The year 2020 was a very significant one in the world of social media. The pandemic forced even more people to spend a larger chunk of their time online and come up with unique ways to engage with each other.
As social media continues to grow in popularity, businesses must do everything possible to keep up with the latest trends and changes. Did you know that more than 3.6 billion people use social media globally – a number which is projected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025? Furthermore, online users spend, on average, 144 minutes on social media each day.
Everyone is on social media, your competitors and customers included! Here’s how business owners can keep up with the ever-changing social media trends and changes:
Listen to Podcasts
One of the easiest ways to stay in the know on social media is to listen to social media marketing-related news on podcasts.
Podcasts come in a variety of lengths to suit your preferences and offer lots of high-value information directly from social media influencers and experts – in the form of case studies, interviews and analysis of the latest news and developments. It’s a convenient way to educate yourself on the latest social media developments, whether you’re at home, at the gym or in the middle of your daily commute.
Gary Vee, Savvy Social and Social Media Marketing with Michael Stelzner are all great podcasts to stay up to date on what’s happening in the social media space.
Create a Twitter Stream with Popular Hashtags
Create a stream on Twitter using popular social media hashtags. Terms like #inboundmarketing or #socialmedia are great to begin with, but if you need more ideas, you can always have a look at Hashtags.org or Hashtagify.
With that said, avoid terms that sound too general, such as #marketing, because you’ll get a swarm of tweets in your stream which won’t be all that relevant.
Come Up with a List of Influencers in Your Industry
One of the best things about social media is that you’ll often run into industry experts and influencers. So, every time there’s an update or new announcement in the world of social media, chances are you’ll find the industry’s top influencers talking about it on Twitter.
Go ahead and use the hashtags you gathered earlier and select some of the most active people who are tweeting on them. Then, come up with a Twitter list based on the results and spend a little time every day going through the list to see what they said. Don’t be shy to approach them with questions and all!
Set up Google Alerts for Keywords and Influencers
You already have a list of influencers and hashtags that you’re following on social media – now’s a good time to set up a Google Alert for them – start with a few at first as you don’t need to set Alerts for all of them.
Now you’ll get regular updates whenever they post content or give interviews about social media trends and happenings.
If the above sounds like too much of a hassle or headache-inducing, and you’re the type who’d rather focus on running and developing your business, then get in touch with us – we’d be happy to do it on your behalf via our social media marketing and consultancy services.