6 Social Media Marketing Tips for 2021

Don’t let another year come and go without a cohesive social media marketing strategy. It’s all too easy to set lofty social media goals for your company at the beginning of the year, only to have them quickly forgotten once work picks back up again after the holiday season.

Putting together an effective social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to be overly daunting or time-consuming, however. We’ve assembled some of our top tips for powerful social media marketing in 2021, so give them a read through and consider which ones align best with your company’s needs.

You’ll be ready to launch your 2021 social media marketing strategy in no time.

Tip 1: Develop the right habits

Start 2021 off strong by cultivating excellent social media habits.

All too often, marketing teams use ad-hoc, rushed, or last-minute social media strategies. They talk about planning all their posts, captions, and strategies in advance, but that always falls by the wayside and things end up getting posted on the fly.

Make 2021 different by committing to excellent social media strategy habits. First, similar to a new year’s resolution, determine your goals and objectives in relation to your social media marketing strategy. Ask yourself and your team questions like ‘What’s our social media goal for 2021?’ and ‘What’s the #1 thing that we’re trying to accomplish through our social media channels?’ Your answers will help provide direction and structure to your social media strategy overall.

You can also take social media goal-setting a step further by determining goals and objectives for specific social media campaigns. To do this, consider using a collaborative project charter to help your team manage your social media strategy. This is especially effective as goals that are written down are 1.4x more likely to be achieved than goals that aren’t.

Tip 2: Harness the power of stories & live videos

Social media platforms aren’t static. They’re highly dynamic, are always changing and being updated and are subject to fluctuations and trends. Even social media giants like Facebook and Instagram aren’t exactly the same in 2021 as they were in 2020.

Video content has become a particularly potent force on a variety of social media platforms. Only a few years ago, Facebook and Instagram were heavily reliant on photos… now it’s all about video. In fact, a 2017 study demonstrated that views on branded video content on Facebook have increased 258% since 2016.

2021 is the time to make video content a key feature of your social media strategy, whether it’s through stories, reels, video posts or live content. This is because consumers are increasingly expecting to see original video content from their favorite brands. If you want your brand’s social media presence to be competitive, you need great video content.

Even better? Video content has been shown to get higher priority in certain social media algorithms and higher rates of engagement.

Tip 3: Commit to clear, consistent design

This tip might seem obvious, but we see it being overlooked all too often on social media platforms. Ensure that you have clear, cohesive design that extends across your different social media platforms and landing pages.

This is especially important when it comes to designing social media advertisements. Don’t simply design a beautiful Instagram post and leave it at that. Every aspect of your social media advertisement design should be harmonious. That means your social media post, as well as what appears when a lead swipes up or clicks on a link.

Ideally, the landing page or link that a potential lead clicks on should look very similar to the advertisement or post that first caught their attention. If they click a link, see something unexpected, and get lost or confused, you might lose them forever!

This logic also extends to your advertisement copy: make sure your call-to-action (CTA) is clear and articulated using the same or similar words across links and platforms.

Speaking more generally, ensure that your branding across different social media pages doesn’t vary too much. If you have a presence on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, for example, your posts might vary a little bit from platform to platform. Nevertheless, it should still be unmistakably your company’s social media presence and make use of the same color palette, fonts, logos, and general branding.

Tip 4: Connect with your audience, genuinely

Traditional marketing is out. Building genuine relationships is in. Even though sales are at the core of any social media marketing strategy, they shouldn’t be the sole focus. In fact, a 2016 study showed that 57.5% of respondents found it annoying when brands’ social media posts were overly promotional.

Excellent social media marketing is about investing in excellent customer service and developing authentic connections and relationships with your audience. Regardless of whether you’re aiming to convert new leads or develop long-term customer relationships, this is vital.

There are many ways to foster genuine connections with your audience through your social media strategy, but here are a few ideas to use in 2021:

• Tell a story. Rather than focusing on the product, you’re selling, highlight the story behind it. If a specific product doesn’t have an interesting story behind it, you can also reference your company’s broader mission or story. Companies like 66 North and Patagonia do this well.
• Go behind the scenes. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that everything you put on your social media profile has to be polished. People often enjoy seeing what goes into the making of your product or service. Take your audience into your office, onto your photoshoot sets, into your factories and more. This is especially effective in relation to the slow fashion movement, showcased by European brands like Babaa and Paloma Wool.
• Ask for feedback. Social media is an invaluable resource as it provides companies with direct lines of communication to their audiences. Make use of that resource and ask your audience for feedback directly when you need it. This can be done via private messages, Instagram or Facebook comments or even interactive stories using features like Ask me a question or Poll.

Tip 5: Choose your platforms wisely

It’s 2021… and there are so many social media platforms out there to choose from. It’s become almost impossible to effectively maintain a social media presence on every single platform. Having said that, which ones are indispensable?

This depends on your company’s profile. When crafting your social media strategy for 2021, we’d recommend determining which social media platform(s) best fit your needs and focusing on quality rather than quantity. Different social media platforms serve slightly different purposes and it’s important to be aware of which ones are best suited to you. For example:

• Facebook: Almost everyone has a Facebook account, but it’s highly competitive for social media marketing and subject to heavy algorithm changes. As of late, Facebook pages are not doing well, but Facebook groups are a great way to foster community within your audience.
• Instagram: Instagram works best with brands that are highly reliant on visuals and younger demographics. Newer Instagram features such as stories and lives make it fun and easy to connect directly with your audience.
• Twitter: Twitter is an incredibly fast-paced social media network that focuses on snippets of text. It’s also a great customer service tool and is particularly popular in media and news-oriented industries.

Tip 6: Stay transparent

As mentioned above, social media platforms are incredibly useful as they provide direct lines of communication with customers. That means they can be used as highly effective vehicles of transparent communication as well.

In 2021, honesty (particularly coming from companies) will be valued more highly than ever. Use your social media strategy to communicate with your customers honestly and promptly. If your company made a mistake or public relations blunder, be sure to address it on social media. Even better, keep your followers updated on how you’re addressing your actions and finding solutions moving forward.

This is also important on a smaller level. When your company experiences shipping delays, sends out an erroneous email, or needs community support, social media is a great way to let your customers know.

Stand out on social media in 2021

Don’t wait until we’re well into 2021 to start thinking about your yearly social media strategy. Start now by considering the tips and insights outlined above, determining which ones best align with your company’s needs, and consulting relevant team members to put them to the test.

This might seem like a lot for your team to digest, but changes in social media strategy can be quickly and easily explained to everyone on board with an internal presentation. You can use a range of presentation templates to explain all of your changes to your marketing team and others in an easy to understand manner so that everyone is on the same page and ready to tackle 2021 together.

An important reminder: social media marketing often leads to conversions. Don’t forget that every time you connect with a customer online and harness their data, you’re responsible for protecting it in alignment with the GDPR law.

Social media marketing has quickly become one of the most important marketing tactics over the past few years and that fact doesn’t show any signs of changing any time soon. Stay ahead of the game by investing your time and effort into putting together a killer social media strategy for 2021.