Have you got your Social Media Strategy sorted?

From the once rapid global success and now decline of Facebook use among teens to Twitter’s IPO, we all know that one thing is for sure in social media…… very few trends stick around for long. With this in mind, PR pros and marketeers need to be one step ahead of the game at all times.

Visualise it

According to market research done by industry experts there are some clear thoughts that need to be kept in mind when looking to the near future. Looking at Facebook for example, posts that contain pictures get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs than text-based posts. With this in mind, it is going to become increasing important to produce content in visual form, whether that is images with a text overlay or pretty quote graphics. Using out of the box thinking to turn written content into visual content to make it more shareable on social media.

Build the connection

Everyone knows that people love to buy, but they hate to be sold to and this is a fundamental point in companies selling strategies. Companies that show good connection to their target audience through discount and a sense of insight and transparency always seem to come out on top. A knock on effect of this is that a lot currently rides on the shoulders of social media marketers and PR pros. They have to be on top of the brand voice and any current company promotions or campaigns. This is also on the rise as the world is taken over by digital social media.

Satisfy

Some say that, now LinkedIn can be connected to both Facebook and Twitter, it will become a premium destination for PR news and that those taking part in that ecosystem are on the right road to future success. Moreover, simple messages and simple questions/discussion point aren’t enough anymore, customers and target audiences want to be connected with on a deeper, more intelligent level, such as videos, quality images or live polls. There is also more of an emphasis on looking after the fans/customers you have rather than the ones you want because if your message is always about the fan/customers you want to reach you will bore the ones you already have. Keep the ones you have happy and they will do the reaching out for you, free of charge!

This year we have already seen the bar raised in the type of content on social media, for example the number of tweets containing images and I think it is safe to say that the bar will be pushed progressively higher during 2014 with content across all social media channels becoming more and more interactive. The advice would be, if you haven’t already started thinking and implementing ways to make your content more interactive, get your skates on……it needs to be a focus!