The Social Media Landscape in 2020 by Nexa

SOCIAL MEDIA IN

2020

CONTENTS THE LATEST BACK TO BASICS Touching base on social media strategy, marketing, campaigns, lead generation and advertising GETTING SPECIFIC INDUSTRY OUTLOOK Social media for various industries including luxury, automotive, hotel, B2B, retail, hotels and healthcare

THE SCENE IN 2020 CONTEXT Social media's advantages and disadvantages, plus the introduction of social shopping and the benefits of the socials during a recession

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3 IDEALS:

INTRO-2020 STRATEGY an introduction to social media marketing in the new normal

Strategies need to be tailored to suit specific needs and will specify decisions on the management of social media channels and the kind of online presence you want your business to have. This will include the kind of content you share, the way you communicate with your audience, your plans for advertising and the overall methods you engage with for engagement and sales.

Your strategy should be able to cover plans on a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. The strategy needs to include your planning and publishing schedule, as well as the budgets, social media channels and content pillars. Commit to having content has value, aspiration, uniqueness and a living lifecycle.

This is what will spark shareable content and conversions.

The strategy explains the frequency (of posting and traffic generation), generating leads (as well as increasing your reach and following), engaging and nurturing those leads and finally the customer (acquisition, retention and support).

You need skilled personnel to implement the necessary tasks.

Keep in mind the following roles and responsibilities: Planning, community management, content creators, ad buyers and analysts.

Emphasise the unique selling point: It is as important as ever to clearly communicate what makes your business distinctive. With so many options and algorithms, bringing a sense of creativity to your strategy is key in correctly communicating what makes you special and more importantly, worthy of the time and investment by your audience.

Be content-wise: Consider the kind of content you supply to a given audience on a platform carefully in order to remain relevant in the given context and offer value, rather than being seen as a hindrance.

You’ll need to tailor your content to fit the platform, use multi-media and execute it well.

Transparency: Be clear and firm in your business’s affiliations. This is what builds trust and community.

The key is to have a specific voice and beliefs as an organisation - don’t be afraid to get involved in relevant conversations in a way that will resonate with your audience.

KEY TRENDS FOR 2020: Focus on traffic, not vanity likes. Focus instead on real time engagement by commenting, interacting with and earning testimonials. In line with this, Instagram will be putting more emphasis on call to action buttons, challenges and quizzes on stories and an overall focus on stories.

Build community by finding your audiences.

Facebook Groups is set to be the future of Facebook, so include those in your plans for the platform.

Augmented reality continues to grow, especially on Snapchat and Instagram. This is a great opportunity for users to test products when online shopping, or to join in on events remotely.

Responsive search ads continue to outperform standard internet search ads thanks to AI (artificial intelligence). This will change your strategy when it comes to advertising to allow for wordier texts of more in depth descriptions that are optimised and viewed when people do relevant searches.

Video content continues to dominate - both live and pre-filmed and edited content. This will hold the attention of your audience far better than images do.

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS customer expectations & tactics

RESPONSIVE: Customers expect speedy responses to their questions and comments. This requires someone who knows the brand voice and can provide answers to common questions as instantaneity as possible.

VIDEO: Video content shows no signs of slowing down.

Incorporate this into your content plans, both in live video content that you share on Stories, as well as polished and edited high quality video posts to drive engagement from your audience.

COMMUNITY: Building a community of loyal followers remains a key goal to have, but it is also important for your business to show that it is a valuable part of a larger community too.

SOCIAL LISTENING: This term refers to marketers being highly attuned to their audiences online. Be receptive to their behaviours and attitudes, not only in relation to your business, but in relation to the world at large so that you can understand their values, speak their language and remain relevant.

STORIES: Content that disappears every 24 hours continues to gain popularity as audiences want to see what is happening in real time. This content is intensive to create and is not yet supported by social media scheduling apps. However, the engagement is worth the effort and presents a great opportunity to showcase creativity.

TRUST: Audiences want to be assured that a business is transparent in their dealings and communicative of that online.

Shared values create a loyal following, especially during a time when people are untrusting.

COMMERCE: Commerce via social media is beginning to take off and should be considered for your strategy. It feeds into the desire for attaining things at the click of a finger, creating ease for the customer and increased sales for the business.

INFLUENCERS: They are still an important aspect of social media marketing, though they need to be authentic and able to show a return on investment for the business.

USER GENERATED CONTENT: A great way to show appreciation for your followers is to share their content. There are many content creators in their own right who share high quality and quirky content.

This content resonates with others and is a great support to the influencer strategy without requiring a budget.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Developments in technology continue to soar and with that are two trends: augmented reality and interactivity on social media. Augmented reality assists in creating an in-store experience from home as customers are easily able to try things on with filters, for instance.

The interactivity is in the form of quizzes which people find pleasure in taking part in.

TIKTOK: The TikTok boom continues to grow and is the next platform for social media marketers. With more than 800 million active users, this is primarily home to Generation Z (aged 16-24). This is where to reach a youthful, creative audience who will become the future generation of buyers.

MESSAGING APPS: With privacy concerns and some people deciding to take social media detoxes, messaging apps allow for customers to interact with a brand on a more personal level. The direct communication should be personalised where possible and can be automated with chat bots. It is an important additive function as it fosters intimate relations with your customer base.

VIDEO CONTENT

It is no secret that social media videos have become the most engaging content on social media platforms. For a business to succeed in the social sphere, your business needs to be sharing effective, high quality videos.

They’re more engaging than both text and static imagery combined. This kind of content captures the attention of the viewer who invests their time in watching, then reciprocates the effort by commenting and sharing. It is this content that has the greatest potential to go viral.

TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEOS Video content is incredibly versatile, as there is a myriad of content you can shoot and share with your audience. As with all marketing, the purpose is to entertain, inspire or educate your audience. Some of the options are: • • • • • • • • •

Q&A Vlog Behind the scenes Feature Promotions Announcements Events Tutorials Animated

WHAT AN AGENCY CAN DO An agency provides you with expertise in marketing and content creation that can assist your brand in creating highly effective, quality content. Some of the determining factors they’ll help you decide upon and work on are: • • • • • • • •

Sound Captions Organic or paid Live or pre-recorded The platforms Trending topics Style The length

TIKTOK the new (strong) kid on the block

This is a newly launched venture for TikTok, who are growing their advertising potential. The idea is not to make ads, but TikTok's. This philosophy is one that is in line with the Gen Zs who want to see content that has an authentic feel and matches the platform's lightheartedness.

