How To Prepare Your Social Media Marketing For 2021

21 Jan How To Prepare Your Social Media Marketing For 2021

Social media marketing has shifted in the last few years. If you’re a coach or run an online business it no longer matters how many followers you have and content is not the only king when it comes to social media marketing that converts followers into leads and sales. In this post I’m breaking down a few things you need in order to prepare your social media marketing for 2021 and beyond.

1. Review How You Currently Use Social Media

Step 1 to strengthen your social media strategy at any point will be to review how you’re currently using social media. Really take a step back, remove yourself and acquire an outsiders perspective. You can ask yourself the following questions:

• Which social media networks are you currently on?
• Are they still relevant to your brand goals?
• Which social media networks are driving the most relevant traffic or conversions for you?
• Which social media networks are a time suck?

As hard as it may seem, it may be time to give some networks up. It’s better to concentrate on the ones that are working, and using their features to your best advantage as opposed to wasting time, energy and possibly money on useless ones. Consider quitting a social media network if:

• It’s been a while, and you’re still talking to yourself. Building a strong social media following is a process, and it takes time. But if everything else has taken off and one network is lagging – you may not have an audience there.
• You’ve tried strategies from A-Z. Nothing changes. Sometimes, one platform lags because you’re posting in the wrong format, or the wrong time etc. But if you’ve worked out all those kinks, and experimented with your strategy (and given it time) and still nothing? it could be time to say “bye”.
• Not even an expert can help. If you’ve hired a qualified expert, and even they can’t work out the problem – definitely spend your time on something else.

Another aspect of reviewing how you use social media is to determine things you would like to change or explore. Wether that’s re-branding your accounts, giving them a new theme or trying out new forms of visual content there are always aspects to play with when it comes to your online presence. Don’t forget to include these when you plan your social media strategy for 2021.

2. Don’t Forget Video Content

One thing you cannot forget to include to strengthen your social media strategy for 2021 is creating more videos! This past year we saw social media networks put more emphasis on video content. LinkedIn rolled out live video streaming and Instagram even shifted our home buttons to put Reels front and center.

Videos on social media are taking off because we are consuming more video content than ever. Videos are a great way to show off your product, highlight your personality and connect with your audience. If you’ve been thinking about creating videos for your social media strategy it’s time to get filming.

3. Show More Personality

In the crowded space of social media, being laser focused will yield more results than trying to appeal to the masses. I predict brands will continue to get personal and get behind specific social and even political causes. Not to0 long ago brands wouldn’t touch issues like this – so it’s refreshing to see the turn around. Just like in life, your personality will attract the people you’re friends with. Showing more personality is also helpful in creating more engaging content on social media.

BONUS: More “in the moment” content. In other words, continue using Instagram Stories.

4. Social Media Ads & Influencer Marketing

Last but not least, I want to discuss the fastest ways you can grow your social media following which is by setting budget aside for ads and influencer marketing. Social media ads can get eerily specific with targeting, so it can be easier to reach your ideal clients than you might think – BUT – you can easily spend a lot of money with no return. Social media ads can be a longer process than you might think so invest in an expert to help you.

Influencer marketing can be a low cost way to grow your following quickly. There is so much value even in small influencers – just make sure you’re working with the right people. I’d also like to mention that while some newer influencers will happily exchange products/services for a post, please do not scoff or underpay anyone who does have a rate.

FINALLY…

5. CLEAN HOUSE!

That’s right, run your audits. We’re circling back to where we started because it is so important to get yourself and your marketing on track. If you don’t know where to start, start by taking a look at what you’ve been doing and go from there. I’ve put together a bundle of audits and checklists to get you started which you can download for free here.

Before you go, one definite thing you need to do is to prepare your social media strategy for 2021. And not just for 2021. If you’re a long time reader you know I have always believed in setting up a strong strategy and everything else will fall into place no matter what gets thrown at you wether that’s a new feature or an algorithm change. For now you can keep track of your own social strategy with my social media strategy starter kit and challenge. I’ve decided to expand the kit into a 5 day challenge to get you to move from consuming knowledge into actually putting it into action. The transformations start on February 1. Sign up now to set your business up for the best year on social media yet!

<3

DhariLo