Because social media changes every day, there is no absolute guidebook for social media best practices. Therefore, in this constantly evolving environment, it is essential to stay alert and identify algorithm updates, emerging consumer behavior trends, and fundamental changes to social best practices.
Your expertise in social media makes you the go-to authority at your company. To stay up to date with the latest trends, it is crucial for you to familiarize yourself with the best practices for social media. In order to boost your social media marketing efforts and make the most out of your social channels this year, we have put together a list of the top social media best practices for 2023.
1. Aspire for authenticity
Jenny Li Fowler, Director of Social Media Strategy at MIT, states that consumers nowadays desire authenticity in content, and something that is excessively polished or stylized does not meet this expectation.
In recent years, there has been a decrease in aspirational, aesthetic-focused posts, and an increase in scrappy, lo-fi content. People now prefer content that is transparent and shows both the positive and negative aspects, as well as the messy parts. The popularity of BeReal in 2022 demonstrated the attraction of authentic, unedited content, especially among younger viewers.
Evaluate your approach to brand authenticity by inquiring yourself the following questions:
- Does our brand deliver what we promise on social?
- Is our content true to the values we claim to uphold?
- Are we serving the needs of our customers/community?
2. Research your ideal customer
Leveraging social media means not only reaching people, but reaching the right people.
In order to define and reach your target audience, it is essential to gain knowledge about your ideal customer. You can begin this process by examining the individuals who currently follow you on social media and interact with your content. Who exactly are these people? What characteristics do they share? It is important to consider factors such as age, location, language, and hobbies.
Evaluate how your product marketing team defines your company’s desired customer and compare that to the findings. Do your current followers match this description? Examine your followers and online community to assess how closely they align with your business objectives and identify areas that your social strategy can address.
3. Use your community’s favorite networks
Once you identify the target audience, concentrate on establishing a strong presence on the platforms they prefer. Consult social media demographic information to determine the most relevant networks to your community. Observe their daily social media habits to understand and map out their journey as digital consumers.
Don’t forget to stay vigilant for any new platforms that may arise and make sure to keep yourself informed about the latest usage patterns. When deciding which platforms to focus on, allocate the most amount of time and resources to social networks that are favored by your target audience, and familiarize yourself with the recommended strategies for each platform.
4. Keep your audience at the forefront
Using your content to build emotional connections is a way to make yourself the hero of your brand story.
Instead of placing the focus on your company’s products, establish your strategy by addressing the challenges your audience faces and how you can assist them. On social media, your target audience provides valuable insights into these challenges. Pay attention to their thoughts, emotions, viewpoints, and encounters concerning your brand, products, industry, and competitors. Prioritize listening to them before shaping your narrative.
To empathize with your audience’s challenges and provide meaningful solutions, utilize social listening and a tool like Sprout Social to track conversations they are having online. This will allow you to extract insights and engage as a storyteller who is actively listening.
5. Post at the right time
Optimizing the timing of your social media posts is an effortless way to achieve more engagement, making it the low hanging fruit among best practices. Once you have invested time and effort into creating and approving your content, finding the best time to publish it becomes a simple yet effective step.
You can refer to Sprout’s guide to determine the optimal posting times or analyze the best posting times for your brand according to the specific channel and industry.
6. Post regularly
In a recent survey conducted among 300 marketers, it was found that 81% believe that consistently maintaining a regular posting schedule on social media has a positive effect on achieving their business objectives.
To strike the right balance between reaching and overwhelming your audience, it is crucial to consider the following example: The Sprout Social Index™ 2022 indicated that brands should aim for one to two posts per day, as 74% of consumers believe this is the ideal frequency of publishing.
When considering the sequential thought process, rephrase the following passage without altering its significance, keeping in mind that the visibility of content is determined by the number of individuals who come across it on their newsfeeds. Given that each platform incorporates its own algorithm, it is advisable for brands to increase the frequency of their posts in order to ensure that their customers have a higher likelihood of encountering them.
To effectively reach their entire audience on various channels, most brands should aim to post 11 times per day on different platforms. For detailed guidelines on the frequency of posting on social media, please refer to our article which provides insights into the recommended practices for each social network.
7. Reduce your response time
Our data reveals that over 75% of consumers anticipate brands to reply within 24 hours. Marketers claim their organizations are able to respond within two hours or less. However, this may not provide the complete picture.