With this advertising option, businesses can become part of pop culture and advertise through storytelling as a means of reaching the youth and growing their digital marketing on the growing digital platform. Up until this point, advertising has been limited on the platform, but that is now changing. Under the label TikTok for business, brands will be encouraged to join the platform and make use of one of their 4 types of ads. With this comes the opportunity for discovery and connection with newer audiences. The app is formalising its advertising with brands so that the process is straightforward for marketers to follow.

With these changes, the app is still heavily centred on the user experience, which is important for brands to keep in mind - creativity is required for your campaigns.

The ad options available

TikTok is the most recent social media platform to experience exponential growth. The advertising potential is growing just as quickly with the recent introduction of TikTok for Business to streamline the process. Heres all you need to know about how your business can get started TikTok for Business To create an ad on TikTok, you can create mini stories and share tidbits of relevant content with your audience. An example of this would be Seventeen magazine. They have garnered a large following and share sneak peaks of the magazine, tutorials and reposts of some of their favourite clips from their followers.

There are options available to marketers, from hashtag challenges to working with influencers. The content heavily circulated on the platform includes quick and easy to make video clips with low production costs, offering a more real perspective when compared to other more visually refined platforms.

Even if your brand seems a little off centre when considering the above, it is noteworthy to mention that several well known brands have found success when experimenting with TikTok content.

TikTok advertising The TikTok platform is used mainly by younger audiences (between sixteen and twenty four year olds), so one needs to first ensure that this is the demographic you are appealing to. It is available in over one hundred and fifty markets, in more than seventy languages.

In-stream video: These are biddable ads which will fit into a persons feed just as any other video would. They can be targeted based on age, gender, location and interests. These models cover CPclick, CPM and CPView. (which counts when a user has to watch your ad for more than 6 seconds).

Brand takeover: Only one advertiser can use this ad per day, meaning its difficult to attain and expensive. This type of ad is viewable as a user opens the app and can take users to the TikTok profile or to an external site.

Hashtag challenge: These are themed contests that last for 6 days. They are unique, fun and shareable content that users can join in and contribute to.

Branded lenses: These are specific filters that create an augmented reality for the user.

TopView: These are the ads which appear at the top of the feed once the app is opened.

Influencers: Partnerships with influential users that identify with your brand as a means to reach their audience.

FUTURE OF INFLUENCERS

changes to metrics on social media, such as the removal of the number of likes, a vanity metric that is no longer used to justify the value of an influencer.

Now, influencers are being held accountable to trackable metrics that result in actual leads and conversions.

PLATFORMS In its early days, Instagram influencers dominated the industry. The platform wasnt geared towards businesses, so it made sense to work with people who could incorporate and share content on behalf of a business and tag or mention them. However, Instagram is changing with the introduction of Instagram Shopping. The platform prefers advertising from businesses as it generates more revenue that way, and now with shoppable posts, the need to work with influencers will likely come into question for many brands. In addition to this, there has been a boom in influencers across other social media platforms, most notably on TikTok and YouTube. On TikTok, businesses are incorporating interactive partnerships that have a high potential to go viral, while YouTube being the second most popular search engine has several influencers who mention products in their videos as an effective way of sharing with their audience.

TYPES

Influencer marketing has reached a point of maturity, having been a growing phenomenon over the last few years. Naysayers continue their narrative that the influencer bubble is going to pop and on the other hand, reports expect the industry to be worth $10 billion by the end of the year. So, what is the future of social media influencers?

THE FUTURE 2020 has introduced a myriad of lifestyle changes to people across the globe. This has affected trends in online marketing and consumer behaviour. The general shift toward increasing sensitivities online and trust issues have affected the way influencer marketing works. Now more than ever, the partnerships that businesses have with influencers need to have matching values that extend beyond a specific campaign.

People are still naturally inclined to use word of mouth and a longing to fit in as a means of making purchasing decisions, so the influencer remains relevant. Once they have secured the trust of their audience, they can be very successful in their ability to influence the purchasing decisions of their social media followers. With more and more of life moving online, social media is key to reaching audiences - and influencers open the door to many opportunities for your business in terms of their ability to create awareness, draw traffic and drive sales.

RELATIONSHIPS The relationships between influencers and businesses is changing. Businesses are opting for long term partnerships with people that are less transactional. This means there will be less gifting in favour of affiliate marketing and commission rates.

This secures the investment made and requires there to be a ROI. This will move these relationships to brand ambassador figures, who a company hires on a contractual basis to help them reach specific goals. This change has been inspired by

Influencers are now being seen as referred to as creators. This is evident on both TikTok and Instagram. The future sees a change in the kinds of influential people that brands choose to work with.

This will include a decrease in celebrity influencers, who often simply promote and rely on their reach rather than engagement at a high cost. Instead, micro influencers will be the way forward, as engagement and trust is highly valued. Over and above this, customers are becoming influencers of sorts, as the caliber of content posted has increased, allowing for brands to share user generated content, which is highly favoured by audiences, coming in at no cost at all. Finally, employees are becoming influential too, as they can be seen as insider representatives of a brand who share its values. This is most prevalent on the social media platform LinkedIn.

CONTENT Social media provides a plethora of ways to share content. Smartphones are well equipped to create multimedia content, but it is the quality and creativity thereof that separate the amateurs from the creators. In line with online marketing trends for 2020, video content is most popular and brings in the highest levels of engagement. It is therefore important for influencers to master videos, both in pre-shot and edited form and social media live streams. An important aspect that needs to be included here is the ability to effectively tell stories, as people want to see how the product or service being promoted fits into the influencers lifestyle there needs to be relational context rather than straightforward marketing.

WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS

THE ROLE OF INFLUENCERS First things first, the perception of influencers needs to be clear.

They are content creators who bring fresh perspectives to your marketing. Businesses work with them to increase their reach, drive more traffic to their channels and websites and to deliver subliminal marketing messages that ultimately lead to conversions.

Depending on where the influencer resides, there will be certain guidelines and regulations that need to be followed. Youll notice that sponsored posts and adverts are labelled as such. Since the influencer has an audience who is genuinely interested in them and their life, they have a responsibility to those people to share meaningful content that aligns with their values. This creates bonds based on trust, which can be very powerful in their ability to influence the buying power of their audience.

WHY BUSINESSES WORK WITH INFLUENCERS Businesses have reported that working with influencers results in content that is on par with or better than the content the business produces. Their posts are highly valuable as they generate high engagement levels which translates into high quality leads. While a business can create its own marketing campaigns, an influencer can showcase their own creativity, making your product or service relevant to the lifestyle of that audience. They are often in the know when it comes to trends and their content has the ability to captivate and inspire thanks to the insertion of a unique personality. This can help in creating broader campaigns in a way that does not create extra work or costs for marketing teams.

