The Latest Trends For Your Social Media Strategy

DATE

June 2, 2021

New methods and new features are at your disposal on social media to better reach your customer

Social media is an ever-evolving, rapidly adapting entity that allows users to better connect. Due to its continued rapid growth, it’s no secret that social media is integral to any marketing strategy. However, keeping up to date with all the nuances can be difficult, and knowing how to specifically reach your audience is even harder. To get your brand to be the best and to keep it fresh on social media, you must be constantly learning and adapting to the trends.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

Henry Ford – Founder of Ford Motor Company

Luckily for you, GDR Media Group is always up to date with the latest media insights!

We are an independent agency with an abundance of expertise in social media at your disposal. Thinking of launching a social media campaign, why not partner with us? Together we’ll get your brand to the next level and maximise your customers’ engagement. Get in touch today.

Here's what we know about the latest social media trends:

Stories As A Content Format

Instagram stories are a great way to reach your customer, with more brands increasingly using them to grow and engage their followers.

We see brands move away from a multi-day or daily posting schedule to avoid cluttering their page’s timeline and their followers' feeds. Instead, they use stories as an alternative to create and promote their content as part of their brand’s strategy.

While stories aren’t permanent to an uploader’s page, (only existing for 24 hours) what they lack in longevity, they make up for in engagement. With tools like filters, options to answer/ask questions, ways to react and comment, users feel like the page is interacting directly with them, which gives your brand an added personal touch. This is made even more engaging if the content is relevant, recent, and purposeful.

With social media stories, brands can constantly have a presence with their audience without bombarding them with unnecessary content.

Instagram is the most common app to post stories on and it allows you to save and pin these stories to your profile.

You can use social media stories to tell your brand story! And with storytelling at the heart of what we do at GDR Media Group let's work on this together! Contact us today.

Social Media Commerce Continues To Thrive

With the integration of Instagram shop and Facebook marketplace, brands are looking to push their products directly through their social channels to their customers.

Consumers can now view products and prices on a brand’s page. This can be taken a step further on apps like Instagram where these products can be tagged within posts that link to the shop. It allows customers to conveniently begin their customer journey with a brand through the click of a button from a photo in their feed.

Imagine, you’re a fashion label, you’d be able to take full advantage of the tagging system in your posts with models wearing hats, shirts, or shoes directly purchasable through tapping on the item in the image.

This isn’t just limited to fashion brands by any means! Get creative and you can utilise engaging visuals to sell directly.

Whatever your industry, if you’re a B2C business, social commerce is becoming more and more prevalent, you don’t want to fall behind!

Eager to evolve your social channels as another touchpoint to purchase from? GDR has you covered, let’s chat!

Value And Relevance Beats Content Production Quality

While new features on social media platforms make your life easier, ultimately it comes down to what you post that matters for your customer. With an abundance of businesses now using social media in their strategy, Consumers are beginning to tune out from the marketing white noise if the content isn’t valuable. This means they’re switching to purpose-driven brands for their products and content.

Up to 66% of people would switch from a product they typically buy, to a new product from a purpose-driven company. (source: Forbes)

So, what exactly IS purpose-driven content? Content that has a reason to exist.

It gives value to the customer because it’s relevant to the time, it directly fulfills a need or educates. Whatever it is, there must be a justification for your content to exist and have value for it to be truly purposeful.

When consumers engage with your brand through your content they want it to be a meaningful experience that they can benefit from and use in their lives. An example of this would be a product tutorial for a restaurant to teach viewers how to prepare a meal of theirs at home.

It’s content with a purpose that gives your audience a reason to listen.

At GDR Media Group our goal is always the same: to make marketing meaningful and deliver tangible results.

Want to learn more? Let's talk!

Video Marketing

Video is a MUST on your social channels.

87% of video marketers state that video gives them a positive ROI – compared to 33% in 2015. (Source: Hubspot)

Video marketing has increased exponentially over the past several years, here's why:

Up to 94% of people have watched explainer videos to learn more about a product and up to 84% then swayed to make a purchase. (Source: Hubspot)

Videos allow you to present your content in a stimulating way. Short videos, even only 15-30 seconds long, give you more contact time with your customer allowing you to go into depth about your product, brand, and message. The combination of dynamic audio and visual elements pop more than static images, capturing and holding your audience’s attention.

Eager to get your customer glued to their social media feed watching your brand? We’ll make it happen. Our CEO is an award-winning filmmaker with a creative team that’s keen to bring your brand to the video world! Contact us today!

Authenticity and Transparency - A Must

The rise of cancel culture in the last several years has led to consumer’s being more sceptical of the brands they buy from. Brands are therefore having to go the extra mile to win over their customers’ trust. With social media marketing for brands increasing in prevalence, this becomes more important.

Consumers now open their feeds only to be bombarded by brands promoting their products and services.

With such a variety of brands to choose from, the one they decide upon is generally the one they trust the most. Especially if it’s an online purchase.

So how can you prove to them you’re the real deal? Through UGC!

UGC or User-Generated-Content is content made up of what your customers have said about your brand after they’ve interacted with you.

Whether it’s a video of the product in action, an image of a satisfied customer using your product, or a written testimonial, customer praise can be used to gain the trust of your audience.

It’s important to get this right as user-generated content is viewed as the most authentic form of content by consumers globally, with 58% of consumers agreeing. (Source: social media today)

What GDR Can Do For Your Brand

GDR Media Group is your team of digital marketing experts. We will elevate your brand’s social media strategy to new levels. Using fresh modern visuals, delivered purposefully on the right channels your audience is bound to receive your brand well. Our Audience, Message, Execution formula (AME) has worked time and time again in delivering great ROI for brands such as yours.