Spring is here, which means flowers are starting to bloom, the cold winter air is drifting away, and it’s time to get rid of the clutter in your life with a little spring cleaning. This may involve cleaning out your desk, vacuuming under your couch, or clearing off that layer of dust that may be clogging your company’s social media strategy.
Social media is a powerful way for companies to reach prospective customers and build meaningful connections that drive long-term brand loyalty. During the pandemic especially, social media became a primary way for people to stay connected. But as it continued to evolve, it went from being an opportunity to connect with everyone about everything to developing a niche audience and a community.
TikTok is a prime example of a social media platform that has developed a unique algorithm to target individual audiences. The highly personalized TikTok algorithm that fuels the “For You” feed is what makes the app so addictive, but as it expands to 10-minute videos, how will this affect how brands advertise and communicate through the platform?
At launch, TikTok videos were limited to 15-seconds, then increased to 60-seconds, and then tripled to three minutes in July 2021. With TikTok recently announcing expanding to 10-minute videos, many brands may just take existing brand videos, like commercials or infomercials, and upload them onto the platform; however, that won’t necessarily get them the engagement they expect. Users’ attention spans are relatively short while scrolling through the platform, which is why the engagement marks on those 15-second videos are still much higher than two-minute videos.
As social media channels, like TikTok, continue to evolve, companies may feel overwhelmed about how to best communicate brand messaging to a targeted audience. So, for this year’s spring cleaning tradition, we came up with a few tips on how to dust off your social media strategy and stay ahead of the game:
To effectively freshen up your social media strategy, dive deeply into the insights and analytics of your company’s main social channels to see what’s working and what to shed in the cold. Review your first quarter or year-end results to understand what platforms have been more impactful with your audience. There might be a certain theme of content your audience is really reacting to, so start from there! Going back to the metrics will help to eliminate any bias of what you think you should be posting or what you like to post, and will help your company focus on what’s really working toward your goals.
With LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more, there are a multitude of social media channels that brands are trying to tackle at once. Streamlining and distributing content on one channel as opposed to five different channels can help your company maintain focus on your audience and high engagement marks. Not every channel may help you reach your target audience, so focusing on one and potentially replicating what you’re doing on one or two others can be more beneficial than attacking multiple channels at once.
Regularly updating your profile picture or cover photos with your latest branding and marketing materials is a great way to boost brand awareness. Also, make sure to look through your social media bios and profile descriptions to ensure you’re using up-to-date and consistent language to create a big impact on the impression your company gives to audiences.
The purpose of spring cleaning is to clear away the mess that winter might have brought along. However, your company’s social media strategy is not something you can store away in your garage for you to revisit later. It’s time to roll up your sleeves, focus on your company’s goals, and start dusting off your social media strategy to have it ready for spring.