TIPS ON WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS Research: When deciding which influencers to work with, one needs to research people who are complementary to your brand and established within their niche. Once you approach them, they will need to consider your offering and how it fits in with their values, audience and editorial calendar. You can find them through social media, internet searches or Buzzsumo, a site that enables you to see popular posts based on certain keywords. Once you approach them, you need to communicate with them in a way that is both personal and professional.

Permission and ownership: It is important for businesses to take into consideration the contracts they have with influencers. They should aim to gain copyrights over the content that the influencer produces, so that it can be repurposed for your online marketing channels, such as inclusions in your email newsletters, your own social media account or even incorporated onto your website.

This will ensure that the deal your strike with the influencer has a longer lifespan and can be optimised for optimal results. Finally, aim to increase your visibility and leverage as much exposure as you can by requesting Story content and including a call to action and Management: Since your marketing team is working with a content creator, you need to let go of creative control to a certain extent.

Influencers need room to create content that fits in with their aesthetic and provides a new angle to your offering. The relationship you have with the influencer should not be one that is micro-managed.

The marketing team needs to monitor the content as it goes out and engage with it from your businesss account too with comments and likes.

Payments: While there are various ways of calculating rates, there should be a flat rate involved for content creators. This is because of the time and effort they put into creating the content, as well as the cost of the reach that they can provide you with.

You can choose to implement different strategies of incentives, such as affiliate marketing or commission based payments. Other than monetary value, one can incorporate gifting and product samples to review.

Strategy: Your strategy begins with one foundational aspect: quality. High quality of content is paramount to influencer marketing being successful. The strategy you decide on needs to ultimately utilise these quality posts to increase the reach, engagement and relevance of your brand. If that is not carried out successfully or to the best ability quality-wise, it will result in a negative brand association.

Tracking: There are various different deals you can negotiate with influencers, however your marketing team will need to monitor and track the performance of their posts in order to determine if the partnership is yielding results. Providing feedback is a step often missed, but is important for all parties involved.

SOCIAL SHOPPING A GUIDE TO FACEBOOK SHOP Are you a small business looking to trade online? Even if you’ve already got your own e-commerce site, Facebook is making it possible for you to sell directly through their platform. This will expand your online shopping presence and make the social shopping experience better for customers. Heres a guide on how to set up you shop and why you need one.

One of the biggest benefits of this development is that you’ll be able to reach a broader audience. Facebook has over 2 billion active users every single month, with active users spending an average of 40 minutes on the app a day. This offers your business the opportunity to increase its visibility and boost sales. Facebook Shops are also designed to be user friendly, making the shopping process easier for them by meeting them where they are.

Create a Facebook Shop The process is free and simple to set up. There is the potential for any online seller to manage their trading and customer connections through Facebook. The social networking platform is investing in their features across their apps to inspire social shopping, bridging the gap between e-commerce and social media.

These Shops can be found and accessed on a business Facebook Page, a Story or an advert. Your products will be displayed in a mobile friendly manner, viewed in full screen immersive experience. Personalisation is able present, with specific product recommendations made to users. Users will be able to view your collections, save items they like and and place an order without leaving the app (though it is possible to direct customers to your website). You will also be able to connect with customers through WhatsApp and Messenger, so you can directly respond to any queries or offer support if need be.

Facebook will offer the option of simply creating a Shop - this is direct and small scale. You will be able to configure your payments and manage orders from your page. However, if you have an Ecommerce site, then you will be able to benefit from an integrated approach. As these plans roll out, the introduction of live shopping features and loyalty programmes will be developed in order to aid in Shop and product discovery.

With e-commerce integration, details about your inventory, will be in sync with your online store. That means that you’ll have multiple channels, but still be able to control and run your business from one space. Shopify, one of the primary e-commerce merchants partnering with Facebook, has launched a Facebook channel which can be installed. From here, a business can handle the sales and marketing for their Facebook Shop.

Some of Facebooks rules include the following: Facebook requires that the package needs to be shipped 3 business days after receiving the order, with delivery not taking more than 10 days in total.

The customer will be able to cancel their order within 30 minutes of purchase if it hasn't been marked it as shipped yet. You can only sell and ship to your own country - no international orders or shipping can be processed.

SHOPPING ON INSTAGRAM Instagram shopping has just been launched in the US, with a worldwide rollout happening worldwide in the coming months. The social networking platform will now be home to digital storefronts with easy to shop products. Heres all you need to know about the development and how you business can benefit from it. When social shopping via Instagram, customers will be presented with products by several merchants which will increase the exposure of businesses.

Shopping will become a key feature, with a dedicated navigational tab to be introduced in future.

Instagram has more than 500 million Instagram users, half of which follow at least one business. With social shopping, the experience and ease of making a purchase will be that much easier for the user. Your account will no longer solely be a display for your business, but an avenue for added sales.

Instagram Shopping will feature products available for purchase through your posts and Stories, as well as discoveries made in the Search and Explore functions of the app. You will be able to tag your products that once tapped by the viewer, will lead them to a product page. Here, they'll have access to image(s), details and price.

In addition to this, there will be a link that takes them to your website to complete the purchase. Products can also be made available for direct purchase and will be marked as such, allowing shoppers to enjoy the full shopping experience from within the app. This will be linked to your Facebook Shop, so you can either handle your inventory directly, or link up with one of Facebooks e-commerce partners like Shopify.

When positing, you will now have the added feature of Product Tagging, which will prompt you to make a selection from your catalogue. It is also possible to go back through your feed to older posts and add in tags.

Stories may only feature 1 product per story post. The product tag is customisable by colour and text. There are a maximum of 5 products can be tagged per image or video post and up to 20 on multimedia posts.

You can then visit the Insights section on your profile to view the stats relating to your stoppable posts.

Users will be able to save products to view later. Your business's audience will grow as you gain more exposure, with products being recommended to people with similar interests. The process of shopping is also being made easier by having integrated links on your posts, so you will not need to tell viewers to view the link in bio as you needed to previously. Once they make a purchase, their information is saved in a database by Facebook, so you’ll be able to send them notifications regarding their order and the delivery.

To promote your Instagram Shop, include hashtags so that your products are found by users. Users can follow hashtags just like they follow accounts, so building followers in that regard will help boost your visibility. Instagram will also have Shopping Ads, allowing you to turn your posts into ads. The posts will have the tags which then lead them to your product page, priming them for a purchase.

ADVERTISING brand awareness campaigns using social media

LinkedIn: This career networking platform continues to grow and become more social. Ads on LinkedIn can be in the form of text, sponsored content, sponsored messaging or dynamic ads.

