The marketing industry is extremely fast-paced and constantly evolving. With technological advancements getting better every minute, businesses must keep up with every innovation to approach their customers with the latest trends, tools, and practices. One recent marketing giant is TikTok. TikTok became extremely popular among GenZ and Millenial demographics at the end of 2019 into the beginning of 2020. It took off at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tiktok is no longer a platform just for people to entertain themselves and others. Its rise in popularity, along with the rise of “influencers” has led to companies allocating a portion of their marketing budget to advertise on this social media platform. According to The Small Business Blog, TikTok ranks sixth for consumer spending worldwide, so it is guaranteed to give you and your business a good number of impressions. If you want to learn more on how to use TikTok to grow your business, here is a great article by Entrepreneur that tells the tips on how to use the platform to increase awareness and generate more sales.
Let’s take a better look at the latest social media trends and ways businesses use them to better appeal to their customers.
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Going Digital
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were not able to operate in their usual offline way. Having an online presence helped many companies to stay in the market. Those who did not have an offline version of their businesses were forced to face significant decreases in their sales; some of them had no choice but to close their business. While life returns to normal and companies are able to operate in person, many business owners are realizing the competitive edge of selling products and services online as a major key to success. You probably noticed that you can go to the gym without actually leaving your house, or you can get your medical appointments online. As more and more spending power is allocated to the digital generations – Millenials and GenZ demographics – online businesses will continue to be favored over in-person businesses.
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Instagram Reels
With the rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels are becoming extremely popular. Instagram needed a way to keep uses on their platform without losing them to TikTok, so they created their version of the popular video content platform within their app. Similar to TikTok, you can find all types of content; from mini vlogs of people’s daily life to brands advertising their products to cooking to dancing, Instagram is a great platform to market your products. Instagram offers the opportunity for users to shop directly on the platform. Instagram reels can be up to 60 seconds long, allowing creators to fully portray and deliver the intended message.
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Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is becoming one of the best ways for companies to connect with their target audience. You have likely seen a celebrity or a well-known person in the media industry advertising products or services on Instagram or YouTube. Influencer marketing is a great tool to use this year. Businesses must do their research before deciding with who to partner. According to Singe Grain, 63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products much more than what brands say about themselves. Millennials and GenZ are less trusting of brand advertising than their predecessors. They crave organic, raw content. While Influencer Marketing is technically a paid route and is less organic than peer word-of-mouth, influencers have become a method of word-of-mouth advertising that younger generations trust. Check out The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with Influencer Marketing to learn what influencer marketing is and how to incorporate this marketing trend into your strategy.
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Social Media Stories
The first social media platform to introduce stories to consumers was Snapchat. Since then, other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have successfully introduced this type of interactive content to their repertoire. A social media story is a great way to engage with customers. Stories are short snippets that are easy for companies to produce and users to digest. Businesses can avoid bombarding potential customers with information overload while being direct and concise with the messaging. Such trend in marketing helps increase brand awareness and engagement, increase traffic to the website, and reach a broader audience. A great example of a business successfully using stories to engage with its audience is LEGO. LEGO regularly uses stories to post polls and quizzes, allowing their followers an interactive, engaging experience that brings them back time and time again. If you want to learn more about the ways in which brands use stories to engage with their customers, we recommend you to look at the article by HubSpot which tells about 19 brands and their approaches to social media stories.
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Interactive content
If you want to attract more customers, you have to come up with unique, engaging content. Social media will help you achieve that KPI. It is unlike in today’s digital world to attract and retain people with text-only content. Users are constantly looking for something they can interact with that is eye-catching and informative or motivating. Using polls, quizzes, questions, countdowns, and templates to connect people to the brand will increase brand awareness and drive more sales, clicks, calls, etc.
Social media trends are constantly evolving in our digital age. As consumer behavior continues to change, businesses need to stay engaged and informed on best practices. Becoming fluent in platforms, marketing trends, and culture will help you grow your business, appeal to more customers, increase engagement, and improve brand loyalty.
Big Red Jelly team is always on top of the latest social media trends and strategies. Visit our website to see our latest work, and contact us to learn how we can help your business grow!
