Your Social Media Strategy Is So 2016 - Time to Shake It Up!

Being a modern day marketer is a lot like being Sisyphus. Every time you get your boulder - aka marketing strategy - close to the top of the mountain - aka complete - everything changes and you have to start all over again. There is no mountain top that you can reach. Every time you get close and have mastered the latest and greatest, something new comes along, and that mastery is useless. You're back to the bottom. But most of us enjoy marketing for that very reason - a new challenge, a new medium, a new skill to learn. Get ready for a change.

A recent article published on the Hubspot blog outlines five major points of change.

1. New Channels. You can't just focus on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter anymore. There are new channels cropping up left and right and you need to find the ones that work for your market. The biggest disruptor? Facebook Messenger.
2. Video. "Video should be part of all your marketing campaigns. It can be live, pre-produced, casual, or polished, you’ll figure out what works for your audience, but you have to get started now if you haven’t. An easy way to figure out what to create is to always ask “What’s the video element?” to every single marketing campaign your team creates. Once you get started start reviewing the data. Focus on metrics like watch time over views, and let that be your guide to decide what’s working."
3. Mobile. Where are you reading this now? There's an 80% chance it's on your smartphone. This is another arena where Messenger is discussed. "Having access to people via messaging means have a direct, mobile first, channel to people. In a world where people are ignoring email, and spending the majority of their time on their phone in a Facebook property, this will be important. Start building a plan for how you can start messenger conversations now."
4. Social Ads. While we once did our best to work the system and avoid pay-to-play, the channels decided money was something they needed to survive. It's time to figure out how to get the most out of your ad dollars.
5. Artificial Intelligence. Do me a favor and read this statement twice. "No other marketing channel has grasped AI like social. It defines what content you see, what ads you're served, and how you engage with your friends. In many ways AI defines social, and it’s important to keep this in mind when creating content. There is no more optimizing for time of day or keywords in social, everything is defined by a machine learning algorithm specific to individuals. When you're thinking about content try to think like the machines."

I encourage you to read the full article here.

The good news for you non-marketing professionals, there are those of us out there that can focus on this stuff so you don't have to. At Front Burner Marketing, we have daily discussions about the newest channels and strategies. We stay as close to the top of the mountain as we can. Let us keep your marketing rolling so you can focus on growing your business.

Interested in learning more about the current state of inbound? Download the 2017 report by clicking below.