Social media evolves at a roaring pace and it’s important for small businesses to stay ahead of the game in order to maintain clients and business. To help you we’ve rounded up the latest updates and trends for the most commonly used social media platforms that may impact your time.
Social Media Facts
So let’s see how marketers are using social media to grow their business. These insights are from the Social Media Examiner Industry Report. If you would like to read further into the report please clink on the link.
- Instagram is hot: 78% of marketers are using Instagram. It’s the second most important social platform for marketing (behind Facebook). A significant 64% of marketers plan on increasing their Instagram organic activities over the next 12 months. Instagram is the number-one platform marketers want to learn more about.
- Stories video use is on the rise: Short-form video is growing. More than half of all marketers regularly use Instagram and Facebook for video-based stories.
- YouTube interest is high: A significant 71% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube video
- TikTok is ignored by most marketers: Only 9% of marketers are using TikTok. A significant 68% do not plan on using the platform in the next year.
- Facebook dominance still strong: A very significant 93% of marketers use Facebook (followed by Instagram at 78%). 54% of marketers claim Facebook is their most important social platform. Facebook Live is the leading live video platform used by 30% of marketers and Facebook ads are used by 75% of marketers.However there are signs that Facebook is declining. Marketers have been diversifying away from Facebook steadily since 2019. When asked to select their single most important platform, only 54% selected Facebook, down from 67% in 2018. Only 47% of marketers plan on increasing their organic activities on the platform.
- B2C marketers reduced their use of Twitter (down from 53% in 2020) and increased their use of LinkedIn (up from 50% in 2020).
- Watch Linkedin grow: More than half of marketers (54%) plan on increasing their LinkedIn organic activities over the next 12 months
What’s Been Happening
Reels are Coming To Facebook
Facebook has announced that Reels have begun to be rolled out to select U.S. Faceboook users. We’re hoping that they’ll reach the UK soon. Reels has been high-engaging on Instagram, so the hope is that the Reels is a way to potentially combat the decline of organic reach on Facebook with engaged audiences moving forward.
Instagram Says Goodbye To IGTV
Instagram introduces a new video format as it says goodbye to IGTV. Referred to as Instagram Videos, they can now be up to 60 minutes long. These videos, both longer and shorter, will be found on users’ profiles in a new “Video” tab.
In their desire to grow Reels, Instagram is testing the ‘Montage’ feature, which helps users convert their Instagram Stories into Reels video clips. You can choose the stories you want to feature, put them together and add relevant audio.
Great news also that link stickers are are now available for users of all follower counts. Before now only users with 10k followers could link out to their websites and favourite pages off of the app.
New E-commerce Features For Twitter
Twitter is taking big steps to appeal to small businesses. It’s making advertising easier and is doing all it can to let users avoid unpleasant conversations as it works towards toning down some of the toxicity. Twitter is aiming to compete against Amazon to attract e-commerce buyers looking to purchase products from its platform. This offers good opportunities for small businesses active on Twitter..
Algorithm Updates At Linkedin
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Linkedin has rolled out another massive algorithm update which is affecting how fast post views come in. This is much more of a slow burn as a post might not even show up on your connection’s feed until hours after you’ve posted it. The benefits are you will continue to see a gradual climb in the number of views over a longer time which will broaden your reach and lengthen the effectiveness of your posts.
Big Changes at TikTok World
TikTok has announced new partnerships with both Vimeo and Canva to provide more ways for marketers to build better campaign creative in each respective app. The aim is to make it easier to build TikTok creative, and upload it straight into your campaign.
Canva will introduce over 50 TikTok ad templates, helping to reduce the time and cost associated with building campaigns.
TikTok is also experimenting with even longer video uploads. It is being trialled amongst some TikTok users who can now post movies up to 5 minutes long. Watch this space in the future and this might lead to a significant change in platform use in the future.
The survey identifies a significant 68% of marketers saying they have no plans to use TikTok. It will be interesting to see if this changes in the future.
YouTube Shorts And Chapters
This was introduced in July 2021 but we popped this in, in case you missed it. Similar to Instagram Reels YouTube shorts are short videos that are 15 seconds or less. These videos can be created on a smartphone and uploaded directly onto YouTube.
YouTube has now introduced the option of adding Chapters to your videos. This feature breaks up a video into individual “chapters” where users can navigate forward/back on timestamped sections. This allows them to re-watch a section of a video.
This is particularly useful if you create lengthy videos with a lot of information. Chapters will help views navigate your video.
Don’t Ignore Social Media Updates
You can’t turn your back to social media updates, or you’ll get left behind. It’s important to remember that all these platforms are continually adapting and changing. Your strategy needs to flex to keep up with the current trends and updates.
But this takes time. If you find that you spend a significant amount of your work hours on mundane social media tasks at the detriment to your growing business then perhaps you need to hire a social media virtual assistant?
They will absorb all the tedious and repetitive work that underpins your marketing campaign. At the same time they will keep an eye on the updates being rolled out and identify the relevant ones for your business that require consideration and/or implementation. You therefore can focus on the critical elements of your business that really do need your help.
A Social Media Virtual Assistant
An experienced and social media VA can bring knowledge and productivity to your business? They can hit the ground running and can take care of your work with little to no training at all.
Sometimes it really does pay to hire an expert.and you’ll be well on your way towards making the most of social media for your business!
At Buy Time our clients are assigned a dedicated social media assistant on an entirely flexible and pay as you go basis. They are happy to work by the hour, the day or to create a plan to suit you – simply buy time as you need it. With no contract, subscription charges or minimum usage requirement, there are no real overheads to consider. Our focus is our client and our long term relationships have benefited from this approach for well over a decade. We charge an hourly rate and in 5 minute slots. It is not as expensive as you think.
If you would like to have an informal chat about how Buy Time can help manage your social media, please do get in touch at info@buy-time.co.uk or 0203 371 7115.