by Jennifer Van Leuven
While many businesses today realize how important it is to establish an online presence for their audience, social media is still a very big and ever-changing universe that can be challenging and confusing at times. On top of this, trends are always appearing – then rapidly becoming irrelevant – leaving the average user to juggle these changes very quickly and possibly getting lost in the shuffle with all the shifting algorithms!
So… what’s a business to do?
First, realize that EVERY business is going through the same circumstances as you! You are not alone in trying to keep up with this fast-paced online world. However, it’s also extremely beneficial to ask for a little guidance and assistance to navigate through it. At Chrispy Media, this is one of our favorite subjects to work with our clients!
Let’s break down some helpful tips – straight from our personal experts!
1 ) Engage Your Audience With “Snackable” Visuals
It’s 2022. The era where our internet is fast and our attention spans are SHORT! It takes only a few scrolls through social media to realize you’re in one big advertisement carousel for businesses no matter where you go. This is where the challenge starts, but also where your strategy begins. Consider your audience as one big, hungry consumer at a virtual buffet of visuals. With just a few seconds to share your brand, how do you stand out above the rest? Remember that your audience isn’t looking for a visual “Thanksgiving feast” here! Gone are the days when IGTV and other longer video-viewing formats held engagement, especially with the rise of TikTok, where 15-second videos have trained our audiences to now prefer “bite-sized” pieces of content to get excited and answer the call-to-action – or lose interest and move on. However, this can be used to your advantage, where “short and sweet” can grab the attention of your audience and lead them to your call-of-action sooner than the timeline of a longer video. (Want to learn more about this? Send us a message!)
2 ) Connection To Community + Lifestyle Helps You Understand Your Audience
While the world of social media is vast and broad, it is also very intimately connected. Consumers are now craving to see a more “personal” side of a business to feel like they can relate to what the business is all about – from their missions and values, to their proposed “lifestyle” that resonates with them, as well as a strong focus on a business’s online presence where they feel they can “relate” to what is being posted.
Discovering “who” your target audience is can appear in many ways through attraction. Once you decide your business’s “look” and mission, you can utilize many avenues to see who is responding. Studies show that brands tend to develop a better connection with their audience when creating content on multiple social media platforms. This allows for a more “omnipresence” for the brand and provides opportunities to connect with each unique audience base with every platform. In fact, a survey shows us that when brands use over three channels (with automation), they achieve a 3.5x engagement rate, a 250% jump in purchase frequency, a 13% increase in average order value, and a 90% higher customer retention. “Behind the scenes” posts, relevant lifestyle topics of the business, Lives offering interactions (like Q&A), engaging with similar social media accounts, polls and quizzes, a little humor, and sharing past customer testimonials are all great ways to connect with your audience on a more personal level and help you get to know your audience better.
3 ) Social Commerce + Your Audience: A New Frontier
So, what is social commerce, exactly? Social commerce is the process by which consumers can purchase products (or services) directly through a social media platform instead of being directed to a new website. This approach can also assist in removing any possible hurdles, such as additional steps to get from Point A to Point B, that may deter consumers from continuing through the conversion process. While social commerce has been around for a while now, it wasn’t until about the time of the pandemic in 2020 that shopping from home jumped in notable popularity and consumer preference.
According to the Q2 2020 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. retail e-commerce reached $211.5 billion, up 31.8% from the first quarter, and 44.5% year-over-year. E-commerce also accounted for 16.1% of total retail sales in Q2, up from 11.8% in the first quarter of 2020! Interestingly, when brands chose to build their online presence with their audiences, studies have shown that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy on social media because of brand familiarity. This is huge, since it shows how much of an influence a brand can have on their audiences when digital marketing is strategized in alignment with the behavior, conveniences, and habits of said audiences.
Livestream shopping, for example, has gained popularity as of recently – another social commerce approach where a brand or influencer can go live on their social media platforms and sell their services or products online, similar to home shopping networks on TV. However, this concept appears to be more “connecting” to their audiences, as the viewer can engage with the host (and vice versa) and they can add on to this experience by including their family, friends, and followers to engage in the chat for a fun “wine and girls night” of sorts, as if the event was happening in their own homes.While still relatively new in the US, the livestreaming market is expected to surpass $25 billion by 2023!
The important takeaway is that creativity and connection rules in the world of social media. And while it may be always shifting and evolving, creating consistent content that is memorable, creative, and impactful can help brands of all kinds reach their target audiences while standing out from the competition.
And remember – we’re always here to help! Our marketing professionals here at Chrispy Media Group offer years of combined experience and continued education in digital marketing and would love to work with you on how to better reach YOUR audiences and create a personalized marketing strategy for success!
