The upsurge of social media marketing among competitive companies and active millennials inundates marketers. Utilizing its influential power, many brands are generating triple fold on investments.
According to the Emarsys 2019 report, there are over 3.2 billion active social media users, which equates to 42% of the global population. Moreover, 90% of users reach out to brands on social media to interact with products.
To extract maximum outcomes from the leading social platforms, brands are introducing innovative forms with a diverse flair in marketing.
Sound tactics and captivating techniques are used to engage consumers. Humanizing brands, staying updated with news, offering deals and being interactive are a few prominent trump cards of giants in the digital world.
Lo and behold, the year 2019 is revealing some massive innovations and gems of social media techniques. Since online competition for attention is growing by the minute, you need to expand your reach in every direction to be consistent with your target audience. You need to practice techniques that promise progressive benefits. So, follow these five social media techniques to surpass your rivals this year.
1. User-generated content
“The next wave of the Web is going to be user-generated content.” – John Doerr, Venture Capitalist.
You may be speaking a lot about your brand through promotional campaigns, but now you have to go on board more authoritatively. You have to show your consumers how your business works and what other customers think about your services.
User-generated content (UGC) provides information about companies from a customer’s experience. It comprises of any content created by an unpaid contributor – mainly a fan, follower or a customer. UGC doubles your overall credibility, expands a business’ online reach, and boosts the click-through rates of your campaigns. Instagram is considered as the hub of UGC where over 60 million images are uploaded daily. As per a report, around 64% of consumers prefer to use UGC to make a decision.
GoPro – a renowned camera manufacturing company – has utilized user-generated content to strengthen its clientele. By uploading customer videos and shots using their efficient wearables, the company started a couple of YouTube channels. Within days, GoPro turned into a viral sensation.
Image Source: Adweek
2. Micro influencers
Be the maestro of social media marketing by getting in touch with reliable micro-influencers. Do not build hopes to expand your clientele by paying huge bucks to highly influential personalities for promoting your products. The follower count does not define the worth of an influencer.
You need to look for a prospective customer instead of mere leads. Online customers follow micro influencers to gather honest reviews and feedback about products. As per the Izea report, online users trust micros influencers. Apart from this, Adweek reports that influencers who have fewer followers generate higher engagement rates.
Airbnb took a meticulous approach and reached out to both, highly renowned influencers as well as micro-influencers, to promote the company. Influencers included personalities from the entertainment industry like Lady Gaga and many other community bloggers and travelers.
Having a fan-base of over 25 million Instagram followers, Lady Gaga posted a single tweet about her stay at a Airbnb Houston property, back in 2017. Producing an enormous online exposure for Airbnb, she received over 4,000 comments and half a million likes.
3. Humor
Humor surely is the spice of life, and if you manage to pull it off in your promotional campaigns, you can skyrocket your online reach. Being funny is considered a powerful tactic to boost user engagement.
If you find your product way too technical or mundane to grab one’s attention, you can sprinkle a bit of humor to lift its essence and highlight its significant features. It can be your equalizer and a trick to bring customers closer. Moreover, humorous promotions persuade and engage around 36% of consumers on a social platform to make a purchase.
The American chain of delicious fast food restaurant, Taco Bell, is known for its humor-induced marketing. Having a clear insight about youth demographics, the food chain produces light, fresh, and exciting content that creates exceptional outcomes. It has been using humor as its major play to capture attention for years.
In 2014, Taco Bell introduced the much-talked-about social media campaign Blackout mainly to create buzz for its new app. The campaign aimed to grab attention for the launch of the Taco Bell app, which worked so well that within the first 24 hours, the app became one of the most downloaded apps in the App Store.
Around 75% of the orders were made through it, and it turned out to be a real game changer. Therefore, you need to act a bit different if you want to do something bigger.
4. Customer service
Entrepreneurs are reaping the rewards out of social media platforms by improvising their customer service. The premier brands are leveraging their business growth and providing a more profitable source to bring customers closer. Just by working on delivering interactive and professional customer service, businesses can accelerate revenue generation, online visibility, and customer reach.
Incredible customer service provides coveted firsthand customer interactions to brands and promotes their business exceptionally. Among the many criteria involved in enhancing customer service, transparency enjoys the leading spot.
Listen to your customers and allow them access to every video and post present on your profiles. As per the statistics, customers receiving a response on Twitter spend 20% more, along with recommending brands 30% more actively.
Starbucks is yet another example of maintaining an efficient online presence on social media platforms. The renowned food chain runs active profiles and keeps its customers up to date. Interacting with them and responding to their every issue is their prime goal. Starbucks harnesses the true power of social sites and seeks motivation from meaningful feedback.
Back in 2012, the company committed to delivering efficient and uninterrupted customer support. From swiftly responding to issues to accepting criticism professionally, Starbucks took the move to strengthen its clientele. The company answers queries and welcomes positive feedback. A separate Twitter account – @MyStarbucksIdeas was established to receive every single customer query. It now has over 55,000 followers.
5. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence – the powerful bots that assure prosperity and unstoppable advancement – has been making its way towards social media platforms. Over the years, AI has truly transformed social media marketing. From carrying out behavioral detection to capturing the exact needs and attention of the target audience, it has opened a new avenue for brands to thrive.
The launch of Chatbots brought an upturn in the customer interaction for many eCommerce platforms. Offering personalized and customized services became the trend of the decade as marketers began to detect the preferences of their audience.
Moreover, over 80% of marketers have started to use images in carrying out social networking. As the use of images arose on social platforms, image recognition software was built to assist marketers. The bots analyze what people want to help you tailor your services.
Many companies and reputable brands are counting on AI to accelerate their business growth. Sephora – a beauty retailer – uses AI messenger bots to interact with their customers. The company serves millions of customers efficiently without experiencing any trouble or flaw.
“This allows us to provide richer, more varied conversations that ensure clients get exactly what they want out of the experience,” – Mary Beth Laughton, vice president.
Wrap up
Social media is showing advancements that mainly revolve around customer experience and the introduction of innovative technologies. If you want to survive the wild competitive waves within the digital world, you need to step ahead with something that’s different and appealing. Find your grounds and take a leap to success.
