The social media landscape is in a constant state of flux, with new platforms and trends coming and going all the time—with recent uncertainty surrounding potential TikTok bans in several countries leaving businesses wondering how to best maintain their social media presence. Despite these challenges, businesses must stay adaptable and learn to navigate these changes to succeed in their social media marketing efforts.
To help you ensure success in an ever-changing social media landscape, members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their tried-and-true social media marketing tips for businesses.
1. Strengthen The Organic Aspects
Spend time building the organic parts of your business. From killer SEO to just good regular content, having a strong wireframe is going to matter when popular social platforms inevitably change. If your SEO is strong, your audience will be able to find your product—whether it’s on Instagram or TikTok or whatever the next platform is—even as you figure out the algorithms. – Kaitleen Shee, GROW
2. Have A Direct Line To Your Customers
If your entire brand is built on the back of any one platform—social or otherwise—you likely don’t have a real brand or business. We always ask ourselves, “If Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or the like were to disappear tomorrow, would people still know we exist?” If the answer is no, then focus on building first-party customer data, such as email and SMS. Having direct lines of communication with your customers is key. – Jeff Cayley, Worldwide Cyclery
3. Develop A Core Strategy
Have a core strategy that will keep your online presence established and active, even as trends and restrictions come and go. Keep using platforms and content styles that work for you. Occasionally, shake things up with your audience with offbeat viral challenges, collaborations or contests to raise brand, product or cause awareness and engagement. Influencers and celebrities can help with such tactics. – Bryce Welker, Big 4 Accounting Firms
4. Establish A Consistent Brand Identity
Building a strong brand presence that transcends individual social media platforms can provide stability in a changing landscape. By establishing a consistent brand identity, businesses can create a loyal following that remains engaged regardless of the platform. This includes developing a unique brand voice and delivering consistent messaging across all social media platforms. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
5. Diversify Your Presence
Similar to investing, diversification is key. Each business should be on multiple social media platforms, not just to capture the differences in audience demographics, but also to hedge their bets on any one platform. While Instagram and TikTok dominate in reels, those can also go on Facebook. While Facebook performs well with written updates, those can also be amplified on Twitter. – Joel Mathew, Fortress Consulting
6. Create High-Quality Content
Focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your target audience, regardless of the platform. By prioritizing content quality, businesses can adapt to changing social media trends. Authentic and engaging content that connects with the audience will continue to drive engagement regardless of the platforms or trends that may come and go in the ever-evolving social media landscape. – Abhijeet Kaldate, Astra WordPress Theme
7. Build A Community
Social media isn’t simply about promoting your business—it’s also about building a community. By focusing on building a community, you can have a more engaged audience who is truly interested in your business. It’s easier to achieve success on social media if you focus on building a community rather than using it merely as a marketing platform. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
8. Stay Flexible And Adaptable
To ensure success, businesses should focus on the larger strategy and stay adaptable and flexible in their approach as they anticipate the landscape changing. Work toward building a strong brand presence across diversified channels and keep up to date with the latest trends and platforms. Continually monitor your analytics and keep an eye on customer feedback to use as your North Star. – Kevin Getch, Webfor
9. Prioritize Creativity
Many brands stick to an evergreen format for their marketing assets. While that may work for their primary promotional channels, they need to have an edge and an ability to pivot as social platforms and consumption habits evolve. By prioritizing creativity, companies free up resources to constantly think about new ways to engage audiences and produce exceptional content. – Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep Mattress
10. Focus On Your Audience
Before launching any sort of presence on social media channels, you as a business should clearly understand your personas and what social channels they are using. When you provide relevant content to your personas on the channels they love, there’s no need to chase new social media trends and hypes. – Anna Anisin, DataScience.Salon