As Sprout examined over 457 million messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram before the 2022 holiday season, a consistent trend emerged: brand response rates have been decreasing from 2020 to 2022. This highlights the urgency for brands to enhance their response time in order to deliver exceptional customer service.
Ensure that your team has the necessary tools to decrease your brand’s response times. Here are some practical methods you can initiate today:
- Audit your current response time average. Pro tip: Use a report like Sprout’s Inbox Activity Report to quickly calculate your performance.
- Use tools like customer service chatbots to make sure you have chat coverage 24/7.
- Simplify your process to eliminate customer friction. Establish a clear line of responsibility for complex customer needs.
8. Produce educational content
One way to ensure repeat customers is by developing downloadable materials such as eBooks, checklists, instructional videos, and infographics, which not only address your customers’ inquiries but also enhance their understanding.
If your customers perceive value in your content, they will be more inclined to promote it on their social media platforms, thereby expanding your outreach.
9. Direct your focus on a few key social channels
If your target audience does not use a particular social media platform, it is not worth your time investing in it. For instance, if you are aiming at business professionals, it would be more advantageous to concentrate your social media marketing efforts on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter instead of platforms like Twitch, Snapchat, or TikTok.
Not all businesses are capable of consistently posting high-quality content on every platform. The task of engaging on multiple channels at once can feel overwhelming. Starting on a small scale by focusing on one or two channels, which you believe will have the widest audience, can be a wise decision. This allows you to develop meaningful connections with your followers.
10. Investigate how your competition uses social media
Conducting a competitor analysis is not nosy, but rather strategic, as it provides insights into their strengths and weaknesses. It enables you to gain a better understanding of customer expectations within your industry.
By thinking systematically, you can identify the weak social areas of your competitors and take advantage of them. For instance, if your competitor has a strong social presence on Twitter but lacks presence on Facebook, it might be beneficial for you to prioritize creating engaging content on Facebook instead of directly competing on Twitter.
11. Create diverse content
Although it is nice to maintain a consistent branding and color scheme on your social media profile, it is important to provide a variety of content for users in their social feeds. Continuously sharing the same types of photos or videos is not an effective marketing strategy.
In order to maintain the interest of your followers, it is important to diversify your content. This can be achieved by incorporating captivating visuals, interactive videos, and persuasive written content, depending on the platform. By doing so, you can keep your audience engaged and eager for additional updates.
12. Consider paid promotion to boost your audience
If you are new to a social platform, utilizing the option to purchase paid ads is a beneficial way to attract specific audiences based on demographics. This can serve as an effective strategy to gain target followers.
Social Media Strategy
Companies may be missing out on potential customers and revenue if they do not have a strong social media marketing plan in place. Social media strategies have the ability to enhance brand awareness, increase engagement rates, and generate traffic for businesses using various social media networks and types of content.
Many businesses are aware that they need to publish content online, however, they may not have a complete understanding of how important it is to be creative, committed, and dedicated in order to achieve success with their social media efforts.
In the realm of social media marketing, simply relying on luck and hope will not suffice. It is imperative for all businesses to develop and execute a well-thought-out social media strategy and manage their business’s social accounts with purpose and significance.
Why do businesses need a social media strategy
The top three challenges faced by online businesses involve the achievement of three goals: reaching their target audience, measuring ROI, and reaching their business goals.
By thinking systematically, you can rephrase the text below while keeping the same meaning: Crafting a well-rounded plan for social media can assist in addressing these objectives and enhancing these conditions. Additionally, developing strategies for social media accounts enables you to establish realistic goals and boundaries, monitor progress, and adjust targets as necessary.
In order for your business to effectively engage with your target audience and thrive in the digital landscape, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive social media strategy.
- Establish clear business expectations and goals for your social media marketing efforts. This can include growing your brand awareness, creating buzz around a new product or promotional event, launching a campaign, and providing a blueprint for your entire business team to follow.
- Allows you to track goal performance. It is not enough to just set goals. The follow-through is the most critical part of reaching a goal. An excellent social media strategy will contain key performance indicators you can monitor and analyze for your business progress.
- Creating and tweaking your business benchmarks over time allows you to track your current business performance and compare it against industry standards, the competition, and your past performance. Consistent business evaluation helps you to determine if your social media strategy is working and where it needs improvement.
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To expect positive results, it is insufficient to randomly share content on social media platforms. It is essential to formulate a meticulous strategy in order to attract the appropriate audience, who will ultimately convert into paying clients.