TikTok: The new kid on the block, where marketers can find Gen Z. Here, you can have brand takeovers, in feed videos, branded lenses and branded hashtag challenges.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY Once you have decided on which social media platforms to use, one needs to consider the following as part of a winning strategy:

Advertising is an imperative part of your social media marketing strategy as trust is often fostered with a solid presence online. It is a great way to optimise your marketing efforts and to boost your exposure. As platforms evolve, businesses need to be aware of the trends, have a solid strategy in place and keep an eye out on which platforms suit their brand.

TOP 5 SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS These are the top 5 social media platforms to consider for your ads and the kind of opportunities on each platform for your advertising to ensure that you have the best possible fit for your campaign.

Facebook: There are a myriad of options when it comes to the format of your ad, from carousel imagery to video content.

Facebook assists you in deciding the goal of your advertising, whether you’re looking to create awareness, consideration or conversion from your target audience.

Instagram: There are various ad forms, all of which are highly visual. This includes Story content, ads on the Explore section and IGTV for longer form videos.

Twitter: Twitter users will primarily be following links or retweeting the content. Your ads on Twitter can be in the form of cards, videos and promo tweets

Campaign: The budget and advertising plan needs to be derived from your marketing campaign. In order to make the most out of your ad spend, do not simply boost your content - have a direction and purpose so that you can maximise the results and show the audience that you have a plan.

Target audience: Social media platforms have improved their targeting capabilities, making it easy for you to reach people based on your needs. Set clear goals when it comes to your intentions for reaching your target audience and develop specific targeted audience profiles to incorporate into your strategies.

Content creation: When it comes to the content you share and advertise, ensure that it is worthy of the budget you’re putting behind it. Carefully consider the text and visuals and worth with an agency who are able to produce high quality, unique content.

Metrics: Once your campaign is up and running, be sure to follow through and check the metrics. There is a lot of data which can be derived and analysed to show your return on investment and ways to improve in future, for example.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR B2B the new (strong) kid on the block

B2B marketing has undergone significant changes in recent years. Social media is no longer part of the digital marketing strategy which you can neglect; it is an integral aspect of it. With good management of these platforms, you can increase the quality of your leads and ultimately grow your business.

Social media at its core enables you to reach people and build connections. This is what makes it an effective tool to use. B2B marketing has been injected with a sense of fun, moving away from its prior somber, dry and relatively boring take on appealing to the corporate world. Through developing your social media presence, you will be able to invoke a personality to match your brand. This brand culture is what will appeal to people and help build your relationships with them.

Your B2B social media therefore needs to cater to your industry, your customers and your employees. Managing your platforms from this standpoint will sum up your business’s ethos well by showcasing its positioning in the community. Any advocacy and networks you can leverage will be beneficial. This, in addition to the solutions you provide is what will attract other businesses to you, who want to work with like minded businesses

Part of devising your social media strategy will include platform selection. When it comes to B2B marketing, the main platform to use is undoubtedly LinkedIn - and 93% of B2Bs agree. It has over 660 million users and where you will find your best caliber of potential customers. When utilised effectively, this translates into high quality leads.

Social media heavyweights Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest should follow.

In terms of the content to share on your B2B social media platforms, incorporate what you are working on. Let people in on exciting projects, products or services you have available. When greatness is achieved, share that in a sincere way as a celebration of your achievements and engage with those who show interest.

In getting to the social part of social media, your business should aim to collaborate. This works across the board of people you’re targeting, from sharing partnerships you have to your business customer success stories. You can also provide insight into the working culture at your business and show how your business fits into the industry and community at large.

Social media managers need to keep abreast of the latest social media trends. Consider multi-modal means of communicating with your audience, from webinars to animated videos. This should feed into your digital marketing strategy (including content marketing) as a whole, with social media as a tool to help boost it.

Social media management includes: conceptualisation of campaigns, content creation, scheduling, advertising, community management and analytics.

Effective social media management strategies for B2B: Personify the B2B, provide support and optimise.

IN 2020 the ultimate B2B social media platform

In order to grow your business, you’ll want to consider cross-promoting content that is then tweaked to meet the best practices of the intended platforms. You can promote your business page beyond the platform by including a link on your website, as well as via email.

Since LinkedIn is all about professional networking, you need to ensure that you engage with your employees. They are influential and will be an integral part of increasing your visibility. Share their work and voices in posts to show recognition and insight into your company culture.

Additional LinkedIn features that can help

LinkedIn is arguably one of the most powerful platforms for lead generation, especially with B2Bs. Today, LinkedIn provides arguably the best organic visibility amongst all of the social media platforms allowing businesses to leverage this reach to increase their visibility and to generate new business opportunities. At times like these, LinkedIn provides cost-free marketing opportunities that can provide the difference between success and failure for businesses.

Here's how to increase your company's visibility on LinkedIn:

PUBLISHING LinkedIn has a content-first approach. This means that users are encouraged to post and engage with content that is published on the platform. When it comes to content, your business should create, publish and share blog posts. This will expand your network and demonstrate that you are a thought leader in the industry.

By combining this authority and expertise you will attract leads, provided that the content is valuable, of course. When this happens, people will like, share and recommend your posts. In order to succeed in this regard, ensure that you post consistently according to a schedule with contextual captions and eye catching multimedia. You can make the content itself dynamic by using easy to read structure and bullet points, for example.

Always monitor the content that performs the best and consider using it as sponsored content if you're looking for additional audiences to engage with.

GROWTH Ensure that your content is valuable and optimised. Incorporate search engine optimisation techniques by focusing on using relevant keywords, embedding links and providing contextual information. By utilising LinkedIn wisely, you can grow your business at a faster pace by increasing your business' visibility and in doing so increasing the trust and credibility of your business.

To do this, you need to assess and perfect your tailored marketing content in this regard and make the best possible use of the in-depth data available through the platform.

Open for Business: Assistance from LinkedIn to aid small businesses by making them easily discoverable and allowing users to contact them for free.

Groups: LinkedIn Groups are great for community building and online marketing. Your business can join relevant groups to connect with your industry and customers. You will be able to directly message members on an individual basis do your best to personalise these messages as it is an opportunity to target valuable potential leads.

Advanced Search: Part of LinkedIn Premium, Advanced Search allows you to search for people based on their industry, location, employer and education. You're also able to save searches (and will be notified of new matches) and can send messages to people. With these direct messages, you can invite people to join a specific group in order to build a community database and increase your leads.

Advertising: Explore the different types of ad campaigns you can run on LinkedIn, as this is a surefire way to increase your visibility and grow your business.

