Social media is constantly changing and has become one of the biggest marketing budgetary items for big brands again in 2023.
It’s estimated that social network ad spending will reach just under $95 billion worldwide this year, and that number is expected to soar to more than $105 billion next year. However, ad budgets for 2023 are expected to slow due to economic pressures and continued inflation.
Brands are still spending on social media marketing though some have pulled back due to economic pressures.
Marketing has been immensely transformed in just the last few years alone. Years ago, brands just cared about print advertising, a display ad in some major digital newspapers, and maybe a Twitter account.
Today, however, brands have been spending big bucks on social media, mobile advertising, and data analytics.
It’s as simple as this: “social media have changed how big brands do business, interact with customers, market their products, and build a strong reputation.”
Today, however, brands are spending the big bucks on social media, mobile advertising, and data analytics. #socialmediamarketing
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How Social Media Is Changing Today
Social Media is rapidly evolving each year; however, 2023 brings some exciting changes that marketers should be aware of if they want to remain competitive. The rise of AI & automation will provide greater targeting options & increased personalization capabilities; visuals will become increasingly important for capturing attention.
Augmented engagement opportunities will give brands access to markets previously inaccessible due to cost barriers and the lack of resources required for traditional marketing methods involved.
All these advancements will require marketers to adapt accordingly if they hope to stay ahead curve and succeed in the digital age as social media is changing rapidly every day.
Big Brands and eCommerce
As big brands become active participants in social media, a new industry has been spawned: social commerce. This is when the concepts of eCommerce and social media integration form social commerce. It’s a $95 billion industry, and with just a market share of five percent, many brands are hopping on the bandwagon and hoping to accelerate the growth of the industry.
Why not? With eCommerce accounting for close to over five trillion dollars in 20221, there are plenty of opportunities to gain a percentage of that pie by driving sales and acquiring leads.
Big brands are very effective in social media. Just how can small businesses learn from social media rockstars? First, you have to identify just which of the major brands are fully using social media and providing marketing students with case studies.
Top 9 Brands on Social Media
According to eClincher, these are the top 9 brands (in no particular order for 2022) that are dominating the social media landscape:
- GoPro
- Nike
- Spotify
- Wayfair
- Pop-Tarts
- National Geographic
- Starbucks
- Dove
- Wendys
Here is what the website concludes in its list of the top brands on social media:
Most of these top brands have at least one thing in common: They’re engaging with their target audience, and they’re not just doing it occasionally. They’re making target audience engagement a priority. Social media platforms are first and foremost social networking sites, which means people are there to connect with others. Thus, you have to do just that. Respond to their questions and comments and find ways to encourage them to engage with you.
So, just how are these brands doing an amazing job on social media? That’s the second part. Let’s find out how with these five methods:
- Customer Service & Reputation Management
- Content Marketing
- Social Commerce
- Visual Content
- User-Generated Content
Customer Service & Reputation Management
Remember when you had a discrepancy with a bill or you had trouble with a service, and you had to call a 1-800 number and wait an hour or two to speak with someone? Well, you still may have to do that with a cable or telephone service, but for the most part, you can simply tweet a brand on Twitter or make a comment on the firm’s Facebook page.
Customer service has greatly changed and improved, all thanks to social media. If people are complaining about a power outage or shoddy food at one of the nation’s big chains then you will likely receive a response from the brand, and sometimes within moments of sending out the tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram.
Use social media for your customer service with prompt answers.
Social media has helped improve a brand’s reputation. When something goes wrong with a product or a service, the brand will work day and night to rectify the situation and, of course, broadcast its hard work and dedication all over Facebook and Twitter.
Moreover, brands like to showcase their philanthropic efforts on social media. All of this is part of the brand’s reputation management strategy. All companies should employ a similar strategy. Everything is social media so if you ever want to perform a makeover of your brand then social media is the way to go.
When something goes wrong with a product or a service, the brand will work day and night to rectify the situation and, of course, broadcast its hard work and dedication all over Facebook and Twitter. #InspireToThrive
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Content Marketing
Content marketing and social media go hand in hand. What’s the use of content marketing if you’re not going to share it with the rest of the world? From articles to images, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and, Pinterest are all platforms to take advantage of for your content.
Here are a few of the best social media tips for your content marketing campaign:
- Share images on Twitter to accompany your article, blog post, or webinar.
- Save images on Instagram to increase engagement.
- Reframe your content in multiple ways to suit your audience.
- Be transparent about your company; share details about your brand online.
- Establish Google authorship since you can better rank on search results pages.
- Remember to share your content multiple times to hit the right time zones, garner more traffic, increase circulation, and perhaps reach new followers.
Big brands are promoting their infographics, videos, and free ebooks all over social media. These are just some of the ways they’re achieving the aim of awareness, reputation, and more sales.
