or services. More than half (54%) of Facebook IQ survey respondents said they bought items in the moment or sometime after seeing a product or service on Instagram.
2. Shoppable video
Video is one of the top ways we consume online information. And marketers rank video as the most valuable content type for meeting their goals on social media. So why not turn your video posts into an immersive shopping event?
A recent report found that 84% of people have been convinced to buy a product after watching a brand video.
So imagine the conversion rate if you made it possible for viewers to buy right away. But what makes a good shoppable video? Here are two tips to help you get started:
Tip 1: Tell a story
People don’t watch long-form videos unless they’re relevant and timely. Consumers need context before they’ll invest any amount of time. This is where storytelling comes in handy. You should be able to tell a complete story within 10 minutes. If you can’t, consider breaking it up into a series.
Tip 2: Keep it short and sweet
If you have too much going on, viewers will lose interest quickly—69% prefer to watch a short video. So keep it simple. Focus on a single topic and break up your message using multiple calls to action throughout the video.
If you haven’t seen one, here’s an example of a YouTube video from Milk Makeup. With more people consuming video content daily, it’s no surprise more businesses are investing in production. Especially when people are twice as likely to share videos with their family and friends than other forms of content.
With 40% of marketers already using shoppable video ads, now is the perfect time to build out your video strategy.
3. Shoppable UGC
What’s the key to gaining your audience’s trust? Earning social proof. This can be in the form of reviews, or in this case, an influencer’s post. We’re not talking large-scale influencers—anyone with a following (or visibility) can influence another user’s purchase.
In fact, consumers say user-generated posts are 76% more trustworthy than branded ads.
This is what makes social media the powerhouse it is today. Users jump on their platform of choice and read posts and comments from others. Some inspire and others promote action. And the most powerful for brands is shoppable user-generated content.
There are two ways to use user-generated content for social commerce: Team up with an influencer to create a shoppable post to share with their followers.
Feature shoppable UGC gathered from customers, showcasing them on your own social feeds, website homepage and product pages. User-generated content provides social proof and adds visual inspiration to promote sales. Here’s an example of how Grove Collaborative elevates a user-generated photo with product information and real customer reviews: 4. Shoppable ads
Afraid consumers are turning a blind eye to your ads? You should be, especially with more users adopting ad blockers. But there’s a better way to advertise: Shoppable ads.
These can be a mix of video and images to gain attention and even entice buyers. That’s because they resemble content on their social media feed. And like a shoppable post, consumers can make a purchase directly through the ad.
There are several types of shoppable ads: Video: A 30-second clip where shoppers can click “buy now”
Image: An image that links out to your website
Text: Text overlaid over an image or video
Interactive scrollables: Allows users to engage by scrolling through the ad and finding products
Interactive grids: Similar to interactive scrolls but allows users to engage with each grid/gallery cell individually These are just some of the ways you can design your ads. Get creative and test variations to see which works the best for your brand and audience.
Shoppable content examples from top brands
Shoppable content works for businesses of all sizes. Here’s a look at several real-world examples to inspire your next campaign.
Barbour increased sales 42% using shoppable Instagram posts
Barbour proved you don’t have to be a newcomer to make a splash on social media. The 125-year-old manufacturer started out selling outerwear for fishermen but now sells apparel for everyone (land and sea).
The brand used Instagram to connect with its audience and later decided to use shoppable Instagram posts to help customers find items to buy. It cut down the customer journey tremendously and increased their traffic by nearly 100% and sales by 42%.
Jane ramped up social sales 80% amid the pandemic
COVID-19 stopped consumers from visiting stores, but it couldn’t stop them from shopping online. And it panned out well for Jane, a boutique fashion shop for women and children.
Their marketing team used a mix of: Shoppable product collections featuring limited-edition products with exclusive price drops for IG followers (this turned into a weekly promotion after gaining popularity)
Instagram Live Shopping events showcasing a selection of items (with pins on the items during the livestream for viewers to add to their bag)
Stories providing informative guides on how to checkout using IG (these were turned into Highlights featured at the top of their profile) Using these methods, Jane saw $419,762 in incremental sales and more than 680,618 new visitors between July 2020 and April 2021.
Aerie used YouTube video ads to drive 25% ROI
YouTube is no longer just a social media platform. It’s now one of several sales channels brands can use to promote their products. One way they’re achieving this is by using interactive video ads (with shopping features). Aerie, the apparel retail giant, is one of them.
The company wanted to simultaneously build brand love and omnichannel apparel sales for a Spring 2020 campaign, and decided YouTube would be the perfect platform to do it. The brand used YouTube video ads to connect with potential shoppers and showcase their latest products. The campaign resulted in: Increased brand engagement
25% ROI on ad spend
9x more conversions from the past year What makes this setup genius is that many users switch between YouTube and search to find information that influences their purchase. So by using YouTube shoppable ads, your customer’s path to purchase is more transparent (thanks to the father-child relationship between Google and YouTube).
Shoppable content is the foundation of your social commerce empire
It’s not too late to adopt social commerce into your digital marketing (and sales) strategy. In fact, YouTube is a newcomer, releasing its own version of shoppable video ads in 2020. And platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram are continuously evolving their e-commerce features.
Social shopping is still fresh, which means there’s plenty of room to stake your claim.
Just make sure you have the right tools in place. Thanks to our integrations with Shopify and Facebook Shops, Sprout helps brands seamlessly publish, track and manage shoppable content, so you can draw a direct line between social and your bottom line.
Ready to make shoppable content a core component of your social strategy? Sign up for a free, 30-day trial today. Source link

If you work in social media, you already know that your role is often misunderstood. Those on the outside looking in may assume social marketers have a fun, stress-free, entry-level role. But that’s simply not true. With the goal of highlighting the realities of working in marketing, Social Media Tea provides an outlet where social media and digital marketing professionals anonymously spill their secrets, their frustrations, and their experiences. What started on Instagram as a cathartic side project quickly turned into a multichannel social community with thousands of followers.
Sprout’s Senior Manager of Social Media, Rachael Samuels sat down with the brains behind @SippinSocialTea, Alexa Heinrich and Austin Braun, to find out what they’ve learned from running such a hot social account. Rachael Samuels: Hello everybody. I am Rachael Samuels. I’m the Senior Manager of Social Media at Sprout Social. I am joined here today by Alexa Heinrich (pronouns she, her) and Austin Braun (pronouns he, him). I’m honestly so struck to meet these two today because they’re both part of our Sprout community, I know them actually way better by their handles @HashtagHeyAlexa, @AustinOnSocial—but that’s social media for you.
We have them here because they run this awesome social media account called Social Media Tea so I’ll just let you both introduce yourselves real quick, and then we can just roll in. I have a bunch of questions to ask you today, since we’re all very meta in the social media world and I feel like we’ve got a lot to talk about so Alexa, I’ll sling it over to you.
Alexa Heinrich: Thanks for having us here today, first off, it’s great to see you, Rachael. I’m Alexa, feel free to call me Alex so your Amazon devices don’t go off. I am the social media manager for St. Petersburg College in sunny, Florida, but I’m originally from Chicago, which is where Austin is now.
Austin Braun: That’s right. Hello everyone. My name is Austin Braun. I just moved from Boulder, CO, to Chicago, and I’m soft transitioning on my role as a digital media strategist at the University of Colorado, Boulder College of Engineering to pursue my startup, which is based out here in Chicago. I’ve just moved here and I’m excited to be here.
Rachael Samuels: So excited. I didn’t share where I am, but I’m coming to you from Haverhill, MA. So remote life. Austin, Alexa, I’ve got a lot of questions, but let’s start with, how did the two of you meet? And what is Social Media Tea? What inspired you to create it?
Alexa Heinrich: In true pandemic form, Austin and I have never met in person. We know each other through the higher education social media community, which is vast online, so we kind of know each other through there. I started Social Media Tea by myself last June, and then Austin went and tried to spoil my fun. If you want to tell her about that.
Austin Braun: So I was seeing the Social Media Tea account pop up here and there, it was gaining some traction and something just clicked. I don’t know if it was intuition or just luck or a bit of both. And I was like, “I know that tone and voice from Alexa’s social media, that’s her” and back then it was of course still anonymous. So I slid into those DMs and I was like “Okay, Alexa, is this you? You have to tell me.” Lo and behold, it was.
Alexa Heinrich: Seven days, I lasted seven days anonymous.
