This week’s digest is a mixture of articles I’ve read and a couple of articles I published on this blog. Our title article offers 5 social media marketing tips for SMBs.
Let’s get started.
25 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2021
After a tumultuous 2020, what’s on the social media marketing horizon for the next 12 months? Here are our predictions for the year ahead.
Summary
- As Facebook adds more VR users, it also opens up new avenues for advertising and promotion. It leads more consumers into the next stage of digital connection, meeting up within immersive environments online.
- Expect to see Snap put more focus on Snap Originals in 2021 – and expect to see more major publishers and studios pay more attention, and look to align with the format, as they seek novel ways to stay connected to younger audiences.
- LinkedIn Career Explorer looks to provide more guidance in the pandemic’s wake. You can expect more of these insights options to become more available.
- The more LinkedIn can merge these tools into its systems, the better. The more contextual, relevant alerts of this type, the more it will increase user engagement.
Tips to Improve Website Content for Screen Readers
Given the increasing use of voice technology–Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s voice search, etc.–adapting your content for screen readers is a smart step.
Summary
- A technique that improves readability for your audience also works well for screen readers. Use shorter sentences and bullet points.
- Using H2 and H3 headers give assistive technologies and all readers a sense of the page’s organisation and structure.
- To learn more about writing alt text descriptions, check out Alexa’s helpful article.
- Here is another helpful tool to check colour contrast accessibility.
Social Media Trends You Need to Know in 2021
It elates many social teams to be a vital part of their organisations. Higher-ups have recognised how valuable social media has been for communicating in real-time through COVID-19 and other major crises.
Summary
- Social teams are burning out with having to be always on with social customer care and also having to be the first to communicate through a lot of shifting situations and serious crises, besides dealing with all the personal hardships that come with living through a pandemic.
- In fact, according to Sprout Social, ‘88% of social marketers [in Higher Ed] say the pandemic has made their work much harder, and half don’t have adequate support or resources to manage their mental health.
- Consumers are gravitating toward smaller, more intimate topical communities (see the rise of Facebook Group’s popularity as an example).
- As noise increases on social media, many are looking to customise their experiences by joining private groups and forums based on causes and personal interests.
Why Is Privacy the New Dilemma of 2020?
A recent law passed in the European Union, the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has forced websites to add warnings that disclose the use of cookies to users, which is one reason so many accessed sites now have a “consent” dialogue that appears upon visit.
Summary
- They then partner with other parties to run ads they think you’ll respond to or they sell your tendencies outright.
- That means if you’re logged into a browser or device, you’re likely to see ads related to your searches even on other devices.
- Cookies work with other mechanisms like tracking scripts and pixels.
- They build tracking scripts into the code of websites themselves and help gather analytics about user activity.
7 Tips for Blog Post Content Conversion
But if you are investing the time and resources into creating blog posts, you need to ensure that they are ticking all the boxes. In this article, we consider seven proven tips to remember when writing blogs for conversion.
Summary
- The importance of a headline
- Choose a topic to interest your audience.
- Be a sucker for structure.
I’ve published a few articles in recent times that are worthy of a spot in our weekly digest. So I’ve included a few articles below. Expect to see more in the coming weeks.
Digital Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business
By linking your web analytics to email marketing platforms, you can trigger personalised email campaigns based on user behaviour.
Summary
- Email marketing automation software can integrate with your website and trigger email campaigns based on specific website activity.
- According to this article, new predictive analytics, powered by AI, it can help you make sure that your digital marketing campaigns are efficient, whether you’re advertising on Messenger, Playables, Carousels, or Stories, e.g. Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, etc.
- According to Smart Insights, 45% of email marketers report that engagement is their #1 obstacle to successful email marketing campaigns.
- Joining email, voice and visual search, social, mobile and other online marketing channels–and most important measure and optimise those programs with built-in metrics.
5 Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
These are a few social media marketing tips that can help your business stand out from the crowd.
Summary
- Your Strategy
- Provide Value
- Avoid Spam
Conclusion
That’s all for the week. I hope you’ve found these social media marketing tips for SMBs and other articles of value. If so, please share it with your friends. God willing, I’ll be back again next with another edition. If you’ve anything to say about this article, tweet me @mauconline.
Related Article(s)
- How to Market on Social Media
- Understanding Social Media Marketing
- Reaching Your Target Audience Through Social Media
- 35 Common Misconceptions about Social Media Marketing
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