Social Media Marketing: 2016 in Review

Are you ready for the New Year? 2016 is on its way out and what a year it has been! Some of the biggest moments (good or bad) include: Leonardo DiCaprio getting his first Oscar, Harambe, the Summer Olympics and the presidential election among many others. Within these different events, social media played an important role in connecting everyone and was a tool in our social conversation.

Social media isn’t just for reposting the latest Joe Biden meme or sharing a political thought; it’s an incredible resource for small businesses to expand their reach and increase brand presence. Social media is constantly evolving and can change from year to year. Keep reading to learn what happened in 2016 and what is predicted for 2017, in addition I’ll share my favorite Three Girls’ tips from our blog posts throughout the past year.

2016 Social Media Predictions

It may seem hard to believe, but there was a time when streaming live content wasn’t happening and targeting customers on social media wasn’t a high priority. Let’s go back in time to see what was ready to shine in this December 2015 article from the Social Media Examiner:

1. Companies Adapt Social Strategies Around People

Engaging with customers and followers on social media was believed to be a very important part of social media marketing in 2016 (they were right).

It was predicted that these types of strategies and tactics will be important:

• Influencer Marketing: Instead of creating campaigns around marketing initiatives, brands will realize these are long-term relationships and adapt to the needs of the influencers (I’ll share more information on this later).

• Employee Advocacy: Instead of pushing marketing content on employees for them to share, brands will realize that employees are their biggest advocates and adapt to employee behaviors. This will result in authentic relationships between customers and team members because they both enjoy the brand and product.

• Content Marketing: Instead of using social media only to promote content, brands will build a conversation with social media users using their language. They will adapt content and social engagement to the interests of social users, and depending on the community it might look very different from social network to social network.

2. Customizable Visuals by Platform

Visual marketing continued to grow in 2016, making it necessary for brands to have a solid plan for visuals including multimedia such as long- and short-form video for YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, as well as graphics for blog content.

Creating main content for your website and repurposing it across platforms will be important. For example, one long video will be embedded into a blog post, tweeted with graphics, and a tip from it will be shared as a graphic on Instagram and a Pinterest quote.

3. Improved Facebook Ad Targeting

Facebook rolled out new communication tools that allow Facebook pages to learn more about the people they are communicating with. At the same time, business owners can begin to add keywords along with notes to tag the users they are connecting with.

This feature will be incorporated deeper into Facebook ads in 2016 so that businesses can improve the targeting of their ads in relation to the content a user might be interested in. Instead of blanket targeting a person based on broad interests, pages will be able to offer a more personal experience based on the interactions they’ve had with a Facebook user inside of Facebook.

4. Live Video Goes Mainstream

2015 started an era of live-casting with the introduction of new technology such as Periscope, Facebook Live and Blab (Blab is now extinct).

In addition, we’ll see the wide-scale adoption of cost-effective virtual reality devices that will enable fully immersive 3D experiences that are live. Much of this will be enabled by low-cost 360 cameras like the Ricoh Theta, combined with economical devices like Google Cardboard that transform the smartphones everyone already owns into a virtual reality device. This represents an entirely new opportunity for marketers to give factory tours and any other form of in-person experience imaginable.

How crazy is it that these trends came true? Influencer marketing took off as well as customizing visual marketing, Facebook ad targeting and live streaming from social media. Now that we know the social media predictions for 2016 mostly came true, here is what is on the horizon for 2017.

2017 Social Media Marketing Predictions

Currently, there are more than 2.5 billion active social media users worldwide and that number is growing at a rate of 9% a year. Here is what Forbes Online and social media experts say will be big next year:

1. Live Video

Although there have been strides in the streaming (Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope Pro) we are still in the infant stages. Because there are ways for customers to view what’s going on in real-time, they will expect to do so. Use a live streaming service to share what goes on behind the scenes and connect further than just a typical post.

2. Messaging Apps

Chad Martin, North American Director, Social and Emerging Media at VML, states that, “The idea of being able to engage with a customer in a one on one way is huge. The hurdle will be figuring out how to develop relevant content to so many. Developing bots that provide relevant content and learn from the customer’s behavior is expensive at this point but the cost savings, especially around customer service, validate them quickly.”

3. Social Commerce

Social commerce is huge around the world with WeChat and will soon take off in the U.S. Chad Martin said, “We have been able to send money through Google and Messenger for some time but this was a peer to peer exchange. Pinterest and Twitter are allowing for purchases and that will help with mainstream adoption for brands.” Expect to see more “Buy” buttons on social media posts.

4. Traditional Platforms Will Continue to Evolve

Snapchat continues to grow, but it must make it easier to organically find fun and interesting accounts. David Brickley said, “I would love to follow Kevin Hart or Mark Cuban on Snapchat, but Snapchat makes me work by searching on Google to find their handle or by guessing their username. Instagram has done two amazing things recently with Instagram Stories and the Explore tab. The Instagram Explore tab’s algorithm works incredibly well, and you can get lost (much like with YouTube) in clicking videos for hours.” The one thing you can do for yourself is to make your social media accounts as easy and accessible for your followers as possible; if it’s a struggle they will give up and move on to another brand.