Austin Braun: I was like “There’s no way it’s not her” because she speaks in that specific tone that we’ve all come to analyze in our role and [on] social media, we can pick up nuances here and there. I was like “Bingo” that’s Alexa, right there. Rachael Samuels: That is so funny. I’ll be honest. I noticed the account as soon as it popped up. Being a social media manager who markets to other social media managers all the time (as Sprout Social is a social media management tool), I follow a lot of social media communities, social media marketing Twitter, Facebook, all of it. And I was seeing this account everywhere. And I too had a hunch that it was Alexa. So when the account was revealed, I was actually really just proud of myself that I was like, “Oh man, I know my community so well!” I had a totally selfish, proud of myself moment.
Alexa Heinrich: It’s funny because Alicia also suspected it was me and I told her because she and I are good friends. There were people that knew, but I didn’t last very long.
Rachael Samuels: For anyone who doesn’t know, Alicia Johnston is our Director of Content so it makes sense that she’s also in that community.
So I guess I will say that account has blown up. I know you two have been working on it and changing things, you’ve learned a lot along the way. So as the account has grown so much, I still see it all the time, what have you learned with that rapid growth? What have you learned about the community? What has that rapid growth been like for both of you?
Alexa Heinrich: It was staggering in the beginning just because the higher education community found the account and it started to gain traction as people were sharing it to that large community. And I was like, “Oh gosh, they’re going to figure out it’s me.”
Then Matt Navara found it and shared it to his thousands of followers. There was a day I had to turn off my notifications because my phone was overheating from how many people we gained in a single day. I’m pretty sure Austin was the one who went in and actually turned off the notifications because they were just nonstop. I would open my phone and it was just all Instagram notifications.
But I think just learning how to balance that project with what we do for our nine-to-five job has been a real learning curve and balancing all the communities that are involved with Social Media Tea, because it’s not just social media people. There are digital marketers from every spectrum.
Austin Braun: Echoing all that she said, the bigger question is “What haven’t we learned?”
You know, we learned the workflow, we learned what things work and what don’t in the beginning. But then we also really learned, or at least for me personally, I realized that the community at large is so passionate about the work that they do online and the impact that they’re always trying to push for and achieve. That’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience to just see that in action and know that there are other people out there who care and want to do good and connect with others in their community. Alexa Heinrich: Definitely. And also I want to praise Austin for the fact that he puts up with my chaos, but also he makes sure that there’s alt text on every single post that goes out, because he’s in charge of scheduling Twitter, so point of pride for me that he’s so good about it.
Austin Braun: I’ve learned so much about the alt text side and accessibility side through Alexa and that has paid its dividends far and wide. I would highly recommend if anyone’s looking to better their social media game, follow Alexa, take her pro tips and put them into play because it’ll return really well.
Rachael Samuels: Alexa is the accessibility queen and I praise her daily for all of her contributions to our community.
So I want to unpack this a little bit. So you experience this rapid growth, you also have other jobs. You touched on this a little bit, Alexa, but how do you manage it all?
And if you have one tip for knowing your own worth, reducing stress or adding bandwidth, what would that one tip be?
Alexa Heinrich: When we started out, I was just getting confessions left and right because it was this novelty. There wasn’t an account that really existed like this, specifically for social media. So I was making the posts willy nilly, posting them whenever.
Then after I brought Austin on to help me manage all this, because I thought, “Well I want to do Twitter eventually. We’ll probably do Facebook eventually, just cover the big three.” We decided, okay, let’s do three a day on each platform. We’ll stagger them.
After a few weeks of that, I was like let’s just do one a day because we have a lot of content coming in and I [thought] it would be easier from a scheduling standpoint. So, we post once a day on each platform. They’re staggered based on when they came in, because we obviously started Instagram, and then a few weeks later we started Twitter, then a few weeks after that we started Facebook. And we only post Monday through Friday. We don’t post on the weekends in solidarity with our colleagues and peers who shouldn’t have to work on their days off. Wait. You guys are allowed to log off? 🥴🥴😂😂😩😩
— Blackness Everdeen at 🏡 (@ThisIsTee1) June 19, 2021 We did that and that’s really worked for us, but also Austin and I are always communicating. We text all the time and we talk all the time. We did a Zoom chat last week to talk about this, so I feel like communication has been really big for us.
Austin Braun: Absolutely. Communication is key and having the passion and the energy in order to do this, to allocate the free time, that’s really fulfilling and makes it easier to do. It’s not something we think about doing or we make a chore out of, we just do it because we want to do it. And the growth we’ve seen, it just keeps us rolling. The community that we connect to is really our main fuel
Alexa Heinrich: And we try to schedule a month at a time too, just so we’re like “Okay, we’re good for the entire month,” and once the last week rolls around we’re like “Okay, got to do next month.”
Rachael Samuels: That’s amazing. That’s really smart. A month ahead is a dream state for me, that’s awesome.
So you’re starting to dive a little bit into strategy and you’re talking about submissions. Just so the audience knows what Social Media Tea really is, is submissions from your community around their own experience with social media marketing and being social media marketers. Austin, I love how much life that gives you because it gives me so much life too. It’s one of the reasons I love being a social media manager for Sprout because I get to commiserate, but also realize that we’ve got this strong community of marketers [who] are all focused on this common good and increasing accessibility in marketing, increasing diversity in marketing, increasing inclusion in marketing.
So, I think that there are so many crossovers, but I’m curious, how do you collect those submissions? And how do you decide which ones are going to go up? Or what’s the strategy for Social Media Tea’s content?
Alexa Heinrich: Social Media Tea really is the greatest user-generated content project that I never thought I’d start. We take submissions through Instagram, Facebook, through Twitter and we also have an email. We’re very clear on our website that you need to keep all of your content within your submission anonymous. So, you can’t name names, you can’t name brands. If I can make something even more vague, I will, like taking out genders for people, and I just put them into this giant spreadsheet that Austin and I have as they come in.
I take down the submission, the date it came in and then I give it a number so that I keep them in order. And then there are columns for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, as well as the emoji that they get assigned, which is just random and whatever I feel like giving it at this point. We just do them in chronological order and that seems to work out just fine. But Austin, do you want to talk about our strategy?
Austin Braun: The best part about our strategy is that it’s continually evolving and there are no guardrails that we put up around ourselves. We always want to experiment or see if this worked or this didn’t, let’s try and make something better about it.
You can see our pinned Tweet on our Twitter, for our Twitter strategy, which is basically just to be freeform and ad hoc in all regards. And when we have the scheduled content, that’s our content, but on the side, Alexa and I will go on the accounts and just throw our thoughts into the void and hope they stick if they feel relevant. A lot of times that comes through really well. The best content creators think outside of their own lived experiences and realities. They make content that’s relatable and accessible for as many people as possible, not just what they THINK their audience looks, acts, or lives like. They go beyond such narrow thinking.
— Social Media Tea (@SippinSocialTea) September 30, 2021 Rachael Samuels: I love that about the account. I love that it’s UGC, but it also has a voice and the account’s pretty open and honest about being a social media account and I just love that transparency. I definitely see the strategy there and I also think iteration is the battery of a strong social media strategy. You should always be changing, always be owning up to things that you need to—I just love that approach, that’s awesome.
I have to ask, I’m curious what is one of the most common submissions or grievances or opinions that are aired out.
Alexa Heinrich: We get a lot of people who just share like the common things we hear as social media professionals. One that we posted last week on Instagram was someone quoting someone that said, “Hey, can you just push this on social?” And for whatever reason that really resonates with people because it’s such a triggering phrase for us. “Can you just put this on social?” Okay, that’s not the entirety of my job, but thanks. So that’s one, and there are really humorous ones. There was one about how this person would hide weird phrases in her report every month to see if people actually caught onto it. And she’s like, “That’s how I knew no one was reading my reports,” because no one ever said anything about the weird phrases she was randomly dropping in there.
Those are always interesting, when social media professionals do something to take back their power, people really relate to that.
Rachael Samuels: I know I relate to that really hardcore. That’s absolutely why I love working at a social media organization. I tell people all the time it’s because people speak my language, but I feel like the core of it is—and we hear this a lot from our community too—that social media managers are at the nucleus of an organization. They know the customer the best, they’re doing all the work, they’re being strategic, iterating constantly, all of these different things, wearing a million different hats and nobody takes them seriously or no one cares to look at their reports or even ask for a report in the first place when that data could be so powerful.
I feel the plight of the social marketer and I think it is our time to shine, so I absolutely was not surprised that this account just totally took off.