Follow #s: You can follow specific hashtags with easy access to them, so that you can stay ahead trending topics as they occur.

LEAD GENERATION generating new business opportunities using social media

Lead generation is a term used to describe a simple concept: information shared by a potential customer with the consent and expectation of receiving a follow up. One of the roles of a marketer is to generate leads by creating a valuable exchange with the aim of turning potential customers into actual customers.

SO, WHERE DOES SOCIAL MEDIA FIT INTO ALL OF THIS? Well, social media is a highly effective method of generating leads.

When deciding upon your social strategy, key focal areas often include brand awareness and engagement. Think of lead generation as the third element to a successful marketing mix.

Through social media platforms, you can generate higher quality and more cost effective leads than many other platforms.

It's important to note though, that leads generated by social media campaigns are often higher in the sales funnel compared to leads generated by platforms such as Google Adwords. These leads would therefore require additional nurturing in the form of education before your business should engage in any sales calls or sales related communication. Over time, this patient approach will yield much better results for your business.

If you’re looking for facts that show the potential of this medium, consider this: social media has reduced business costs by 45% on average and increased revenue by 24%. These platforms are not just for sharing and branding purposes, but instead are a powerful tool in reaching potential customers. Remember, quality trumps quantity. This means that the interactions you have need to be positive and the information exchanged needs to be of quality - i.e your offer needs to be satisfactory and their information needs to be accurate. This can be tricky in times of concern of privacy, so you need to build trust and keep the data secure.

Your business needs to analyse these potential customers. They’re the people who are interested in your business (or don’t yet know that they're interested). It's your job to collect these leads and offer them something of value in order to stay in touch with them.

In addition, once you have identified who your audience is, research to find out where they are. This, coupled with the specifics of your product or service will inform you of which social media channels to use. Stats should be monitored throughout so that you can refine your processes for optimal results. Your primary considerations are that of effect and cost.

SOCIAL MEDIA LEAD GENERATION METHODS Polls and surveys, Offers and promotional deals, Webinars, Gated content (such as eBooks), Contests. Adverts Bot Automation: With highly advanced chatbots, you can streamline this process to increase your response time and manage your interactions.

Community: Build your community, become part of relevant external communities and always encourage sharing to grow your network of potential leads.

Content distribution: The content can take many forms, from text to video, but it needs to be substantive so that it is compelling and increases your click through rates.

Account Based Marketing (ABM): Precise targeting to build high quality leads.

Optimisation: Your content and platforms need to be optimised so that your organic reach is optimal.

Incentives: Your incentives need to be strong enough to draw people in and add value to their lives.

Personalise: When trying to build the best possible relations, going the extra mile to cater to your leads can yield favourable results.

LEAD GENERATION CAMPAIGNS Creating campaigns specific to lead generation With dwindling organic reach on most social media platforms, advertising plays an increasingly important role for company's whoo are looking to engage with their communities or the audiences that exist on these platforms. But rather than simply boost content, which may increase your brand's visibility but generate not much else, it's important to employ a more strategic approach to social media advertising that is goal-focused and aligned to the actual needs of your business.

A successful social media advertising campaign requires defined objectives. Narrow it down to a couple so that you can deliver on these aspects fully. This may include: • Driving brand awareness • Educating your audience about a product or service • Promote a new product or service • Generate leads • Promote a new promotion or offer to customers • Launching of a new business, product or service

PICK YOUR PERSONAS Who is your target audience? You need to develop your target audience based on research and split these people into groups of personas. These personas should be well understood and defined so you can cater to their needs and desires. Persona details include their interests, demographic information and values.

PLATFORM SELECTION Where do your personas reside on social media?

Whether you select one platform or several platforms, you need to ensure that there is integrated marketing communication and suit your brand as well. This means that while your campaigns are tailored to the specific platforms they’re on, the campaign is clear and consistent.

If you’re looking to target families or people based on their location, you may consider Facebook. If aesthetics are important to your campaign, Instagram may be a better fit. If your content is video based then YouTube will work, whereas if it’s more textually based you’d opt for Twitter. Pinterest is great for inspirational imagery and LinkedIn for targeting people in the professional space.

Once you’ve selected your platform, be sure to conduct a competitor analysis. Analyse and follow them to see the kind of content they’re publishing, the reactions they’re generating and gain more insight into your potential customer bases.

CONTENT PILLARS Next up, you need to consider how you’re going to get your message across to your audience. Content needs to be high quality, attention grabbing and engaging. Think of this in multimedia terms, so that you can share your message in various ways that suit the topic, the audience and the platform. You don’t want to simply sell an item or idea; you want to inspire.

Your visuals should include a mix of the product/service, the customer experience and lifestyle based for inspiration. When it comes to multimedia for social media, consider: Gifs, videos, images, stories, captions and audio clips.

PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL When it comes to your performance potential, consider both your organic and paid potential. With advertising, you need to consider the following: Budget: Once you have the content in mind, you need to consider your budget. There are various options available to users on social media, so the smallest of budgets can work.

Personas: These will determine your advertising targeting from location to expected impressions, optimal formats and the required frequency of the ads.

Conversions: If your campaign resonates well, the call to action needs to be clear with your ad and easy to engage, whether that leads to a lead, a website or a direct purchase.

In terms of your organic potential, ensure that if you are active on social media platforms, that your accounts are complete and professional.

Campaigns you do should feature seamlessly with what you already have going on with your social media strategy.

INDUSTRY FOCUS: automotive industry One of the biggest purchasing decisions for consumers is buying a car. Aside from buying a house, this is a decision which affects your day to day life and expenses for a few years at the least. This puts these companies in an interesting position of advantage, especially when it comes to their social media strategy.

Many automotive companies are already established, meaning they have a strong social media presence and large followings.

This is important to leverage for long term loyalty. Another reason for these followings is that consumers prefer the social media of automotive companies to television ads and even websites.

The social media account of a company can be seen as one of the most useful tools to seek knowledge about a brand. Another advantage that the automotive companies have is that social media adverts about cars are well liked, generating high response rates and leads. This is therefore an important element to include in your strategy. The follow-up process needs to be efficient in order to nurture these leads.

AUTOMOTIVE SALES FUNNEL The majority of the process of buying a car has moved online - it should be viewed as a digital experience. A consumer will spend their time talking, researching and considering options via social media.

Having a solid strategy in place is needed in order to guide the purchasing processes. The social media accounts need to be equipped with the necessary tools to accommodate ease of use for the consumers. The combination of strategy and tools is what will increase the chance of a purchase and for many, ease in the process of purchase means they’ll be willing to spend more. With that being said, these are the key aspects to note:

Search: Optimise content with keywords and hashtags so that content is easily found when searched for.

