When it comes to modern marketing tactics, digital marketing is where you need to be to pull in more people nowadays. Believe it or not, a massive aspect to modern digital marketing is investing in effective social media management. Nearly everyone can be found on at least one social media platform, making platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook critical locations for marketing, and each has their own unique demographic. Knowing the details about each social media platform, their major audiences, and how to write for each can be an overwhelming task. This is why hiring a social media marketing agency can be a great investment. We at MyCity Social are one such company offering both search engine optimization and social media marketing Florida businesses trust to help them expand their reach. Whether you’re a native Floridian in Fort Lauderdale, or a client from anywhere else in the country, we have the experience and the skills to help you better understand the impact of effective social media marketing. With this in mind, we’d like to discuss several different trends in modern social media marketing that everyone should know.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media is more than just a way to instant message with your friends and family, or share pictures with them. It’s not just users who have profiles, but businesses and brands as well. Social media is a way that businesses have learned to use to reach out to their audiences as well, and this works in many ways. Yes, online ads exist, and you can use them to market your product or service to the periphery of web users, but genuine social media usage is the big way that companies are able to reach more viewers. Posting about your brand and creating interactive ways for your audience to interact with your posts establishes a deeper connection with your audience that sticks.
How a Social Media Marketing Agency Comes in Handy
Naturally, as the technology of social media grew, so did our understanding of it. This also means many people have studied it, and now, that information holds a lot of value. A social media specialist will have a much deeper understanding of how social media works, and how to convince an audience to interact. There are many helpful tools that social media specialists will know, and agencies will have teams of these specialists that will know how to help your business achieve new reaches. Here are some numbers to show just how much reach effective social media strategies can have:
Age Groups and Social Media and Cable/Satellite TV Usage in the United States (According to Pew Research).
- 18 – 29 Year Olds
- Nearly 90% use social media. About 31% use cable or satellite TV.
- 30 – 49 Year Olds
- Nearly 80% use social media. About 52% use cable or satellite TV.
- 50 – 64 Year Olds
- Nearly 65% use social media. About 70% use cable or satellite TV.
- 65+ Year Olds
- Nearly 40% use social media. Nearly 85% use cable or satellite TV.
In short, the vast majority of United States citizens are using at least one form of social media. Meanwhile, cable and satellite TV are on the decline. As an example, if you were to rely on TV commercials only, you’d be missing out on exposure to almost half of all Americans under the age of 50. Additionally, many methods of marketing through social media are significantly cheaper than paying for commercials, giving you room to consider hiring the help of a professional. Now that you understand more about social media marketing and the benefits of hiring a professional, let’s talk about those social media trends.
Trend 1: Video Content Is Prefered
At the moment, this trend is one that still has split opinions. That said, over half of professional digital marketing companies agree that it’s the best format for online content, and that this will become more apparent in the coming years. It makes sense too. Many people scrolling through Facebook aren’t stopping to read the posts, but for video content or pictures that catch their eye. If not Facebook, then there are also platforms like Snapchat and TikTok which rely almost exclusively on images and videos with little-to-no texting going on, and that’s not even mentioning the giant that is YouTube.
Naturally, these are all different formats, and the key to effective digital marketing is knowing how to communicate with the audiences of each. A social media marketing specialist would know this information and be able to customize a large array of content for different websites to help you attract your audience. It comes down to elements of good storytelling to help capture the attention of your viewers while also captivating them, and holding onto them for the duration of the video. This translates to our second trend.
Trend 2: Fleeting Storytelling
When communicating with your audience, there’s an aspect of storytelling that goes into your branding and your communication. The internet is flooded with content, so you need your content to stand out again the digital sea of competition. What’s particularly unique about storytelling through social media is how short-lived it is. Posts have an incredibly short lifespan before falling back into obscurity. On one hand, this gives brands a lot of opportunities to experiment and explore different storytelling methods. On the other hand, it also means brands need to pump out large quantities of different posts and stories to stay relevant.
Playing to this element is called ephemeral content storytelling and can allow brands to showcase a lot of creativity and uniqueness to their audience. We love good stories, so being able to share quick, snappy ones can do a lot in the efforts of holding onto an audience. This is especially true on a platform like Twitter. Stories can also work really well in building a bond between your brand and your consumers.
More than storytelling is also elements of communication. What are you ultimately trying to say to your viewers? It’s a question you need to think about as you develop story content. Communication in general is an important thing, and brands willing to reach out to their audience can establish stronger bonds. Consumers will care more about your brand if they feel properly treated and respected by you.
Trend 3: Influencer Market
While we’re on the topic of trust, we should go over the power that is social media influencers. An influencer is someone with a large following on social media. YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are all hot platforms where many big named-influencers are reaching hundreds of thousands–if not millions– of people on a regular basis. Millennials and Gen Z kids in particular are following lots of big-name influencers, and even some smaller ones too.
There’s something about how influencers interact with their content to create a sensation of bonding between them and the viewer that begins to blur the lines between friend and stranger. It’s the level of intimacy that social media can have, allowing viewers to learn a lot more about the influencers that they follow even down to knowing the layout of their homes. This naturally creates a solid foundation of trust, so when an influencer shows off a product they’re using, the viewer wants to use it too. This can work the other way around too. Much like how we’re likely to take our friend’s word if they had a bad experience at a restaurant or other business, many viewers may react the same to a similar response to an influencer they follow. One thing’s for sure: influencers are not to be underestimated.
Who Is MyCity Social?
We at MyCity Social are a digital marketing company that specializes in search engine optimization services and social media management. Our specialists have the experience and knowledge of how online marketing works and can use that information to assist our clients in reaching new audiences. Search engine optimization as an option is all about improving your brand’s appearance on search engine results pages to help people find your business sooner than others. Together, with both SEO and digital marketing skills, our team can help our clients significantly improve their brand outreach. Doing so grants more views, and more views means more business.
For Social Media Marketing Florida Businesses Trust, Contact Us
Now that you know more about what social media marketing is, the value of hiring a social media marketing agency, and several major trends the category, you may be wondering what the next step is. If you’re looking to branch out your marketing and reach new ground, then you’ll want to get behind social media marketing yourself. MyCity Social is a digital marketing company offering services in search engine optimization and social media marketing Florida businesses trust. No matter if you’re in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere else, we can work with you to expand your social media network and reach new consumers. Don’t wait, call today and learn more about the services we provide and how they’ll help you expand your market.