So my next question and my last question is, knowing everything you’ve learned from all of the community over the past year and in the coming year, what do business leaders need to know? What’s going to get them to take social marketers more seriously? What would you like to impress upon organizations and businesses about their social marketing teams and the way that they approach and listen to social marketers?
Austin Braun: I’ll go ahead and take that one to start. The thing is that sense of self-awareness for people and what they think they know about social, versus the people who they work with whose job it is to know social. A lot of times they’ll get certain leaders or whomever that say “Make this go viral” without realizing the granular minutia of what it takes to get something from point A to point B. That you can “just make it go viral”, like there’s a button for that.
— William N. Finley IV(It’s real. I made it up) (@WNFIV) August 11, 2021 People at the top, the leaders, need to realize that social has a big and large place in their marketing, especially for community building as a whole. And it’s also important that they have the trust in their social media managers to do the right thing, to handle it the right way, because that trust comes from so many days and months and years of doing this.
That isn’t just an overnight thing you can turn on and off, it’s not a knowledge thing you can just read into and think you know it, because it’s always evolving. For leaders, it really comes down to understanding what you do and don’t know, but also trusting the person that you’ve appointed to know and manage social—to actually give them the free rein to do what they need to do with it.
Alexa Heinrich: And I think understanding, not just for brand leadership but everyone out there who engages on social media, that the person behind an account is a human being and we are experiencing so many different emotions and dealing with so many different situations every single day. And with this pandemic, a lot of us are burnt out creatively, emotionally. It’s very taxing mentally, our work.
The response that we get a lot with the Tea account when people find it the first time is, “Oh my gosh, this is so therapeutic,” or “Oh my gosh, this is so cathartic,” to the point where Austin and I recently did a collaboration with our friend Ariel at Thrive Works. We did some questions that were based around mental health and working in social media. Then Thriveworks graciously had one of their therapists answer those questions from a social media standpoint. So many people when I posted it to Instagram were just responding with “I needed this today, thank you for doing this, I really needed this.” Weave in the happy. We can’t express how much we love this answer or how thankful we are to our friends at @Thriveworks and Brittany Morris for her expert advice on taking care of our mental health while working in social media. Thanks, friends! Now go drink some water. https://t.co/CuOdl9a9km
— Social Media Tea (@SippinSocialTea) September 1, 2021 Understanding that your social media manager is probably burnt out, is probably a little tired, needs less screen time and needs support, not only from the tools they use, but from emotional support. They need mental health days. So it’s not just playing around on Twitter all day. We manage a lot and it’s different job to job.
Rachael Samuels: Preach. All of that, I feel that so deeply, I couldn’t be more grateful that you two exist and I couldn’t be more grateful that you two are part of this Sprout community and are running this account. So, thank you for doing this for all of us, I speak on behalf of all social media managers, we needed you. And thank you for chatting with me today. That’s all I got.
Alexa Heinrich: Thanks for having us, this was wonderful and obviously the Tea account is a Sprout user so we love Sprout. It makes it a lot easier when we’re bulk uploading for a month.
Austin Braun : No kidding. This would not be as seamless as it is without Sprout. We’re grateful to be running this and getting the message out there and we’re grateful for the interview today.
Want more insight into building strong, vibrant digital communities? Read our guide on 5 ways to strengthen your community management strategy. Source link

Dado que Instagram es la red social a la que se accede con más frecuencia entre los usuarios de EE. UU., Las marcas no pueden permitirse no estar en Instagram. Pero no es suficiente simplemente crear un perfil de Instagram para su marca y dejarlo así. Su presencia en la plataforma debe tener un propósito y ofrecer algún tipo de valor comercial.
Para que Instagram funcione para su negocio, seguir algunas de las mejores prácticas puede ayudarlo a adelantarse al juego. Esto implica pasos para aumentar la visibilidad de su marca en la plataforma, ganar nuevos seguidores e impulsar la participación de la audiencia.
En esta publicación, echamos un vistazo a algunas de las mejores prácticas de Instagram que pueden ayudarlo a construir su audiencia. Vamos a averiguar.
1. Mantenga una alimentación constante de imágenes de alta calidad
Cuando se trata de Instagram, las imágenes lo son todo. Una imagen mal fotografiada o un gráfico mal diseñado no va a ser suficiente. Necesita imágenes y videos de alta calidad que se destaquen y atraigan instantáneamente a su audiencia.
Haga un uso inteligente de los colores y filtros para que sus imágenes no solo se vean geniales, sino que también le den una apariencia uniforme a toda su página de Instagram. Idealmente, debes ceñirte a las combinaciones de colores y estilos visuales que se adapten a la personalidad de tu marca.
En la página de Instagram de Whataburger, los colores blanco y naranja característicos de la marca son un elemento destacado en cada publicación.
2. Mantente al tanto de los cambios y actualizaciones de Instagram
Instagram está en constante evolución, lo que significa que las marcas deben estar siempre al tanto de las últimas tendencias y características. Esto le dará la previsión necesaria para aprovechar estos cambios y actualizaciones antes que sus competidores.
La plataforma se ha agregado a opciones de contenido populares como Stories e IGTV para presentar funciones como Reels e Instagram Shopping, que las marcas pueden usar para atraer a su audiencia o generar conversiones en la tienda. Además, incluso ha mejorado las funciones existentes para introducir tendencias como filtros de realidad aumentada en las Historias de Instagram. Las marcas pueden incluso crear filtros AR personalizados para promover la participación de la audiencia y obtener una mejor visibilidad. Mantenerse al tanto de todas estas actualizaciones le permitirá capitalizarlas lo antes posible y encontrar nuevas formas de involucrar a su audiencia.
3. Preste atención a lo que quiere su audiencia
Incluso si no expresan explícitamente sus pensamientos, los comportamientos y acciones de su audiencia pueden decirle mucho sobre lo que quieren ver. Utilice la información de sus análisis de redes sociales para averiguar con qué tipo de contenido les gusta interactuar.
En Sprout Social Index, Edición XVII: Accelerate, nuestra investigación encontró algunas desconexiones entre lo que los consumidores y los especialistas en marketing piensan que hace que una marca sea la mejor en su clase en las redes sociales. La principal prioridad de los consumidores es el servicio al cliente (47%) seguido de contenido atractivo (46%) y transparencia (44%). No se limite a adivinar qué tipo de voz o contenido pueden encontrar interesantes a sus clientes, asegúrese de salirse de sus propios prejuicios y utilizar los datos para comprender qué es lo que realmente les importa a sus clientes.
Las estadísticas sociales pueden ayudarlo a responder preguntas como: ¿Qué formatos de contenido tienen más participación? ¿Qué tipo de enfoque funciona mejor para hacer que comenten? ¿Ayuda incluir preguntas en sus subtítulos?
Responder estas preguntas y otras que te ayudarán a conectarte con tu audiencia te ayudará a pensar en algunas ideas de publicaciones interesantes para usar en tu calendario de contenido. Adapta tu estrategia de contenido de Instagram para brindar a tu audiencia y clientes potenciales exactamente lo que quieren ver.
4. Perfecciona tu sincronización
Aunque el algoritmo de Instagram cambia constantemente, una cosa que se ha mantenido constante es la prioridad en el compromiso. Publicar en los momentos adecuados cuando su audiencia está activa puede traducirse en un aumento de la visibilidad y el compromiso.
El objetivo es publicar su contenido en el momento adecuado cuando los usuarios están más activos y es más probable que interactúen con él. Cuando realizamos un estudio sobre el uso de las redes sociales, nuestros datos más recientes mostraron que los martes suelen ser los mejores días para publicar, siendo las horas pico de 11 a. M. A 2 p. M. Sin embargo, los tiempos óptimos específicos pueden variar según factores como dónde se encuentra, en qué industria se encuentra y cómo se comporta su audiencia. Lea nuestro estudio para obtener más detalles por industria y profundice en el análisis de su cuenta para encontrar el momento óptimo para su negocio en particular. Luego, puede programar sus publicaciones para que se publiquen en esos horarios.