As exciting as 2016 has been for social media, 2017 offers even more opportunities for small businesses to earn money through their social accounts but to also connect on a deeper level through live content.

Best of Three Girls Media

Each week the Three Girls Media team shares tips and insights into social media, marketing, public relations and more in our blog Three Girls, A Dog and a Marketing Blog. Here are my favorite social media tips from the team:

Erika, CEO: From her post, “4 Social Media Practices That Can Boost SEO,” Erika explains that encouraging sharing is important for SEO:

“Sharing on sites such as Facebook and Twitter sends out ‘social signals’, which can improve your website’s overall SEO. The more shares your content has, the larger the audience becomes, with your followers sharing it with their followers, and so on. Asking your readers to share your content on social platforms is one of the simplest strategies you can perform to improve your SEO, but it is also one which can lead to fantastic results.” Read more of her SEO and social media tips here.

Emily, Senior Director of Publicity: You may be familiar with Facebook and Twitter, but has your small business stared using Instagram? If you need help, Emily provides amazing tips in her post, “How to Use Instagram for Your Business.” She not only explains how to set up the account and gives tips on what to post, she also explains why it’s important to use this platform:

“Did you know by September of last year, Instagram actually had 90 million more active users than Twitter? Its users are very active, too: 59% logged into the platform daily in 2015, 35% of which visited multiple times a day. When it comes to social media engagement, Instagram ranks the highest – even above Facebook! According to Forrester Research, 2.3% of brands’ fans or followers interacted on Instagram, compared to just 0.2% on Facebook.” Why would you not want to join? Read more about her Instagram tips here.

Beth, Senior Publicist & Graphic Designer: By now you get the point that being active on social media is important, but what exactly can it do for your business? Beth shares her “7 Business Uses for Social Media Marketing” that includes boosting customer service, increasing your company’s reach and many more. One tip that may be of particular interest is turning fans into customers:

“If you have lots of social media fans, but are trying to increase your sales, you can use social media marketing tactics to do so! Turning fans into customers isn’t always easy, but here are several tactics you can try that will endear consumers to your brand:

• Showcase your product in action
• Provide ‘how-to’ tips for your industry
• Target your updates using promoted posts
• Create incentives in the form of flash sales or coupons
• Share a behind-the-scenes video from your company”

Read the rest of her social media marketing tips here.

Natalie, Publicist: As I promised earlier, here is more information on influencer marketing. In my previous post, “How to Use Influencer Marketing for Social Media Success,” I explained what this form of marketing is and tips on how to find and engage with influencers. If you think you are ready to use this tactic, remember to entice them with something interesting to them:

“This could be something along the lines of offering them a free sample or service, or providing additional information to a piece of work they’ve previously written. It’s their name on the line if they choose to engage with your brand, which makes it important to build a positive relationship. They may also have another number of brands interested in their position on social media; give them every reason to choose you.” Read more about influencer marketing here.

Danielle, Publicist: In her blog post, “Discover How to be Successful on Social Media,” Danielle expertly explained how to get started on social media and gave a warning on what pitfalls to avoid. One pitfall she warns about is no customer engagement and why it can ruin your efforts:

“Think about the term, ‘Social networking.’ ‘Social’ is in the name. These platforms are a great tool to build relationships with customers. Strike up a conversation to engage with your audience, don’t broadcast information only about yourself and your business. At Three Girls, we recommend our clients follow the 80/20 rule – 20% of the content you share is self-promotional, while the remaining 80% is fun, interesting, educational content related to your industry. This allows for much more customer engagement, and a far more interesting page.” Learn more about what it takes to be successful on social media here.

Effy, Office Greeter: Our office greeter has so many social media, marketing and PR tips and insights running around her head, she had to create her own series called “Effy Says…” One aspect of social media marketing that is important to her is response time. 71% of consumers who receive a response from a company are more likely to recommend that business to others. Effy recommends you:

“Set notifications so you can answer questions or reply to comments promptly.” You can find more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

As you can see from 2016 to 2017, what is important one year may not be the next; social media is constantly changing and evolving. What you can rely on is that the Three Girls Media team will be here to give you weekly updates and information your small business needs to be a success on social media. If you don’t have the time, we are happy to help you with writing content, monitoring your accounts and just about any other help you need on social media channels. Contact our CEO, Erika Montgomery for a complimentary consultation to go over your social media and marketing concerns and needs.

Here’s to 2016 and to a happy 2017; cheers!

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Sign up for a complimentary consultation during December and receive an Annual Marketing Planning Guide valued at $475!  We offer a 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs - no strings attached. Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange your consultation!