Information: The posts and accounts need to have links and all of the relevant details - a customer should know exactly where to go next if they are interested.

Sign up: Call to action forms to sign up for a test drive or call back, for example.

Tools: Social media can demonstrate the tools available on your website, such as credit qualifiers, which is something people value greatly.

Automation: Good automation can be useful for people who are looking for specific links and information, ensuring that they are provided with this instantaneously.

Service: Reviews are crucial, so your interactions online should be seen as a key element of the customer experience and a chance to showcase service excellency. Some companies not only showcase their reviews, but share them as content too in an automotive take on sharing user generated content.

The main goal of your content is to be aspirational.

Whether you’re a luxury brand or not, cars are big purchasing decisions and one which people are required to save up for and invest in. The content you share can inspire them along the way, and when they reach a point of potential purchase, it needs to educate them and facilitate the process towards purchase. After the purchase, it needs to sustain the image and reinforce the decision made.

Video content works very well with cars. Showcase the drivers experience and play on the senses of sight and sound. People prefer to watch rather than read and videos can be so compelling - a roaring engine can literally increase the heart rate. Which settings and contexts should your content be shown in? The most successful automotive settings lifestyle car shots, racetrack shots and photoshoots: Where you see the car in a showroom, photographed specifically for its detail.

INDUSTRY FOCUS: luxury goods At first glance, social media and luxury brands appear to contradict each other. While the former is accessible to all, the former is not. In order to maintain the status of luxury brands and limit the accessibility of the largely younger demographic of social media users, luxury brands have been wary about creating an online presence, with some still avoiding it all together.

However, for many this stance has changed, with luxury brands becoming among the most followed brands online. Social media has become part of daily life for a broad range of the worldwide population and it has ultimately changed consumer behaviours, with no signs of slowing down. Heres a look at the key concepts and approaches for luxury brands to consider when creating an online presence on social media: The luxe appeal of brands needs to be communicated in a way which reflects its status and exclusivity. Social media allows the brand to build trusted and intimate connections in order to peak interest and engagement. The content needs to be in line with the overall digital marketing strategy and while the content should be designed for the specific social media channel in mind, there needs to be an integrated flow across all platforms.

It is important to consider the social media medium, the targeted audience and the type of content, as it will determine the brand associations formed and the potential to go viral.

Content needs to be well planned and executed, from the brand voice to the aesthetic look and feel. A user needs the sense that this is premium content which is inspiring and aspirational. This is closely linked with the experience of the brand itself, extending the opportunity for users to connect and share with the brand and those who share similar interests in the brand in the online space.

The concept is ultimately to invite, inspire and convert people to brand advocates. These advocates become a loyal following, with social media efforts driving sales and revenue of the brands, whether that be through e-commerce channels or first hand experiences in store.

Data can be generated from social media about the audience and associated hashtags. This is closely linked with the appeal of social values as the content is prestigious and users enjoy being linked to that. This can lead the brand to discover important touchpoints on brand perception, which is a way to devise strategies going forward to meet the needs of the consumers.

While the demographic of social media users remains to consist of a youthful audience, brands can utilise that in order to attract potential and future customers. Audiences are generally very active, with peaks during holiday periods when the need to connect increases. Brands need to be cognizant of this as it can be highly beneficial to drive engagement.

The social media pages of a luxury brand need to communicate that the users time is worthy by making their virtual visit worthwhile. The content needs to be compelling and quality needs to outshine quantity - posting less can be a strategic move, positioning the brand as mysterious or limited and therefore high value.

Another key factor is the sensitivity of users online who are increasingly more conscious of their values and ensuring that the brands they follow are in line with them. This extends from the brand voice, to the values and content which is shared. The brand ultimately needs to communicate its relevance to the modern world and be held accountable for having responsible and sustainable business operations. In order to remain an air of exclusivity, luxury brands avoid social media contests, which lets users know that their products and services need to be earned.

Since luxury brands generally took longer than other brands to join the social media ranks, they are now focusing on increasing their budgets in order to increase their presence online, with brands going as far as redirecting budgets that were previously allocated to magazines.

This budget is used for campaigns and advertising with the aim of increasing the word of mouth concept online and interactions with the brand. It is costly to develop quality content - for instance, creating well-edited video clips.

The social media strategy of a brand must be planned out well before execution. Some luxury brands, for instance, produce high quality content, but do engage in community management (directly responding to consumers comments or reposting any user generated content), while others take the time to respond to each one. Likewise, some brands continue to utilise influencers of varying degrees to soft sell their products, while others do not. Each of these strategies can work, however it is a strategy which must be developed according to the specific needs of the brand.

Once a luxury brand masters their online presence on social media, the affinity, loyal following and interest in the brand grows. Luxury brands have the advantage of already having a solid product or service to share. Translating that into online shareable content can take the form of sharing heritage stories, going behind the scenes or previewing upcoming products and endeavours.

Online users are appreciative of authentic content and are more likely to to engage with such.

INDUSTRY FOCUS: retail Taking the brick and mortar experience to the online world on click and mortar is a must for most retail businesses. That’s because platforms showcase the essence and intricacies of your brand, as well as expand upon its visibility and reach in the world.

GETTING SOCIAL When taking your retail business online, you’ll first need to consider which platforms you should be on. Be selective and choose what fits your brand best, and dedicate time and effort into your online presence. The customer experience of your brand should be enhanced by these online channels.

People want you to share content relating to the actual physical store - you should be candid and share your behind the scenes moments and take multimedia footage of your displays. Spark some creativity when it comes to your social media accounts.

Think about content in a multidimensional way and don’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques, from boomerang to creating animated videos to share.

COMMUNICATING FOR A PURPOSE Successful social media can take you through the users entire buying process. Your business should start with understanding the various insights available through social media platforms.

This is not solely based on your followers, but also on presiding trends. If you provide a service, be cognisant of the ways in which this is shared online and likewise with products - if unboxing is important yet not being revealed online, then analyse how you could improve on this aspect, for instance

SOCIAL SHOPPING Whether your offering is available for purchase through online mediums or not, social media is often a starting point. From inspiration to research, your audience are open to viewing inspirational content that could improve their lives. Be sure to showcase this through high quality content that speaks to your customer. Your strategy in this regard needs to be rooted in increasing awareness and fostering buyer consideration.

Then, you need to deliver the results of these efforts through traffic. Make the next point clear to the audience and ensure their next steps are simple to take. This can be achieved through call to actions and appropriate links, though one needs to assess whether a soft or hard sell approach will resonate well with your customer.