Las herramientas de publicación de Sprout Social utilizan características como ViralPost que ofrecen una alternativa automatizada a toda esta investigación al determinar por usted cuándo su audiencia es la más activa. ViralPost enviará automáticamente su contenido en tiempos de envío óptimos. Esto le ayuda enormemente a optimizar sus esfuerzos de publicación, lo que le permite captar a su audiencia cuando está más comprometida. 5. Cuenta historias visuales
Para que su marca deje un impacto duradero, tiene que ser memorable. Y ahí es donde entra en juego la narración. Instagram es la plataforma perfecta para crear historias visuales fascinantes y fascinantes sobre tu marca. Comience a crear imágenes para contar historias interesantes sobre el historial de su marca, las historias de sus clientes, las experiencias de sus empleados o el impacto de su marca.
Equinox utiliza este enfoque para contar una historia sobre el fitness como estilo de vida. La marca aprovecha Instagram para compartir historias visuales cautivadoras que se relacionan con el eslogan de su marca de «No es fitness». Es la vida.» En su cuadrícula, esta imagen encaja con los temas visuales de la marca en curso que presentan paletas de colores atrevidas y sofisticadas, fotografías impactantes e integran el fitness en imágenes inspiradoras de estilo de vida.
6. Utilice hashtags para impulsar el descubrimiento de contenido
Los hashtags son tus mejores amigos en Instagram. Ayudan a que su contenido aparezca en los resultados de búsqueda de dichos hashtags y en las páginas de exploración de personas que han visto o interactuado con contenido similar. Por lo tanto, los hashtags en Instagram son una excelente manera de impulsar el descubrimiento de contenido y la visibilidad general de la marca.
Aproveche al máximo los hashtags de nicho y los hashtags relacionados con la industria que pueden ayudarlo a concentrarse en la audiencia adecuada. Elegir los hashtags más utilizados a nivel mundial o regional puede significar que simplemente se pierda en el ruido; es más probable que apuntar a hashtags significativos relevantes para su producto o servicio haga que su contenido llegue a clientes potenciales. Y no olvide compartir hashtags de marca para fomentar el contenido generado por el usuario (CGU).
Nature’s Path utiliza una combinación de hashtags de marca y de nicho en sus publicaciones de Instagram como esta. En lugar de abarrotar el título, incluye los hashtags en los comentarios.
Puedes optimizar fácilmente el uso de tu hashtag de Instagram con Sprout. Además de los informes de hashtags que lo ayudarán a encontrar las mejores opciones para su contenido, nuestra publicación de Instagram presenta la publicación de primer comentario que le ahorra pasos adicionales si el estilo de su marca es mantener sus hashtags en el primer comentario.
7. Aprovecha al máximo los juegos, concursos y desafíos
Una de las mejores prácticas de Instagram para generar toneladas de participación es el uso de juegos, concursos y desafíos. Estos tienden a ser muy atractivos, ya que implican fomentar directamente la participación de la audiencia. Si arroja una recompensa con sus concursos y juegos, es más probable que su audiencia se involucre, ya que tienen la oportunidad de obtener premios de las marcas que siguen o que se relacionan con su interés.
Puede crear divertidos cuestionarios y juegos de preguntas y respuestas para que su audiencia comente. O puede realizar concursos de obsequios que involucren a las personas a las que les gusta, comentan, comparten o etiquetan a sus amigos en los comentarios. Muchos concursos también implican que las personas creen UGC, lo que pondrá aún más su marca frente a sus seguidores y le dará un stock de contenido con el que construir su calendario de publicaciones. Del mismo modo, podría crear desafíos que involucren a sus seguidores a realizar una determinada acción. Esto puede ser cualquier cosa, desde armar un look de maquillaje en torno a un tema determinado o bailar en una coreografía en particular. Anímelos a compartir contenido que les muestre realizando el desafío, lo que genera una mayor visibilidad de la marca a medida que usan sus hashtags de marca relevantes y etiquetan su cuenta.
8. Utilice los anuncios pagos de Instagram para ampliar su alcance.
El alcance orgánico de la marca en las redes sociales puede ser más desafiante que nunca debido a la actividad de la plataforma. Si bien a Instagram le va mejor que a otras plataformas importantes, un análisis de Ignite Social Media descubrió que de 150,000 seguidores, solo 14,100 verán una publicación orgánica en su feed.
Puede reforzar su visibilidad y promocionar mejor su Instagram utilizando anuncios pagados. La orientación pagada puede ayudar a que su contenido alcance más allá de las audiencias actuales que lo ven en su contenido orgánico servido algorítmicamente y a encontrar nuevos clientes potenciales.
Utilice anuncios pagados para dirigirse a usuarios muy relevantes que probablemente estén interesados ​​en su producto y contenido. La publicidad en Instagram le permite mostrar su marca a las personas adecuadas mediante una serie de opciones de segmentación muy detalladas. Esto significa que puede atraer tanto a nuevos seguidores como a nuevos clientes.
Incluso si no desea invertir en anuncios pagados de forma regular, asegúrese de que sea parte de su estrategia cuando desarrolle una nueva campaña o intente aumentar el alcance de su cuenta.
9. Asóciese con personas influyentes para llegar a nuevas audiencias
Con la capacidad de llegar a cientos de miles de personas a través de sus publicaciones, las personas influyentes pueden agregar combustible a sus esfuerzos de promoción de Instagram. El marketing de influencers es otra forma de poner tu marca frente a nuevas audiencias, y la confianza que las audiencias tienen en las recomendaciones de influencers puede ser un gran impulso para tu base de clientes.
Al asociarse con personas influyentes, es fundamental que trabaje con personas cuya base de audiencia se superponga con la suya. En otras palabras, asegúrese de asociarse solo con personas influyentes que puedan llegar a su público objetivo. Por lo general, esto significa personas que han creado una influencia en su industria o un nicho relacionado, como se ve en esta publicación de Arreglos comestibles. Por ejemplo, influencers de comida vegana para marcas que producen productos ecológicos y ecológicos.
10.Tome decisiones basadas en datos
Por último, pero no menos importante, no subestime el poder de los datos. Si desea que Instagram funcione para su negocio, las mejores prácticas, como el seguimiento del rendimiento de sus publicaciones y la medición de la participación de la audiencia, son vitales. Siempre que sepa qué buscar, los datos pueden informar su estrategia de contenido y sus decisiones de marketing.
Aqui hay algunas ideas: Realice un seguimiento de los comentarios y el rendimiento de las publicaciones para ver cómo responde su audiencia a un estilo particular de publicación. Luego, use esos conocimientos para modificar su estrategia de contenido de Instagram.
Tome decisiones basadas en datos sobre con qué personas influyentes debe asociarse en función de las personas a las que su público objetivo sigue y admira.
Supervise las tendencias de Instagram para tener una visión más clara de cómo crear publicaciones oportunas, adaptar su campaña o crear una nueva.
Mida la participación de la audiencia para ver el rendimiento de su campaña. Luego, busque oportunidades para mejorar, modificar o replicar su campaña para obtener mejores resultados. El seguimiento de sus datos le brinda información precisa sobre lo que está funcionando y las estrategias que no están despegando, lo que le permite refinar continuamente su enfoque.
Usar datos de manera efectiva significa que no solo está produciendo contenido y campañas para Instagram, sino que está creando una fuente invaluable de aprendizaje sobre lo que funciona para su marca y base de clientes a lo largo del camino.
Haz que Instagram funcione para tu marca
Estas mejores prácticas de Instagram son el punto de partida perfecto para que las marcas de cualquier tamaño creen una nueva audiencia o lleven la presencia de su cuenta al siguiente nivel.
Para obtener consejos más detallados sobre cómo usar Instagram para su negocio, descargue nuestra guía completa y gratuita sobre Instagram para marcas. Source link

Seguir la educación superior es una de las mayores decisiones de inversión que tomamos. Pero un título es mucho más que un producto: es una elección personal que da forma a la vida de las personas. Esto ha obligado a las instituciones educativas a repensar cómo utilizan las redes sociales, especialmente desde el inicio de la pandemia.
¿Cómo utilizan las universidades y las facultades las redes sociales a raíz del aprendizaje remoto y el cierre de escuelas? Hablamos con tres instituciones en Europa y el Reino Unido para averiguar cómo les parece el nuevo panorama de las redes sociales.
Cómo las universidades y colegios utilizan las redes sociales
Visibilidad y confianza de marca
Puede ser difícil para los estudiantes familiarizarse con un lugar antes de inscribirse, pero las redes sociales ofrecen información sobre la personalidad detrás de una institución. Para ESCP, una escuela de negocios con seis campus en toda Europa, las redes sociales son un lugar para dar a conocer su marca y garantizar la confianza de los estudiantes actuales y futuros.
