Social Media Strategies for 2017

Last year about this time, I was recapping predictions. This year, the only prediction I care to repeat is that “Social media is going to continue to grow in 2017.” Don’t believe me? You’d be crazy not to.  

But, just in case, check out this infographic by iDigic. Here’s a teaser: There were 523,000,000 global users on social media in 2016. The rest of the stats are pretty good indicators as to why brands won’t be abandoning this strategy anytime soon.

And, speaking of strategy, what does your social media strategy look like for the upcoming year? (I’m not even going to entertain the notion that you may not have one.)

Want to compare notes? Here are a few social media strategies to think through if they’re not already a part of your 2017 plans:

Beef-up Your Metrics. If you’ve been focusing solely on activity — the number of blog posts published, number of webinars hosted, number of field events — it may be time to move beyond and start capturing tangible results. Social media can help you track effectiveness by quantifying leads, tracking an increase in followers and audience interaction, and more.

Tighten your girdle. I’m not talking about budgets. I’m talking about reigning in your activity. There are still a lot of brands trying to be everywhere and everything to everyone. Less is more. Having a presence on every social media platform is not a great business strategy. Being relevant and successful on just one or two major platforms will always trump being lackluster everywhere. Say no to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). You’re not going to miss out by scaling back and improving quality. Work smarter, not harder.

Fine-tune Your Audiences. Chapter One. The reality is, your audience will not be the same across all social channels. You might be talking to current clients on Facebook, but your LinkedIn audience might be prospects trying to decide if you’re the industry influencer they’re looking for. These audiences can’t be treated the same, and it would be a waste of time and resources to try and do so.

Chapter Two. At Red Dot, we like personas. If you’ve done brand work with us, you know that identifying or assigning a persona to various elements of a brand is an active part of what we do. Here’s what you need to do to fine tune —go beyond understanding the age and gender of your audience to focus on their needs. The need will help give your audience a persona, which, in turn, helps you hone your messaging.

Develop a Content Strategy. If you’re posting it, it should have a purpose. Maybe you’re demonstrating culture, showcasing services, or positioning yourself as a thought leader. Regardless of the message, your social media content should tie back to your organization’s overarching objectives AND customer needs.

You may feel like I’ve been stating the obvious, but I would challenge you to revisit your current social media strategy to see how well you’re positioned to execute in these areas. As always, if you need some guidance, the Red Dot crew is just a phone call away.

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