Social Media Marketing in 2021

Nearly 50% of the world’s population (aka 3 billion+ people) use social media.

With so many platforms, users, and opportunities to connect, creating an effective social media plan is essential for any eCommerce marketing strategy.

But with so much competition, how can you be sure your brand stands out from the crowd and uses social media to your advantage, especially going into 2021?

Keep reading for our top tips and tricks to keep top of mind in the new year.

What is Marketing Through Social Media?

First, let’s start with the basics.

Marketing through social media is unique from other marketing channels because it is one of the most effective ways to build genuine relationships with your consumers.

Rather than relying on a single medium to attract your consumers attention, social media enables marketers to combine the power of words, photos, videos, music, gifs, live-videos and so much more.

Most importantly, marketing through social media increases the likelihood your target audience will interact with your brand (or see a targeted advertisement!)

What are the Advantages of Marketing Through Social Media?

One of the key advantages of marketing through social media is the two-way instant gratification.

Consumers can better understand the products or services they’re interested in, and brands can better understand what their consumers want and don’t want.

For example, consumers can now browse and checkout products directly in social media apps and brands can receive feedback and reviews around the clock.

Put simply, marketing through social media is one of the easiest ways to drive immense growth and ROI for your brand.

How to Market Through Social Media

Now, the part you’ve all been waiting for – how to market through social media in 2021.

Keep reading to learn about the top, out of the box solutions to drive engagement through social media.

Choose Wisely

In recent years, it seems like there’s a social media platform each year that takes the masses by storm as the new craze.

First it was Facebook, then Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Vine, and flash-forward to today where platforms like TikTok have grown over 800% in just under 3 years.

With so many platforms and so many opportunities to market, should your brand try and tackle them all at once?

Not so fast.

If you’re not listening to your audience then you may be marketing on channels where they’re never likely to spend their time OR be missing out on opportunities to grab their attention where it’s spent most.

For example, although Facebook is one of the oldest social media platforms, it is still the most used social media platform, with 69% of U.S. adults using the platform on a regular basis.

Be sure to conduct adequate audience research prior to publishing posts based on which platform is suddenly popular.

Give Value, Get Value

Our second tip is to make sure your brand is intentional in the content you choose to share on social media.

In order to get value, your brand needs to give some sort of value to consumers from the start!

Don’t just post for the sake of posting, be sure that your audience receives a value-add from every outward communication you put on social.

We recommend aiming to offer at least 1 of these 6 key types of genuine value:

1. Entertain Me
2. Teach Me
3. Test Me
4. Save Me Time
5. Give Me a Recommendation
6. Unlock a Benefit for Me

By offering (at least) one of these genuine types of value, your brand will be able to use social media as a direct value-add to your business, rather than a channel for one-way promotions or advertisements.

With the average consumer seeing thousands of advertisements per day, the best way to stand out from the crowd is to create a two-way street for advertisements that provide value to consumers and gain value for your business through greater engagement or data collection.

Engage & Personalize

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the fun part – key strategies to better engage and personalize content for your audience!

The best way to engage your audience is to personalize the experience they receive based on their preferences.

An easy way to offer greater personalization through social is to incorporate quizzes, product finders, knowledge tests and more!

Need some inspiration?

Check out this experience the National Basketball Association launched on social just in time for the 2020 draft.

Pretty cool, right?

Not only was the NBA able to engage their fans and create a fun experience just in time for the draft, but they were also able to capture key data to power future communications with their fans.

Another example is this holiday gift finder by accessories retailer, Charming Charlie.

By promoting a holiday gift finder via social, Charming Charlie is helping consumers find gifts quickly and easily, while also understanding who their shopper is shopping for and what products they are interested in purchasing.

There you have it!

Now you have a few starting points to stand out from the noise in 2021 and drive greater personalization and engaging experiences for your consumers.

Social Media Marketing is an essential part of any eCommerce strategy. We’re here to help you get started today by creating an interactive experience to launch on any (or all!) social networks.