“Básicamente, estamos trabajando en la visibilidad y la confianza de la marca para ayudar a nuestra audiencia a comprender qué es realmente ESCP. No somos solo una escuela de negocios, tenemos nuestros propios valores sobre la sostenibilidad, la inclusión y muchas otras cosas ”, dice Tom Maccario, director de comunicación digital y redes sociales de ESCP.
“Cuando se trata de redes sociales, primero se trata de visibilidad e impresiones, luego de participación. Queremos que nuestros mensajes y publicaciones se entreguen al máximo número de personas, pero no buscamos tocar a todos. Queremos tocar a las personas adecuadas y tener una conversación con ellas «. Atraer investigadores de primer nivel
Atraer estudiantes potenciales es un objetivo importante para muchas instituciones, pero va más allá. La Universidad de Cambridge utiliza las redes sociales para llegar a los investigadores y al personal potencial también.
“Lo usamos para atraer a las mejores personas del mundo, ya sea personal potencial, investigadores, estudiantes de pregrado o estudiantes de posgrado”, dice Anu Hautalampi, director social y audiovisual de la Universidad de Cambridge. «También lo usamos para mantenernos en contacto con ex alumnos, socios y donantes, para proteger y transmitir la marca Cambridge, y para ampliar la percepción que la gente tiene de Cambridge».
La institución en sí es reconocida como una de las universidades más antiguas del Reino Unido, pero a través de las redes sociales, esperan retratar su enfoque en la ciencia de vanguardia, así como en su comunidad cada vez más diversa. Manejo de reputación
La reputación lo es todo para las universidades y colegios. La competencia es feroz, por lo que incluso una crisis menor puede tener un efecto perjudicial. «Mi función es velar por la marca y la reputación de la universidad en las redes sociales», dice Hannah Keep, directora de redes sociales en Cranfield University. «Abarca informes de contenido, gestión de crisis, reclutamiento de estudiantes y también servicio al cliente».
La universidad implementa la estrategia 80/20, donde el 80% de su esfuerzo en las redes sociales se dedica a crear contenido y construir la personalidad en línea de la universidad, mientras que el 20% restante se gasta en venta directa y tratando de convertir a nuevos estudiantes.
El papel cambiante de las redes sociales de educación superior durante la pandemia
COVID-19 afectó a todas las industrias, pero las universidades enfrentaron una situación única ya que sus estudiantes y personal se encuentran en todo el mundo.
“Cuando pasamos el impacto global de la pandemia, comprendimos rápidamente que el sistema educativo cambiaría drásticamente (y teníamos que comunicar esto)”, dice Maccario.
No se puede negar que el uso de las redes sociales en la educación superior ha experimentado un cambio masivo en los últimos dos años. Ha pasado de ser principalmente una forma de publicidad a una herramienta multipropósito, que incluye un centro de atención al cliente central y un canal de comunicaciones internas.
Compartiendo más historias de la comunidad
La pandemia fue una época muy solitaria para muchas personas, en particular para los estudiantes que tal vez no estuvieran con sus familias o incluso en sus países de origen. ESCP entendió que las personas estaban ansiosas por sentirse cerca de los demás, incluso virtualmente.
“En lo que respecta a las redes sociales, comprendimos que muchas personas querían compartir sus historias sobre la pandemia y el aprendizaje remoto. Tuvimos muchos, muchos testimonios y una serie de videos en Instagram llamados ESCP at Home que funciona muy bien. También organizamos un concurso para los estudiantes, donde les pedimos que compartieran sus hábitos de aprendizaje y sus nuevos hábitos de estilo de vida ”, dice Maccario.
Las universidades han identificado las redes sociales como un foro impulsado por la comunidad que debe ser utilizado por todos, no solo por el equipo de marketing. A lo largo de la pandemia, han alentado a los estudiantes, el personal y la facultad a compartir sus propias historias identificables. La Universidad de Cranfield fue impulsada particularmente por esta idea de comunidad. Usaron específicamente las redes sociales para dirigir a las personas a los servicios de apoyo, ya que encontraron que muchos estudiantes se comunicaban a través de sus canales sociales en lugar del correo electrónico y otros métodos tradicionales. Hola, solo estuvo disponible el día 30 de julio. Lo mantendremos informado si el NHS decide administrar otra clínica sin cita previa en el campus 😀
– Universidad de Cranfield (@CranfieldUni) 17 de agosto de 2021 Adoptar un enfoque informal de la comunicación
Las universidades y colegios a menudo se consideran puntos de referencia formales, y sus canales de redes sociales reflejan esto. Durante la pandemia, las cosas cambiaron cuando las instituciones empezaron a darse cuenta de que los estudiantes ansiaban la conexión humana.
La Universidad de Cranfield identificó esta necesidad y cambió su enfoque hacia las redes sociales, adoptando un tono más informal. “En lugar de enviar correos electrónicos y esperar una respuesta, la gente estaba reconociendo que éramos amigables en las redes sociales y se acercó a nosotros allí. Siempre usamos nuestros nombres para que la gente sepa que está hablando con una persona real ”, dice Keep. La pandemia creó espacio para que las instituciones experimentaran. Tome la Universidad de Cambridge, que lanzó una cuenta de TikTok para estar frente a los posibles estudiantes universitarios.
“Quería tener Cambridge en TikTok por un tiempo porque había un grupo de edad al que no estábamos llegando”, dice Hautalampi. “Crear contenido de TikTok durante el bloqueo fue un desafío, por supuesto, porque no podíamos ir a ningún lado ni ver a nadie. Pero esto solo significaba que teníamos que reutilizar los activos existentes y, de hecho, nos permitió ser realmente experimentales «.
Obtener una comprensión más profunda de su audiencia
Las prioridades de los estudiantes han cambiado durante los últimos 18 meses. La seguridad y las conexiones humanas se han vuelto primordiales, y las universidades y colegios se están dando cuenta de que para tener éxito en las redes sociales, deben anteponer a su audiencia.
“Entendimos que durante la pandemia, había muchas cosas sobre las que podíamos publicar, pero muchas de ellas no eran relevantes para la audiencia. Ahora realmente queremos centrarnos en la relevancia de nuestra audiencia y promover el contenido que es importante para ellos ”, dice Maccario.
Los objetivos de las redes sociales también han cambiado para las instituciones. “Cuando empecé en Cambridge, estábamos muy centrados en las acciones”, dice Hautalampi. «Ahora nos estamos enfocando un poco más en las reacciones y comenzamos a publicar contenido que está más orientado a la comunidad».
La pandemia generó muchas opiniones de los estudiantes que esperaban que sus instituciones tomaran medidas. Fue un momento difícil para los administradores de redes sociales que intentaban adherirse a las pautas del gobierno del Reino Unido, mientras se comunicaban con estudiantes que tenían familias en los países más afectados en ese momento. De repente, las universidades se dieron cuenta de que las redes sociales eran un barómetro instantáneo de lo que sus estudiantes decían, pensaban, necesitaban y esperaban.
“Cuando hablábamos sobre lo que el vicerrector podría decir en sus mensajes de video a los estudiantes, pude mostrarle lo que la gente pensaba y sentía. Hubo un momento justo al comienzo de la pandemia en el que las redes sociales ocupaban un lugar destacado en la agenda ”, dice Keep.
Posicionar las redes sociales como herramienta de atención al cliente
Muchas empresas, incluidas las del sector de la educación, están descubriendo que las redes sociales se pueden utilizar para mucho más que el conocimiento de la marca. Social es un hogar para conversaciones con su audiencia, comentarios sobre productos, información competitiva y del mercado y (lo más importante durante la pandemia) para el servicio al cliente.
“Hasta la pandemia, muchas organizaciones tenían el lujo de nunca ser desafiadas en las redes sociales”, dice Keep. Pero los canales sociales se convirtieron rápidamente en una forma siempre disponible para que los estudiantes recibieran sus consultas, lo que significaba que las instituciones tenían que responder rápidamente si querían brindar un apoyo estudiantil estelar.
Más que nunca, las redes sociales son una extensión fundamental de los canales de apoyo tradicionales de las instituciones. “Esperamos crear una comunidad real. Recibimos cada vez más mensajes en Facebook e Instagram con preguntas como cuándo será posible unirse a la próxima admisión o si alguien debería estudiar en Berlín o Madrid. A veces, las respuestas no siempre están en el sitio web, por lo que los estudiantes nos preguntan en las redes sociales ”, dice Maccario.