Let’s not forget that social media is all about being social. This is a great opportunity for you to connect with your audience and to engage with them. Build relationships and encourage interactions. You can do this by directly messaging people or presenting questions in the captions that require comments.

Your brand voice should be determined and applied consistently and your response time should be as quick as possible. Remember that business in the modern world is collaborative, so consider sharing links, information and recommendations that are pertinent to your business.

Now that you’ve got a community of engaged people online, you need to maintain these relationships and ensure the entire customer experience is optimal every customer is king! Each experience with your business could result in a review, something which is powerful for your brand perception and future sales potential. When people are happy, they will become brand ambassadors and advocates - this is the ultimate goal for your retail business. If you’re looking for ways to enhance this, be sure to share user generated content and collaborate with representatives as part of influencer marketing.

INDUSTRY FOCUS: hotel industry Social media works particularly well with hospitality, acting as an online extension of the guest experience.

TOP 3 PLATFORMS While there are several social media platforms to choose from, there are 3 which work particularly well for hotels. These will all create a sense of wanderlust among viewers, enticing people to experience what they see first hand.

Facebook: Facebook remains an authority in the social media sphere, with useful features for hotels. These include targeted advertising, the ability to feature reviews, respond to enquiries, share events and promotions, join relevant Groups, post live content and perhaps best of all, the book now feature, which takes the user directly to the booking platform.

Instagram: This visual platform is best suited to lifestyle content, which hospitality fits into so well. Since it is all about the aesthetics, the visuals in both photo and video form appeal to the targeted audiences and showcase the details of the hotel.

Helpful features include advertising, geo tags, IGTV for longer video content and the ability to market through increasingly popular Stories.

YouTube: YouTube is the worlds second largest search engine.

It is wise to utilise this platform as a means to showcase professionally shot and edited video content. Provide tours of the spaces, showcasing what the holiday experience is like, for example, or what kind of features there are available for conferences.

CONTENT SHARING FOR HOTELS Social media plays an influential role in decision making and that is especially true when it comes to vacationing. People value experience as the number one reason to choose a hotel, so your social media content needs to be reflective of that. Your hotels content needs to share unique insights and snippets that both inspires and delights audiences.

Perhaps the most important content for a hotel to share is User Generated Content. This bodes well with the users and inspired viewers to imagine their own experiences based on these authentic experiences of others. The goal is for guests to become fans and ambassadors of your hotel as this will leverage reviews for you.

Your content should have a personal touch - speak directly to your audience and ensure that your brands voice is distinct. A great way to demonstrate this is through creativity - rather than simply share visuals, your hotel should strive to do so with a unique perspective and engaging storytelling techniques.

A method for success in your area is for your hotel to become locally entrenched. Use your platforms to share local events and make recommendations for your guests, as this will work in your favour within the community and with your guests as you’re extending more valuable and inspiring content with them.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY Strive to build connections, inspiring brand advocates and driving a satisfactory experience.

Successful strategies are those which are tailored to the hotel and require a level of consistency and quality for the hotel to uphold.

When showcasing the guest experience, ensure that your online presence matches the quality of your hotel, that your values are clearly defined and displayed and that you appeal to the instantaneity of social media.

To build a strong brand, one should have specific hashtags for their hotel. Include this with a mix of other relevant hashtags as this will aid users in discovering your brand and finding relevant associations with it.

The kind of content you share should be thematic and rooted with purpose. Audiences will be appreciative of the efforts put into the posts and will feel as though their time is valued.

INDUSTRY FOCUS healthcare industry The primary reason for healthcare businesses to be on social media is to cater to information seekers. With many decisions and discoveries made online today, your social media presence could very well be the reason someone decides to seek your care.

Before building your presence online, be sure to read up on the industry related rules and regulations in your region that you will need to adhere to. There are threats presented by social media usage by healthcare businesses, namely bad reviews and misinformation. People are more aware than ever about their health, who they should trust and who can provide them with the best care. Therefore you need to establish your business as a trusted source of information and service.

Social media and healthcare may seem paradoxical at first glance, since the most important relationships in the industry are those of privacy and sworn trust of confidentiality between patient and doctor. However, being on social media does not affect those relationships in any way. In fact, it can increase customer trust in your business, based on the content you share. It is an opportunity to be transparent with patients and to utilise the platforms to be active and grow your business, just as any other business would.

HEALTHCARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Awareness: Social media provides you with the opportunity to create awareness for developments that happen not only within your business, but about general, emerging, and annual health concerns too.

Grow patient base: People online are your potential patients.

Identify them, target them and appeal to them to increase your visibility and invite them to your practice. Having geo tags on social media connected to your account is also an easy and effective way of increasing your visibility.

Networking: You can build your professional network by connecting with important industry figures and establishing your business within that network.

Advertising: All businesses can benefit from advertising and social media provides you with cost effective ways of reaching your audience effectively.

Reminders: You can use social media as a tool to remind people about your practice and what you can offer. In addition to this, you can send out relevant reminders about healthy practices and living habits

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT TIPS • Engaging content • Testimonials • Informative and accurate • Timely • Doctor profiles • Answer Questions Offers: You can share promotions with your actual and potential customer base, sharing information about seasonal offers or new procedures that you may have. This can assist you in generating leads.

Lead generation: Once reaching your customers, you can create sign up forms as a means of generating leads. This can be to schedule appointments or sign up for newsletters, for example.

Support: You can support your patients with care outside of the business through caring messages and follow ups. Another great way to do this is to connect patients (with their consent) to similar patients in social media groups for added support.

SOCIAL MEDIA DURING A RECESSION Recessions alter consumer behaviour and perceptions, both of which are crucial for the success of a business. This is where digital marketing can be highly effective, both during and after a recession to ensure responsiveness and a positive outlook.

A recession also naturally impacts businesses too, from the operations to the strategies.

During these times, digital marketing and your business’s online presence is more pertinent than ever. This is where marketers can step in and capitalise to ensure that your business makes it through a recession and remains profitable.

SOCIAL MEDIA DURING A RECESSION As the world takes a dip and consumers have less disposable income to spend, their confidence takes a knock. Rather than favouring convenience, consumers will put in the time and effort to shop around for deals. This is why your business needs to be available or at least accessible online. You can increase your chances of discovery this way, as well as invite an increase in traffic to your digital platforms.

Since social media is social, it is where people can share and engage in dialogue with one another. In cases of lockdown, this has been the only means of communication and connection for many. Word of mouth is still a key element of the success of a business and the effectiveness of that concept is tenfold on social media with mentions and shares, reaching many more people.

