5 lessons from social media this year and how to apply them in 2023

2022 was a wild ride with social media – from Elon Musk buying Twitter to the drama surrounding Harry Style’s Spitgate, to Facebook redefining its algorithms AGAIN – and it was full of lessons for us marketers. But don’t worry! We have survived (almost) and now it’s time to look ahead to 2023, writes social media expert Emily Rose Hills.

Here are the valuable lessons I learned from social media in 2022 that we can apply to our marketing strategy for 2023!

1. Celebrity clout is in doubt

Brands don’t need to hire celebrity influencers for successful marketing of their product or service. The rise of the micro-influencer is a phenomenon allowing brands to reach smaller, but highly engaged, audiences in a cost-effective way. Rather than having hundreds of thousands of followers, these influencers may have an audience of 10,000 or less.

A recent study of more than 10,000 micro-influencers revealed that their content has a higher click-through rate (CTR) than those with larger followings. Micro-influencers come across as more authentic and relatable than those with celebrity status, therefore more likely to be trusted by their audience.

Lesson 1 in a nutshell: You don’t need the big names to endorse your products.

2. RIP Facebook advertising?

The effectiveness of Facebook advertising is somewhat of a hot topic in the digital marketing world. With the change in the algorithm and as the platform has become more saturated with ads and content, businesses are paying top-dollar for advertising while the return on investment is dropping.

In addition to paying more, advertisers are dealing with privacy issues as users opt out of being tracked, which makes it almost impossible to create lookalike audiences.

In January 2022, Facebook announced the removal of more than 1,000 detailed demographics that may be regarded as sensitive. In April 2022, they removed the following targeting options, including referencing causes, organisations or public figures that relate to health, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion or sexual orientation.

Lesson 2 in a nutshell: Rethink your Facebook advertising strategies for maximum impact. Take advantage of the newest feature, Facebook Reels, to make your mark and refine your organic strategy. Host a Facebook Event to maximise reach and engage up to 500 people at once.

And don’t forget to research and explore other platforms such as TikTok and YouTube for alternative advertising opportunities. By taking the time to rethink your strategy, you can create an effective and efficient marketing plan that will take your business to the next level.

3. Videos – the shorter, the better

The success of short-form video content during 2022 is undeniable. From six-second videos using images with trending audio to story times with your favourite micro-influencers, short-form video is being consumed faster than your favourite snack food.

Instagram and Facebook both introduced Reels, while YouTube has been having huge success with their ‘Shorts’ (1.5 billion logged-in users are watching Shorts every day).

Bite-sized videos are more digestible, and much more cost-effective, without huge production overheads or post-production editing required.

Lesson 3 in a nutshell: Find a way to incorporate short-form video into your content. If you’re not sure how to integrate it, a social media mentor can help you create a marketing strategy.

4. The rise of dark socials

Dark social is a term used to refer to content that cannot be tracked by platform analytics. This means it’s being shared privately via messaging apps, text messages and emails. It’s like an invisible share – you can tell the original post has been reshared, but its reach is much farther than the platform analytics can tell you.

It provides a more private method of communication with conversations being carried out in closed networks such as Discord, WhatsApp, Viber or Signal.

Lesson 4 in a nutshell: It’s important to determine effective strategies you can use, keeping in mind that the use of dark socials will continue to grow. You can integrate a link-shortener app like bit.ly to create short trackable links, or invest in GetSocial, a software-as-a-service (SAAS) platform designed to follow dark socials. It has a free 14-day trial and scalable packages and develops a content strategy that encourages followers to share your content on dark social platforms. Consider what drives people to share your content

5. You need a back-up

As we’ve discovered during 2022, anything can happen – if Elon Musk purchasing Twitter doesn’t prove that, I don’t know what does. What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and the only social media channel you’d invested in was gone?!

Having all your eggs in one basket can be a risky move. What would happen if, one day, Instagram were no longer available? How would you promote your business without it? Diversifying your marketing channels can ensure that your business is not overly dependent on any one platform.

Lesson 5 in a nutshell: With the Facebook king, Mark Zuckerberg, laying off more than 11,000 staff recently, anything’s possible. I mean, who thought MySpace and Yahoo Chat Rooms would always be a thing? Consider investing in other digital marketing strategies, such as SEO, email marketing, content marketing and other social media advertising. Doing so can provide you with a range of options to promote your business and mitigate the risk of relying on any one platform.

This article was first published on Kochie’s Business Builders, read the original here.

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