Social media came, it connected us all, and it’s here to stay. From a business point of view, it’s one of the most essential generators for selling your product and services. According to Statista, by the year 2021, social media users will surpass the one billion mark! With so many eyeballs skimming the screen, it would be foolish to not partake in the marketing goldmine that is social media. Research has shown that a negative social media presence is detrimental to brands, so really, it’s not in a business owner’s interest to ignore the trends and fail to connect with consumers (Buffer).
Let’s look at what social media users are shifting towards and how businesses can connect and keep up in the ever-changing cyberverse.
You Have A Message
In 2017, Medium released an article on the rapid growth and popularity of messaging apps. Today, use of this newer category of apps (Viber, What’s App, Slack, etc.) has surpassed that of social media apps (Instagram, Facebook, etc.). Messaging apps are a great marketing tool for businesses because it allows them to be more accessible to consumers. Think customer service and information 24/7. It’s definitely worth sitting down and hashing out what kinds of apps would be a good fit for your brand and target audience.
Media In Motion
Video by far still takes the cake when it comes to social media content. “Views of branded video content have increased 99% on YouTube and 258% on Facebook between 2016 and 2017. On Twitter, a video Tweet is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a photo Tweet.” (Wyzowl) What does it all mean? Well, any video content that makes it onto your social media channels should be lookin’ pretty fly and it’s fairly easy with video editing apps like FilmoraGo and Funimate. Fossbytes offers a comprehensive list of 2018’s best editing apps for social media managers.
Other forms of video that have taken the social media-verse by storm are the 360 degree and virtual reality technology. We’ve wasted no time hopping on this bandwagon and we must say that we’re loving the 360 camera!
Media Managed
Some stats for you:
- In the last quarter of 2017, 1.37 billion active users visited Facebook on a daily basis. (WordStream)
- 51% of Instagram users access the platform daily, and 35% say they look at the platform several times per day. (WordStream)
Similar to the news cycle, social media content is being updated constantly to keep followers engaged. If you’re an agency managing multiple business pages at once, you’re going to want a friend to help keep everything straight. Facebook Pages Manager App allows you to manage up to 50 pages from your mobile device. This program lets managers share content and find engagement insights quickly and easily.
As far as Instagram is concerned, apps centered around gaining and maintaining engagement are tremendously helpful. WhenToPost, for example, is a data-driven program that helps guide scheduling that is specific to your following. There’s no time like the best time to launch your exhilarating content! Similar apps like Crowdfire help weed out inactive followers or “ghost followers” to give managers a more accurate analysis of engagement. (Hootsuite)
These suggestions are of course just of few of the dozens and dozens of apps that make running a social media marketing program a little easier. If we missed your faves or any newer apps appearing on the horizon, let us know in the comments below! Happy “apping!”