Social Media Marketing 2022
Did you know the average adult spends approximately 1.5 hours each day on social media. As usage continues to grow, so to do the opportunities for business owners to leverage these platforms with sound marketing strategies. But with so many different platforms, developing a plan can often be overwhelming. For this reason we put together our 2022 guide on Social Media Marketing.
Pick your top 5
Getting started can be a whole lot easier if you focus your efforts on a handful of platforms. Today we will be talking about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, the strategies employed here can be used on all platforms. To get started, I’d like to talk about measuring growth. After all, the main goal here is growth that ultimately leads to increased sales.
Number of followers is one of the main ways to measure growth. If your followers on a platform are regularly increasing, odds are you are doing something right. Engagement is just as important. People interacting with your posts and leaving comments or likes not only increases your presence but validates that your marketing efforts are working.
Develop A Plan
Posting at random times on random days is fine. But developing a schedule and sticking to it will ultimately produce better results. At Picnic, we’ve found that certain days and times work better for different platforms. A question we are often asked is how often should I be posting? Start out simple is usually what we reply. Try not to overwhelm yourself or your viewers with too much content.
Frequency depends on the platform. For example a video added to youtube may take some time to develop and produce whereas a photo posted on instagram is much quicker and easier. Below is a general timeframe you can follow along with the best times to post:
2-3 times per week
Posts generally receive more interaction between 1-3pm with 18% higher engagement rates on Thursdays and Fridays
2-3 times per week
Best times to post: Mondays at 11am, Tuesdays & Wednesdays 10-1pm, Thursdays & Fridays 10-11am
Youtube
2-3 times per month
Highest level of engagement occurs on Fridays and Saturdays
2-3 times per week
Best times to post: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 8am-10am, Thursdays & Fridays 9am
2-3 times per week
Best times to post: Mondays 8am, Thursdays 8am
What To Post
This is the fun part. Where you get to be creative with the content you are posting. What’s most important here is keeping track of what works. Below we’ve included ideas for posts that you can use:
Leverage the networks of your employees
Most successful businesses will tell you that they owe their success to the strength of their employees. Yet most do not use the networks of their employees on social media to grow their companies. The idea here is to find creative ways to include your employees in your posts. This could be an employee of the week post with a short bio or maybe just a photo highlighting that employee doing something on the job.
Either way you’ll want to leverage the networks of your employees by having them share the post on their networks as well. People get to see what it is their friend is doing for work and your company gets some great exposure.
Company Outings
Hopefully your company is already hosting company outings on a somewhat regular basis. If you’re not you should seriously consider doing so. Aside from being a great team building experience, these outings make for great social media posts. Be sure to find the right hashtags of the business you are visiting as you may find your way into their social media feed.
Featuring Local Art
Depending on the type of business you own, it may make sense to purchase or feature artwork from local artists in your city. You get a chance to attract new viewers with interesting content and you give a local artist the opportunity to feature their work as well. We call this method ‘Mutual Sharing’ and it can be used with just about any business.
The business you are interacting with gets exposure on your social media feed and you get exposure on theirs. Other opportunities for ‘Mutual Sharing’ include company lunches where you order food from a certain restaurant and post about it while they post about having you as a customer on that day.
A new client would also present a good opportunity for ‘Mutual Sharing’. Your post could read something like: ‘Excited to be working with XYZ company. They do XYZ and incredible work.’
Blog Posts
This one might seem like a no brainer but you’d be surprised at how many companies write blog posts and don’t feature them on their social media. A blog post can take a considerable amount of time and effort and if the content is interesting to your viewers it can produce a lot of engagement. One simple strategy here is creating an infographic with some text that highlights the post and then featuring it on your feed.
Feature a Regular
Most businesses have some customers who frequent their business on a regular basis. Consider writing a post about one of these individuals with a short description explaining how they came to frequent your business and why they keep coming back. Maybe include a favorite dish or service that the person purchases.
The Importance of Hashtags
Posting great content is a waste of time if you don’t properly tag your content. On most social media platforms you are able to add hashtags that explain what you are posting. Doing a bit of research here to find the right hashtags will help you produce better results. Take a look at your competitors and what they are posting. Find out what hashtags they are using and see if these are applicable to your post as well. 5-10 hashtags per post is appropriate and will get you noticed on more social media feeds.
Just a Start
We hope you enjoyed the post. Keep in mind that social media growth can take some time but setting a schedule and sticking to it is the best way to get started. If you’re interested in more creative ways to grow your brand please contact Picnic and we would be happy to set up a free consultation. Cheers from all of us at Picnic.
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