How can you get your content to the audience you want to reach? With a dramatic, but quite frankly expected, increase in internet usage in 2020, more businesses have now turned to social media marketing for sales growth. Check out these useful social media best practices to follow for both new and experienced entrepreneurs this 2021.
Quality Over Quantity
Social media usage dramatically increased in 2020 as more people opted to stay home. As a result, the surge of social media usage has become both a blessing and a challenge for business owners planning to amp up their digital marketing plans for this year.
While there’s an increase in people to target, more competition continuously emerged for potential customers as well. It’s no longer enough to churn out multiple posts and boosted ads. Now, you’ll need to create quality content to get noticed by the people that matter to your business.
Live streaming allows you to do that while still establishing your presence on social media. You create meaningful content and establish deeper connections with your audience even with a single video.
More Significant Engagement, Less Outright Advertising
It’s important to expand your reach to warm up cold audiences, but it’s even more important to deliver their needs for long-lasting business growth. And the best way to do that is to connect with your followers on a deeper level.
Creating Facebook ads offers a chance for you to connect with new people, but to earn their loyalty and trust, you’ll need to go even further. That’s why live broadcasts are a great way for you to build a relationship with your audience; you’re able to welcome and engage with existing followers and new viewers in real-time.
Prioritize Authenticity Over High-Production Ads
Hootsuite reports that brands who took their time jumping into the social media craze were able to enjoy more dramatic results with their numbers. They tried to understand their market before joining conversations on social issues with creative but relevant content.
High production value for video ads won’t always guarantee significant return of income. But if you maximize available resources to share your small business’ authenticity, passion, and dedication to your customers, then you’ll definitely gain more fans. And not just any fans: dedicated, loyal followers who want to foster a deeper connection with your brand.
BeLive continuously develops innovative live streaming solutions to make social media marketing more engaging and interactive. Using the studio, you can create professional-looking live streams without the need to use fancy equipment or to hire an entire production crew. And recent updates have made high definition broadcast easily achievable. You’ll be able to establish your brand’s authenticity without the need for a sky-high marketing budget.
Utilize Digital Tools
It’s understandable that engaging with every single person on social media is virtually impossible. But digital tools and software offer a more customized experience for each client without you being overwhelmed by it.
Facebook’s 3rd Global State of Small Business Report noted shorter closure periods during the pandemic for organizations that utilized digital tools. They were 4x more likely to target new audiences and 3.5x more likely to launch new products, even with the pandemic looming over their shoulders. This means that bots help you streamline your marketing efforts, giving you more time to focus on business growth strategies instead.
Digital tools make social media and marketing, in general, easier to handle, even with limited staff on hand. They’re designed to consolidate tasks that would otherwise require high-level expertise or manpower. By using them, you will be able to save on time, effort, and, most importantly, cost.
Some digital marketing tools to note include:
- BeLive – to create professional live streams with ease
- BeLive Video Editor – to trim and repurpose broadcasts for use on other marketing efforts
- ManyChat – to establish personalized interactions with potential customers on Messenger
- Canva – to create showcards and other images for posting on social media.
- Voluum – to track and optimize all your advertising campaigns across various platforms.
Here’s a list of tools you can use to get you started on live streaming.
Live Streaming and Live Shopping
Audiences look for convenience now, especially with recent events. The same logic applies to live streams as well. Live streaming tools now offer more than just connecting with your audience through a real-time video. That’s why recent developments have made selling while live easier to do.
BeLive’s Live Shopping feature, for example, shows products on-screen complete with descriptions and prices. You can also send links to your products straight to the comments section for easier access while you discuss your products on camera.
This feature, and others similar to it, provide entrepreneurs with more avenues for sales growth. Learn more about the importance of sharing live shopping links to your audience in this article.
Repurpose Long Videos to Shorter Form of Content
In the past, entrepreneurs strain themselves by planning for dozens of content to post on social media. Each post is worked on separately, taking up time that could have been spent on sales or admin operations instead. That was before the rise of live streaming in the marketing world.
Now, just one live broadcast can be repurposed into dozens of content through digital tools like BeLive’s Video Editor. You just need to go live, mark the times you want to use for other pieces of content, then edit those parts afterward. You can also add text and change them to your branding colors.
Businesses use these shorter clips to upload on sites like TikTok or as Stories to help expand brand awareness. These videos are easier to view and digest and they help warm up cold audiences once they gain more attention.
Is repurposing new to you? Don’t worry, here’s a detailed guide on how to repurpose live broadcasts.
Live streaming and social media opened up opportunities for businesses to stay afloat in 2020. Now, they offer hope for growth and expansion for the new year.
What are your plans for content and live streaming for your business’s social media practices this year? Share some of your personal tips in the comments section below.
If you haven’t explored live streaming for your venture yet, sign up with BeLive now! Then try out all the awesome features to help you engage and form deeper connections with your target audience!
