4 Easy Social Media Tips for More Engagement

Social media provides a cost-effective platform to reach a global audience. With billions of users on various social media platforms, companies can increase brand visibility, engage directly with customers, and drive website traffic.

Small businesses can utilize these platforms to build brand awareness, showcase their products or services, and run targeted advertising campaigns (we’ll touch on this topic next week). By establishing a strong social media presence, business owners can level the playing field with their competitors and create meaningful connections with their target audience.

1) Provide Value with Your Content

Creating your business pages for social media is one thing, but to connect with your audience, you need to give them a reason to follow your page.

If you go to a small business’ Instagram page and see their last post was 3 years ago, or if their content is stale and uninteresting, what is there to gain by following their channel? People use social media for 2 main reasons: learning and/or entertainment. There is more that goes into that, but users follow businesses because their pages provide useful information or humor.

Jeep’s Instagram page shows off their colorful vehicles, customer testimonials, and cute dogs!

2) Plan Out Your Posts Ahead of Time

There are plenty of third-party websites that help with content management and scheduling. For Facebook and Instagram, Meta Business Suite includes a calendar feature that allows users to schedule posts days, weeks, or months ahead. An easy strategy would be to make a graphic for each holiday and schedule them accordingly. From there, plan out content that is relevant to the time of year and in line with customer behavior.

Navigate to the “Planner” tab in Meta Business Suite to create and schedule posts across Instagram and Facebook.

3) Follow Industry Leaders

This can be applied across all areas of a business, but if you need inspiration for how to best reach your customers, simply see what the other guys are doing. No matter the industry, take note of what tactics, engagement strategies, and word choices are used across your competitors’ social pages.

4) Be Authentic With Your Content

It seems like every week there is a new trend taking social media platforms by storm. No platform is more tailored for spreading trends than TikTok. While this makes for easy content ideas, ensuring the photos and videos you post align with your brand voice is important.

You won’t see a company like Goldman Sachs uploading videos of their employees doing the gritty, or Berkshire Hathaway doing the One Chip Challenge. The reason is these would be wildly out of line with their brand, which only harms their reputation by joining the trends.

Conclusion

We hope this piece is helpful for business owners seeking to stay competitive in the digital sphere. For people new to social media, the platforms may be overwhelming, but once you get a feel for them, deciding on the right content will be much easier. Just follow pages relevant to your industry and keep a mental note of how they engage their followers.

If you learned something new, we invite you to share this link with your network using one of the buttons below. Check back for more helpful tips on building your online presence and staying competitive in today’s digitized world.

The Development of Social Media: Patterns Influencing the Digital Environment in 2024

Social media is changing quickly in 2024! Keeping up with changes in technology, user behavior, and cultural trends is a lot. Below are some major trends that are influencing how we connect, share, and interact online as platforms innovate to keep users interested.

1. Dominance of Short-Form Video Content

Social media continues to favor short-form video content. Because people have shorter attention spans than ever, platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have tapped into this need by providing short bursts of entertaining content. Influencers and brands use this format to provide interesting content, frequently drawing viewers in with humor, challenges, and narrative. Short-form video is an effective means for marketing and personal branding because of its capacity to efficiently and concisely deliver messages.

2. The Rise of Niche Communities

As social media becomes more sophisticated, users are drawn into niche groups where they can interact with others who share their interests. Social networking platforms that target certain interests, such as Reddit, Discord, and groups on Facebook, provide users with a feeling of community and encourage engagement. These communities compared to typical "traditional"  social media platforms, provide a more intimate and customized experience. As a consequence, brands are focusing their marketing efforts on reaching these niche audiences and cultivating devoted customers.

3. Integration of Social Commerce

With social media incorporating shopping capabilities into their platforms, social media has developed into a major e-commerce driver with their ability to produce a seamless shopping experience. Shops on Facebook and Instagram, Buyable Pins on Pinterest, and shoppable advertisements on TikTok are just a few ways in which social media and commerce are combining. These features are being used by marketers and influencers to directly promote products in their live streams, stories, and posts. The way consumers find and buy things is being revolutionized by the integration of social commerce, which makes the buying experience more user-friendly and simple. 

4. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality

Social media is changing as a result of AR and VR technologies' ability to provide immersive and engaging experiences. Users can add digital overlays to their content to enhance it. Popular examples of such overlays are the AR lenses on Snapchat and the AR filters on Instagram. Virtual reality (VR) platforms, like Facebook's Horizon Worlds, enable the creation of virtual worlds where users may interact, network, and attend events. In addition to increasing user involvement, these technologies are giving marketers new and creative ways to market their products and build memorable, interactive campaigns. With the release of the new Apple Vision Pro earlier this year, we still have yet to understand the full potential of virtual and augmented reality. 

5. A Greater Emphasis on Security and Privacy

As worries about data security and privacy increase, social media companies are being pressured to improve their policies and standards. Consumers are demanding more control and transparency as they become more conscious of how their data is gathered and utilized. While some platforms are launching features that let users manage their data more efficiently, others, like Telegram and WhatsApp, place a strong emphasis on end-to-end encryption. Platforms are changing as a result of the privacy movement, with an emphasis on user data protection and trust-building.

6. Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Social media users and brands are placing a higher priority on sustainability and social responsibility in response to the increased public awareness of environmental and social challenges. The use of platforms to spread awareness of social justice, climate change, and ethical consumption is growing. Companies that share these ideals and show a sincere desire to bring about positive change are becoming more popular with customers. This pattern is indicative of a larger movement towards purpose-driven marketing, in which businesses should seek to improve society.

7. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Personalization

User experiences on social media are becoming increasingly personalized thanks in large part to artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms examine user behavior to identify material that suits personal tastes and improves engagement and satisfaction. Predictive analytics, automated customer support, and personalized suggestions are a few applications of artificial intelligence. By delivering more relevant and customized information, marketers can establish a deeper connection with users. 

Conclusion

So far in 2024, the social media scene has been defined by rapid innovation and evolving user habits. These trends are changing the way we engage on the internet; from the prevalence of short-form video content to the incorporation of social commerce and the growing number of niche communities. Future growth will be largely driven by platforms' continued adaptation to shifting demands, with a focus on privacy, sustainability, and customization. Keeping up with these trends is crucial for users, brands, and marketers to fully utilize social media and navigate its ever-changing landscape. Make sure to always do your homework if you are looking to be successful in today's day and age of marketing. 

Cheers.

3 SEO Sins to Avoid at All Costs

Every savvy business owner understands the importance of having a good website that clearly explains what their business does, who it serves, and why it's valuable. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about making sure your website shows up higher on Google when people search for relevant terms. Some misguided website managers will exploit Google’s algorithm with certain “black hat” techniques. These methods are not only dishonest ways of boosting a page’s position in search results but will ultimately lead to being penalized by the search engine, sometimes even removing the website from search results entirely.

Hidden Text:

Concealing keywords by making it white font on a white background or making the size 0-point font is a cheap way of incorporating relevant terms on a website. For instance, a website centered on aviation training might covertly embed phrases like "Aviation training essentials" or “Pilot Prep Courses” in illegible font. However, this tactic contravenes Google's guidelines and is liable to elicit disciplinary measures, potentially culminating in exclusion from Google's search index.

Keyword Stuffing:

While strategic incorporation of keywords is essential for SEO, excessive repetition can yield adverse results. Google's algorithm is fine-tuned in discerning unnatural keyword density, and websites guilty of "keyword stuffing" risk undermining their credibility and search ranking. To use the aviation training website as another example, a black hat technique would involve overuse of the phrase “aviation training”, or slight variations, in an unnatural repetitive tone.

Buying Backlinks:

Backlinks, when other websites link to yours, are great for boosting your site's credibility. But purchasing backlinks from is against Google's rules. If Google suspects you're paying for links from shady sources, your site could be penalized.

Avoiding these mistakes is key to improving your website's Google ranking. Stay tuned for our next session, where we'll share five practical tips for driving more traffic to your site.