Descubriendo un canal de comunicaciones internas crítico
La naturaleza acelerada de las redes sociales significó que rápidamente se convirtieron en una forma para que las instituciones se comunicaran internamente con el personal y los estudiantes existentes.
«Creamos un grupo de Facebook para el personal», dice Keep. “Fue en el punto en el que de repente todo el mundo iba a estar geográficamente disperso. Estuvimos debatiendo la creación de uno durante años, y la pandemia nos dio una razón para hacerlo finalmente. Era tan simple y fácil de usar para la gente, y era una forma de mantener unida a la comunidad «.
El uso de las redes sociales como herramienta de comunicación interna también fue una prioridad para la Universidad de Cambridge durante la pandemia.
“Comenzamos a usar las redes sociales para llegar a nuestra comunidad interna, que de antemano no era realmente un público objetivo”, dice Hautalampi. «Debido a que la gente regresaba a casa y no estaba físicamente en Cambridge, era importante para nosotros tener una forma directa y en tiempo real de hablar con nuestros estudiantes y personal».
Las redes sociales como columna vertebral de la comunicación
“COVID puso de relieve el potencial de los canales de redes sociales y la importancia de tener a las personas adecuadas administrándolos”, dice Keep.
Las redes sociales han sido la columna vertebral de la comunicación para muchas instituciones durante la pandemia. Los colegios y universidades se dieron cuenta rápidamente de que Twitter, Instagram, Facebook y LinkedIn no eran solo lugares para anunciar sus cursos, sino también plataformas clave para conocer a su audiencia, recopilar información sobre el mercado y brindar un servicio al cliente estelar. Social pasó de ser un lugar para llegar a nuevos prospectos y enviar mensajes de marketing a un centro comunitario central, tanto para estudiantes como para el personal.
Las universidades ven la interacción con sus estudiantes y el personal como algo más que un simple servicio al cliente, y las redes sociales les permiten crear una comunidad vibrante que agrega corazón, tanto en tiempos emocionantes como difíciles.
¿Espera transformar el enfoque de su institución hacia las redes sociales? Descargue nuestro manual de estrategias de educación superior para obtener consejos prácticos sobre todo, desde el establecimiento de objetivos hasta la elaboración de informes y la gestión de la comunidad. Source link

Movimientos de justicia social, una pandemia global, cambio climático y otros desastres ambientales. No busque más allá del ciclo de noticias para comprender por qué los consumidores se están volviendo más cuidadosos con las empresas que respaldan, los productos que utilizan y su impacto en el planeta.
Oleadas de corporaciones han respondido comprometiéndose a defender prácticas comerciales antirracistas, socialmente responsables y respetuosas con el medio ambiente. Las marcas han aparecido en los titulares por sus gestos de buena voluntad, como cuando La calma pagó las multas de Naomi Osaka por saltarse las reuniones de prensa para proteger su propia salud mental y Airbnb introdujo planes de vivienda temporal para los refugiados afganos.
A pesar de las promesas comerciales más frecuentes, los consumidores siguen siendo escépticos: el 52% cree que las marcas que toman posiciones sobre los problemas sociales solo están tratando de impulsar las ventas.
Necesitamos cierto escepticismo para mantener a las empresas responsables, transparentes y auténticas. Pero las empresas también deben seguir mostrando avances, poniendo en práctica sus valores y siendo el cambio que los consumidores quieren ver en el mundo.
A medida que su marca adopta la responsabilidad corporativa, esto es lo que los especialistas en marketing deben saber sobre cómo generar confianza con consumidores conscientes.
1. La coherencia y la transparencia son imprescindibles
No hay nada de malo en generar entusiasmo en torno a las iniciativas y logros de su empresa para el bien común. De hecho, el 50% de los consumidores quieren que las empresas utilicen las redes sociales para compartir detalles sobre sus compromisos de justicia social y proporcionar actualizaciones proactivas sobre su progreso. Las claves para generar confianza en su comunicación son la coherencia y la transparencia.
Publicar un Tweet que dé una vaga indicación de que su empresa está comprometida a «hacer el trabajo» no va a ser suficiente. Los consumidores ven rápidamente a través del activismo de marca vacío.
Patagonia es venerada como una de las mejores empresas que mezcla negocios con activismo y es fácil ver por qué al mirar sus feeds sociales. En Twitter, la marca comparte contenido relacionado con sus valores y compromisos con las causas casi todos los días. Además de compartir sus propios mensajes de activismo, la marca retuitea constantemente mensajes de activistas, organizaciones sin fines de lucro, fuentes de noticias y otras marcas con valores mutuos.
La transparencia de Patagonia en lo social cristaliza su posición en los temas que preocupan a su empresa y a sus consumidores. Y la prueba de que los consumidores confían en la marca está en las redes sociales. Nota personal … Mi próxima compra de equipo / ropa para actividades al aire libre debe ser de Patagonia. El director ejecutivo sigue haciendo lo correcto al mismo tiempo que construye un negocio próspero y rentable. Aprenda mucho de ella. https://t.co/z3aH6DplBJ
– Paul Wicker (@Wickerpedia) 15 de marzo de 2020 Por qué amo @Patagonia & tu también deberías. Condenan a las grandes petroleras y abandonaron la estación de esquí de Jackson Hole por tener una recaudación de fondos de extrema derecha. Animan a la gente a votar pensando en el planeta Tierra y cuando se trata de la naturaleza, dicen que debemos defenderla o la perderemos. #Respetuoso del medio ambiente pic.twitter.com/6hFHTtAafs
– paz1 💙🇺🇸 (@ paz1) 29 de septiembre de 2021 2. Las marcas receptivas generan confianza
Gracias a las redes sociales e Internet, los consumidores tienen el poder de hacer su propia investigación para verificar que las empresas no se limitan a hablar.
El 78% de los consumidores está de acuerdo en que las redes sociales son la forma más rápida y directa de conectarse con una marca. Además, las marcas receptivas que ofrecen un sólido servicio al cliente y atraen a sus audiencias son las marcas que los consumidores dicen que son las mejores en su clase en las redes sociales.
Eso pone gran parte de la carga en los especialistas en marketing social de su marca para estar en primera línea, respondiendo preguntas sobre su negocio, productos y propósito. Agregue eso a la creciente lista de razones por las que los especialistas en marketing de redes sociales no pueden operar en un silo.
Los administradores de redes sociales, personas influyentes, creadores y socios deben contar con la información necesaria para representar con precisión su marca, productos y servicios. Por ejemplo, si su marca vende productos ecológicos, veganos y libres de crueldad, inevitablemente recibirá preguntas, especialmente a medida que los consumidores se vuelven escépticos sobre el lavado verde. Informe a los especialistas en marketing social sobre las prácticas de desarrollo de productos de su marca, bríndeles recursos disponibles públicamente que puedan compartir con los consumidores y tenga un proceso para transmitir mensajes a los expertos en la materia de su empresa. JLo Beauty es una línea libre de crueldad animal, no probamos productos en animales ni utilizamos proveedores de materias primas que lo hagan. Todos nuestros productos están certificados por Leaping Bunny. Leaping Bunny es el estándar de oro en certificación para garantizar que no se realicen pruebas con animales.
– JLO BELLEZA (@jlobeauty) 12 de enero de 2021 3. Las voces de los empleados y los líderes son importantes No son solo los consumidores conscientes los que esperan que las empresas actúen sobre cuestiones sociales, ambientales o políticas; casi 8 de cada 10 empleados esperan lo mismo de sus empleadores.
Con un interés mutuo en responsabilizar a las empresas, los consumidores confían en los empleados como fuente de información sobre las empresas para las que trabajan. Las marcas necesitan la ayuda de los empleados para reforzar sus valores, iniciativas y objetivos en las redes sociales. Cuando los empleadores cumplen sus compromisos y los empleados orgullosos comparten el logro con sus propias redes sociales, es probable que la credibilidad y la percepción general de su marca se muevan en una dirección positiva. Las empresas también deben centrarse en mejorar el dominio social de su equipo ejecutivo. A medida que aumenta la presión para que los ejecutivos hablen y dejen claras sus posturas, los líderes necesitan apoyo de sus especialistas en marketing social. Los especialistas en marketing social no solo conocen a su audiencia por dentro y por fuera, sino que también pueden ayudar a los ejecutivos a dar forma a su presencia, entablar un diálogo y definir su voz para las redes sociales, que puede ser distinta de la «voz de la marca».