GoPro, the action camera maker, pretty much mastered this art form. If you peruse the company’s YouTube and Instagram accounts, you will notice the hundreds of user-submitted videos, which include those consumers jumping out of airplanes, cycling in forests, and surfing the waves.
Big brands are promoting their infographics, videos, and free ebooks all over social media. #socialmediamarketing
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Social Commerce
All of the primary players in the social media realm enable you to shop directly on the website. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest all have buyable buttons for you to purchase some of your favorite brands without having to click through a series of links and spend a lot of time waiting.
Social commerce is the next big thing in the world of eCommerce. There are four distinct reasons why consumers and brands are both becoming excited over this new online trend as social media is changing:
- Social shopping replicates the offline shopping experience.
- Your online shopping experience is curated by the brand.
- Peer recommendations help boosts online word-of-mouth.
- Commerce becomes participatory based on customer input.
How are the big brands starting to incorporate social commerce into their strategies? With these tips and tricks:
- Installing call-to-action buttons on their websites and social network.
- Building social media communities with dedicated customers.
- Tracking, analyzing, and adapting campaigns based on the statistics.
- Putting forward a sincere attitude.
- Take advantage of ads, particularly those that include user-generated content (see below).
Learn how social media is changing commerce as well.
Social Media and eCommerce Mix
This is what Social Media Explorer writes on the mix of social media and eCommerce:
“With technology and communication channels evolving quicker than ever before, it’s hard to predict with certainty what the next 12 months might have to offer.
However, past data and current trends strongly suggest that 2021 will be a major year for eCommerce, with social media playing a key role in it. The data-backed trends I’ve in this post are likely to dominate the coming year. If you stay on top of them, you can have a year of unprecedented success with social commerce.”
Visual Content Changing Social Media
It’s been said time and time again that we’re a visual species. Our attention spans are shorter, we process images faster than text and visuals can impact our buying decisions more than words.
Superb images can have a great impact on users’ engagement on social media. And the proof is in the pudding: visual content generates 94 percent more total views and is 49 percent more likely to be shared on various social media channels.
When it comes to user-generated images, researches show that organic Instagram image increase conversation by 25% more than a professional image, so make sure to incorporate fan images into your campaign as social media is changing.
User-Generated Content Is Changing Social Media
The marketing industry’s best-kept secret is user-generated content, also known as UGC. This is when your customers post positive online reviews, share photos of themselves using your product, tweet out great comments about your brand, and participate in the company’s contests with your own images, videos, and photo captions.
The importance of user-generated content in your social media marketing.
In addition to UGC essentially being a free marketing, UGC ads lead to ad campaigns with better results, an increase in sales, heightened consumer engagement, and cost savings for your marketing budget. UGC comes with a wide variety of benefits, especially when it’s integrated with social media.
Many will concede to the fact that it’s attractive to just post well-crafted messages on social media, but then it will portray your brand as sterile, behind on the times, and indifferent to your audience. This is where UGC enters the picture because it suggests you value your customers, you’re hip, and are open to new ideas.
Big brands are incorporating UGC with social media by employing these methods:
- Encouraging customers to post reviews on their products online.
- Sharing photos of users with the products using a specific hashtag.
- Incorporating UGC into ad campaigns for holiday themes and promotions.
- Newsletters feature certain users who shared the most photos, garnered the most subscribers, or have an interesting story about their lives and how the product improved their quality of life.
More User-Generated
There’s an endless number of ways UGC can be added to social media. But the big brands – we alluded to GoPro earlier – understand the value of their users uploading content related to their products.
When customers do this then it immediately transitions them into acting as brand advocates. Remember, people are a lot more likely to trust a brand if their peers are recommending it as opposed to a major star, a witty slogan, or a sleek advertising program. This is one major way social media is changing from its humble beginnings.
Final Thoughts On How Social Media Is Changing
Some may believe that it’s too late to start a successful campaign on social media. The theory is that it’s too crowded to get noticed, no matter how much noise you attempt to make. But caving into this idea suggests that you have very little faith in your audience.
Big brands love social media because never before in history have companies been able to interact, monitor, track, and analyze their target audience on such a customized and personal level. Content marketing campaigns, crowdsourced endeavors, and social commerce initiatives are all being facilitated by social media.
Everything from Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign to McDonald’s “Ask a Question” campaign, big brands understand just how much value social media is providing everyone.
As technology continues to make advances all over the globe, more and more firms will utilize social media. Not only as a marketing tool but an important element of its ecosystem and business model. For the big brands today: long live social media!
Your Take
How do you think social media is changing today? Is it helping with your small business? I’d love to know in the comments below if you believe social media is changing rapidly in 2023.