For your business to succeed during these times, you also need to get involved in the dialogue taking place. Be present, be visible and be in the thick of it with people. People want businesses to be transparent, sharing their stories of how they’re affected, for example, or how they are doing all that they can to give back to the community. This increases trust and allows your business to be part of the conversation by disseminating important information. This can be viewed as the crux of both your public relations and crisis communication.

Your social media accounts are always visible, so these need to be maintained and well looked after through strategy and community management.

During hard times is when opportunity arises, and that is certainly the case on social media. The kind of content you post during times of difficulty can leave lasting impressions with your customers. It is because of this that your ability to tell stories digitally is of the utmost importance, as well as your ability to be consistent in order to show the reliability of your business.

PLATFORM PLANS AND PROTOCOLS First things first, you’re going to need to do a full evaluation of your current social media. With a recession happening, your strategy will need to adapt. This could be your opportunity to breathe new life and direction into your accounts, so don’t skim over this step. You need to ensure you’re present on the correct platforms and creating content that is suited to them. If you have not yet explored the depths of digital multimedia, this is the perfect opportunity to experiment and see what works best from webinars to videos and podcasts.

With a newly devised strategy in place, you can focus on growing on social media, which can easily be measured in various ways. In order to do this, ensure that your content is optimised. Another key aspect for growth is your advertising spend. If possible, do not cut back on these costs during a recession.

Social media is still a highly cost effective method of advertising and will boost your social media activity.

Finally, once the recession nears its end, you will have worked your way back up through a growth plan and can focus on improving upon these efforts even more, utilising engagements and a bonafide strategy to help you continue to catch up on what the recessional dip made you lose out on. This is what will take your business from strength to strength, with a new strategy likely needed as consumer behaviour and business operations begin to change once more.

ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA If you're considering using Social Media as a marketing channel for your business, here are 10 advantages of doing so: Visibility: It is a no brainer that having a solidified presence on social media will increase your brands visibility. In addition to this, you will be able to remain relevant in the online space and increase your reach to new audiences by using tags, hashtags, searches and advertising.

Branding: Through the content you publish on these platforms, you can create your brand image or use this as an extension of your existing one. Based on your aesthetic and online storytelling, people will develop brand recognition. This should be done holistically by your business by sharing things from updates to insight on your company culture.

Direct lines of communication: Social media provides you with direct lines to your customers. This can be helpful in creating connections, sharing testimonials and building loyalty for your brand. To be successful in this regard, you need a well defined brand voice and high quality content that demonstrates value and solutions in the lives of your customers.

Reputation management: Your business can manage its reputation online, from providing customer service to develiving crisis communication as needed. This is important in regulating the perception of your brand. Your business should develop a style guide, be consistent and responsive for best practices, as social media is always active.

Networking: Networking within the communities available on social networks will further develop your business relations with customers and suppliers. To do this, you’ll need to encourage engagements and share user generated content, which can increase the chances of a sale by 50%. For people to want to build connections with your brand, make sure you maintain the relations and share relevant content that is of interest.

Marketing: Social media forms a big part of your online marketing. Marketers who use these platforms - can benefit from cost effectiveness when compared to traditional marketing, highly precise targeting, partnerships with influencers and the promotion of content in multimodal ways. Campaigns should be introduced across various relevant networks and tailored to meet the needs of that platform for optimal results

Conversion rates: Social media can greatly improve your revenue through increasing your conversion rates. You can target potential customers through networks directly, as well as drive more traffic to your website with links and call to action requests.

Part of your strategy should be to generate, nurture and convert leads through the techniques available on social media.

Authority: Having a presence on social media will improve your rankings to search engines. It is therefore a critical part of your search engine marketing and should be optimised with search engine optimisation for the most effective results.

The content you produce can also set you apart based on the knowledge and expertise you share.

Insights: The analytics available on social media can be very telling for your business, presenting you with otherwise undetected and missed opportunities for growth. Utilise these figures to assist you in improving your posts and product offerings.

Monitoring: Through social media, you can monitor your industry and your competition, which can be useful tools for your own strategies. You can also monitor the conversations happening among your audience to see what matters most to them. Finally, experiment with posting styles and techniques so that you can perform A/B testing. You can then monitor the results and find a strategy that works for you.

DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Before engaging in social media marketing, your business should also be aware of the potential downfalls and considerations regarding this channel of marketing your business. Below, we outline 5 of these considerations:

5 DISADVANTAGES FOR BUSINESSES Effort: Social media requires in depth knowledge of both strategy and marketing. There are marketing managers who are not equipped, trained or experienced in social media, which can impact your business as your brand perception relies heavily on this. Social media in many cases is a job function all on its own, and it is one that requires different skills, some of which will have to be outsourced (like videographers and animators). Your audience has expectations of your business being able to produce high quality, consistent content and you need to be able to satisfy this.

Reach: While social media offers opportunities for exposure, it takes time to grow your audience. While platforms try to move away from counting likes, the kind of following you have or whether or not you are verified affects your brands perception.

With changing algorithms, it can be challenging to grow your audience organically. This means you need to work hard on reaching people through the kind of content you share and how you interact with users. It is also highly beneficial to expand your reach through advertising. Implementing growth-based strategies is key to being able to source, nurture and convert leads from social media.

Management: This follows on from both the efforts required when it comes to social media, as well as the reach you garner.

Accounts need to be protected (as hacking can be disastrous, causing consumers to lose trust) and monitored around the clock, as social media never sleeps; it is always active. You may have resources in place, like chatbots or scheduling software, but having an effective community management system in place is crucial. Audiences who are most active on social media today are sensitive and question everything, so your business needs to carefully tread the line when it comes to the causes you support, your business operations and the kind of messages you share with people. As quick as it is for something to go viral with popularity, the very same mechanism can be the end of a business. Feedback from your audience and industry should be carefully monitored and managed to avoid this getting out of hand.

Disillusionment: In the same fashion as businesses being fed up with certain content on social media, some consumers are sharing that very same sentiment. While there are far more active and new users to social media than those who take a break or leave the networks altogether, there is still a collective of people who have decided to unplug from their devices, opting to invest their time doing other activities and saving the sharing of information for real time interactions. Another portion of the population are active users, but cautious about their privacy rights and consuming false information.

Businesses need to find out where their audience stands and cater to them specifically.

Platforms: Unlike a website, social media only allows you to have a profile or account - you cannot decide upon the terms of such and are at the mercy of the network then it comes to policies and updates. Without direct ownership, your business needs to be weary of the fact that you're essentially building houses on someone else's land, so to speak.

Businesses therefore need to keep up to date with the platform changes and use this as a tool, rather than their only medium for having an online presence.

By Ravi Vyas & Andrew Thomas