Para los líderes empresariales que buscan ejemplos inspiradores, Alexis Ohanian, fundador de Seven Seven Six y ex presidente ejecutivo de Reddit, es una persona obligada en las redes sociales. Utiliza constantemente sus plataformas para expresar sus valores personales, defender negocios impulsados ​​por un propósito y compartir actualizaciones sobre las causas que apoya. 4. Escuche primero y aprenda de las conversaciones en las redes sociales.
Las redes sociales no son solo un micrófono para compartir los esfuerzos de responsabilidad corporativa de su marca, es una ventana a la reacción de su audiencia y una brújula sobre dónde debe enfocarse a continuación. Con la escucha social y el compromiso de la comunidad, las empresas pueden evaluar los datos de la voz del cliente (VoC) para medir la percepción del estado actual y responder preguntas como: = ¿Cómo se percibió su último anuncio relacionado con la responsabilidad corporativa? ¿Qué conocimientos puede extraer tanto de las reacciones negativas como de las positivas?
¿Qué preocupaciones y problemas sociales están más presentes en las conversaciones sobre su marca?
¿Existen iniciativas, promesas o afirmaciones de la empresa sobre las que la gente se muestre escéptica?
¿Qué preguntas frecuentes recibe su marca con respecto a la postura de su empresa sobre ciertos temas?
Además de mantenerse informado sobre el clima social a escala nacional o global, ¿qué leyes, movimientos y causas sociales son las más importantes en su comunidad local? ¿Qué diferencias puede hacer su negocio en su patio trasero? En última instancia, las respuestas pueden influir más en la investigación y el desarrollo de productos, los esfuerzos por los derechos de los trabajadores, las consideraciones de la cadena de suministro, los compromisos de DEI y la dirección estratégica de su negocio.
Conocer a los clientes en el momento es importante, pero las empresas también deben comprender qué les importará a los consumidores en cinco, 10 e incluso 20 años. Los canales de las redes sociales están llenos de conversaciones y contenido que actúa como una veleta para los intereses y valores de los consumidores. No olvide que los pequeños gestos pueden tener un gran impacto. Los grandes gestos y las promesas para crear un mundo mejor pueden terminar en los titulares, pero las marcas no deben olvidarse de los pequeños actos que refuerzan sus valores entre sus clientes y socios. mis padres acaban de recibir estas hermosas flores de @Correoso después del fallecimiento de la dulce luna. ¡también se les dio un reembolso completo por su comida del mes y se les dijo que debían donarla! Normalmente no publico sobre experiencias de servicio al cliente, pero esto era demasiado especial para no pic.twitter.com/0QaslS4N1l
– ⚔️Mars⚔️ #breakingcodesilence (@bajabitchin) 29 de septiembre de 2021 Haga que la autenticidad de la marca y la conexión genuina con la comunidad sean cualidades centrales de su estrategia social. Lea este artículo (hoja de trabajo gratuita incluida) para comenzar. Source link

Looking to fine-tune your social media marketing strategy for 2022?
Good! Now’s the perfect time to make it happen.
In a landscape with more competition, content and networks than ever, a succinct strategy gives you the focus needed to say “no” to efforts that don’t serve your goals.
That’s why we put together a comprehensive guide to creating a social media marketing plan from scratch.
Whether you’re totally new to social or want to double-check your priorities in 2022, this guide has you covered. Set goals that make sense for your business
Take time to research your target audience
Establish your most important metrics and KPIs
Create (and curate) engaging social content
Make your social presence as timely as possible
Assess what’s working, what isn’t and how to keep improving
Bring other departments into the mix 1. Set goals that make sense for your business
Let’s kick things off with a quick question:
“What do you want from social media, anyway?”
Social media strategy planning starts with your goals.
According to the 2021 Sprout Social Index™, the most common goals for social are increasing brand awareness (58%) and increasing community engagement (41%). Whether you want to build a larger following or a more active community, taking the time to define your social goals is the first step to reaching them.
Either way, your goals will define your social media marketing strategy and how much time and energy you’ll need to dedicate to your campaigns.
Sample social media goals for 2022 and beyond
What really matters is that you set realistic social media goals.
Emphasis on “realistic,” by the way. We recommend tackling smaller objectives that allow you to scale your social efforts in a way that’s both reasonable and affordable.
Below are some sample goals that businesses of all shapes and sizes can pursue.
Increase brand awareness. This means getting your name out there. To create authentic and lasting brand awareness, avoid solely publishing promotional messages. Instead, focus on content that emphasizes your personality and values first.
Generate leads and sales. Whether online, in-store or directly through your social profiles, followers don’t make purchases by accident. For example, are you about alerting customers about new products and promos? Are you integrating your product catalog into your social profiles? Are you running exclusive deals for followers?
Grow your brand’s audience. Bringing new followers into the fold means finding ways to introduce your brand to folks who haven’t heard of you before.
Growing your audience also means discovering conversations around your business and industry that matter the most. Digging through your social channels is nearly impossible without monitoring or listening for specific keywords, phrases or hashtags. Having a pulse on these conversations helps you expand your core audience (and reach adjacent audiences) much faster.
Boost community engagement. Index data shows that 46% of consumers think brands that engage their audience are best in class on social, so it pays to explore new ways to grab the attention of your current followers. This means experimenting with messaging and content. For example, does your brand promote user-generated content and hashtags?
Even something as simple as asking a question can increase your engagement rate. Your customers can be your best cheerleaders, but only if you’re giving them something to do.
Drive traffic to your site. Simple enough. If you’re laser-focused on generating leads or traffic to your website, social media can make it happen. Whether through promotional posts or social ads, keeping an eye on conversions and URL clicks can help you better determine your ROI from social media.
Any combination of these goals is fair game and can help you better understand which networks to tackle, too. When in doubt, keep your social media marketing strategy simple rather than complicating it with too many objectives that might distract you. Pick one or two and rally your team around them.
2. Take time to research your target audience
Making assumptions is bad news for marketers.
Only 55% of marketers use social data to better understand their target audience, making it a huge opportunity for both leaders and practitioners. Much of what you need to know about your audience to influence your social media marketing strategy is already available. You just have to know where to look.
With the right tool, marketers can quickly research their audience. No formal market research or data science chops necessary.
Remember: different platforms attract different audiences
Take today’s social media demographics, for example. These numbers speak directly to which networks your brand should approach and what types of content to publish. Here are some key takeaways for your 2022 social media marketing strategy: Facebook and YouTube are both prime places for ads due in part to their high-earning user bases.
The top social networks among Millennials and Gen Z are Instagram and YouTube, signaling the strength of bold, eye-popping content that oozes with personality.
Women vastly outnumber men on Pinterest, which is noted to boast the highest average order value for social shoppers.
LinkedIn’s user base is well-educated, making it a hub for in-depth, industry-specific content that might be more niche than what you see on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on networks where your core audience is already active.
Do your homework on your existing social media audience
Although the demographic data above gives you insight into each channel, what about your own customers? Further analysis needs to be done before you can determine what your real-world social customers actually look like.
That’s why many brands use a social media dashboard that provides an overview of who’s following you and how they interact with you on each channel.
Sprout’s analytics dashboard puts your audience demographics front and center. It also highlights which social networks are seeing the most activity, helping you ensure you spend your time on the right networks.
With Sprout’s Group Report, you can view Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest data side-by-side in a customizable format that’s exportable by date range and profile. There’s plenty of other sources of valuable audience data to supplement your social media insights. This includes your Google and email analytics, your CRM, your customer service platform or even your best-selling products.
All of the above will ultimately influence everything from your marketing messaging to how you’ll approach customer service or social commerce.
3. Establish your most important metrics and KPIs
No matter your goals or industry, your social media strategy should be data-driven.
That means focusing on the social media metrics that matter. Rather than focus on vanity metrics, dig into data that aligns directly with your goals.
What metrics are we talking about? Check out the breakdown below: Reach. Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How much of your content actually reaches users’ feeds?
Clicks. This is the number of clicks on your content or account. Tracking clicks per campaign is essential to understand what drives curiosity or encourages people to buy.
Engagement. The total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This sheds light on how well your audience perceives you and their willingness to interact.
Hashtag performance. What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand? Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward. Organic and paid likes: Beyond a standard Like count, these interactions are attributed to paid or organic content. Given how much harder organic engagement is to gain, many brands turn to ads. Knowing these differences can help you budget both your ad spend and the time you invest in different formats.
Sentiment. This is the measurement of how users react to your content, brand or hashtag. Did customers find your recent campaign offensive? What type of sentiment do people associate with your campaign hashtag? It’s always better to dig deeper and find out how people talk or feel about your brand. An effective social media marketing strategy is rooted in numbers. That said, those numbers need to be put into a context that aligns with your original goals.
4. Create (and curate) engaging social content
No surprises here. Your social media marketing strategy hinges on your content.
At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of what to publish based on your goals, audience and brand identity. You probably feel confident in which networks to cover, too.
But what about your content strategy? Below are some ideas and inspiration that can help.
The importance of sticking to content themes
Chances are you’ve seen a post from a particular brand that just feels like, well, theirs.
The quippy, casual tone that makes Discord’s Twitter presence beloved by casual users and moderators alike are a great example. From graphics to Reels and beyond, many brands rely on the same content formats and creative touches time and again. These themes can help you become more consistent and zero in on a content strategy that makes sense.
For example, you might cycle between memes, product photos and user-generated content while sticking to a defined color scheme. If you’re struggling to keep up with all these sources of social content, consider social media management tools that help you organize your media library and schedule your posts in advance.
Content ideas for social media marketing in 2022
To help narrow down the specifics of what you should be publishing and make sure you’re developing innovative content, here are some social media trends to consider.
Stories and time-sensitive posts
Stories aren’t going anywhere. Tapping into your followers’ FOMO (fear of missing out), Stories-style content is both interactive and can’t-miss. Popping up first in your followers’ feeds by default, this content can help your brand’s account “skip the line” and stay fresh in your audience’s minds. Stories are especially valuable for taking your followers behind-the-scenes and making your social feed feel more personal. For example, consider how you can use Stories to cover an event or take your followers on a journey without them having to leave the comfort of the ‘gram.
Short-form video
Fifty-four percent of marketers say that video is the most valuable content type for achieving social goals, and for good reason. Social video is booming, especially with the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels. Both long-form and short-form productions continue to dominate the social space across all platforms due to their high engagement rate. Plus, thanks to advancements in DIY and remote video production, you don’t need a massive video production budget to be successful. All you need is a laptop or smartphone and a few tricks of the trade.
Posts that show off your human side
Particularly important as we (eventually) come out of COVID-19, both personal and personable content should be a cornerstone of your social media marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to remind followers of the humans behind your posts. For those of you who have been at your computer for more than an hour, take a 10 minute break to… 🧘 Stretch🍵 Grab a refreshment☀️ Take in some fresh air
— Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) September 27, 2021 Pro-tip: conduct a competitive analysis to help your content stand out
Before you start creating content, you should have a good idea of what your competitors are up to.
While some brands might want to look into third-party competitor analysis tools to dig deeper into their competitors’ numbers, you can learn a lot from a simple review of competitors’ social presence.
The simplest way to find competitors is through a Google search. Look up your most valuable keywords, phrases and industry terms to see who shows up.
Then, see how their social channels compare to your own promotion strategy. The goal here isn’t to copycat or steal your competitors’ ideas. No two companies’ social media marketing strategies can be (or should be) the same. Instead, determine what’s working for them and what conclusions you can draw to adapt your own campaigns accordingly.
After identifying some of your industry rivals, you can use competitive analysis tools such as those found in Sprout to quickly compare competitor performance to your own.
See what they’re posting on Facebook. Contrast your Twitter engagement with theirs. Find out how they’re tagging their content on Instagram. Optimize your own strategy. Rinse and repeat.
You can also go a step further using Sprout’s Advanced Listening. Using social listening, you can spotlight unfiltered consumer feedback regarding competitors, as well as their products and services.
You get the added bonus of discovering honest conversations about your brand you may have otherwise missed. 5. Make your social presence as timely as possible
Timeliness is arguably more important than ever for marketers.
Not only are you expected to put out fresh content on a regular basis, but also always be “on” for your followers.
But you can’t always expect customers to operate on your clock. Timeliness is a tall order when you’re strapped for resources or are part of a small team.
Let’s look at some ideas to maximize your schedule and your time spent on social.
Post at the best times to engage
Quick question: when is your brand available to engage and interact with customers?
You might see some recommended times to post late in the evening, for example. But if your team isn’t there to communicate, what’s the point of posting at the “preferred” time?
Instead, try to ensure your social media or community managers are available and ready to answer any product questions or concerns when you Tweet or post. Take time to review the best times to post on social media. However, it’s just as critical to engage after posting. And that leads us to our next point.
Respond to your customer questions and shout-outs ASAP
Your customers want speedy responses. In fact, 47% believe that strong customer service defines a best-in-class brand on social. Your brand can’t forget these core elements of community building. It takes effort to ensure conversations or engagement opportunities aren’t left unattended.
On social media, you gain respect as a brand by being present and talking to your audience. That’s why social customer care is so important to brands wanting to increase audience awareness—word travels fast about great service. Hi Stephanie! Thanks for reaching out! I certainly can see how this can improve Asana, and have noted this request to our Engineering and Product Team 🤝 Appreciate the suggestion!
— Asana (@asana) September 28, 2021 Whether it’s capitalizing on a compliment or responding to a question, businesses shouldn’t leave customers hanging. According to our research, social is consumers’ #1 preferred channel for sharing feedback and reaching out with a service issue or question. But did you know that most users believe brands should respond to social media messages within four hours?
Designating teams to specific response tasks can help your staff run like a well-oiled social media team, whether you’re a group of one or 100.
As social algorithms evolve, organic content has an increasingly tough time reaching the majority of your audience. The last thing you want to do is ignore those who do engage and lose out on sending more down your marketing funnel. 6. Assess what’s working, what isn’t and how to keep improving
By now you should have a big-picture understanding of your social media strategy.
However, it’s important that you’re able to adapt your strategy throughout the year.
Without continuously analyzing your efforts, you’ll never know how one campaign did over another. Having a bird’s eye view of your social media activity helps put things into perspective. This means looking at your top-performing content and adjusting your campaigns when your content stalls.
There’s no denying that a lot of social media is a matter of trial-and-error. Monitoring the metrics behind your campaigns in real-time allows you to make small tweaks to your social media marketing strategy rather than sweeping, time-consuming changes.
So much of social media marketing right starts by being diligent about your data. You can be reactive in the short term to get the most out of your running campaigns, and then proactively use these takeaways to inform your next strategy overhaul. Reporting on data is also important for the sake of sharing valuable insights from social with your coworkers and colleagues.
Data from the Sprout Social Index™ notes that only 15% of marketers use social data to measure ROI. Including this information in regular reports not only holds you accountable for your efforts, but also highlights the impact and bottom-line results your social strategy produces.
Based on your data, you can better assess whether your KPIs truly ladder up to your overarching company goals or whether they need to change.
7. Bring other departments into the mix
Social media teams have a unique advantage when it comes to understanding customer sentiment. You’re the eyes and ears for your brand online. Those insights can do more than just inform marketing strategy. They can transform your business.
Still, according to Index data, only 39% of marketers use social data to support other departments. In 2022, stand-out social media teams will approach cross-department collaboration with enthusiasm and intention.
Which departments can benefit from social data
The short answer? All of them. But don’t bite off more than you can chew. Instead, start where you think you can make the most impact. Here are a few ideas to jumpstart your strategy.
HR
We are in the midst of an incredibly competitive job market. Collaborating with human resources on social-first employer brand initiatives can do more than just fill open roles quickly. It can attract stronger, more qualified candidates as well.
Sales
We surveyed 250 business executives and found that in the future, 90% anticipate social will be the primary communication channel for connecting with customers. Sharing social insights with your sales organization can empower reps to work smarter in the context of increasingly digital customer journeys.
Product and merchandising
You’ve probably received quite a few feature or product requests while managing your brand’s social inbox. With a social media management tool, you can distill those messages into actionable insights for your product or merchandising teams. These insights can complement existing roadmap research, creating a customer-focused plan that delights.
And with that, we wrap up your social media strategy guide for 2022 and beyond!
Is your social media marketing strategy sorted out for 2022?
This guide highlights that there are plenty of moving pieces to a modern social presence.
That said, putting together yours doesn’t have to be a drag.
If you set actionable goals and address each of the steps above, you’ll already be way ahead of the curve when it comes to your social media marketing strategy.
And if you need more inspiration for actionable ways to build out your strategies, make sure to check out our social media marketing toolkit with templates and resources. Best of luck in 2022! Source link