The progress of technology is constantly reshaping business and commerce. When it comes to digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will change the interface of Business to Customers (B2C) basing on how brands will interact with consumers. In recent months, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are constantly changing their policies on computer algorithms to regulate the balance between business promotions and organic posting.
With all these algorithm changes, large corporations, small businesses and marketing agencies are hard-pressed to keep up with these changes in order to maintain their social media visibility. In order for digital marketers to cope, knowledge and insight are needed in order to further refine their social media strategies.
Today, we look at the three major factors that are reshaping social media marketing.
Running Paid Ads on Facebook
According to Facebook, there are two billion people who are active on social media and it is why brands and businesses are advertising on these platforms. The most popular among these platforms is Facebook while Instagram is second.
Facebook’s revenue from paid advertising has amounted to billions thanks to strong brand spending. However, with the recent changes in Facebook’s algorithm based on balancing organic posts versus paid promotions in the user’s timeline, organic posts from brands and businesses have experienced a reduced reach while default Facebook users are seeing more posts coming from their connections. The most impacted are the small and startup brands whose content are appearing less and less in their target market.
One immediate suggestion by social media marketing professionals is to get started with paid advertising in order to “boost” your page’s post and overall visibility to your targeted demographic. However, this gives rise to the valid fears that Facebook is becoming a platform where you will need to pay in order to succeed. Potentially, gone are the days when great content for fun or useful information are becoming less of a viable strategy as the algorithm is geared towards payment for visibility.
For businesses with a very distinct demographic, being precise in their paid promotions to complement their content creation efforts are a good start.
In such cases, the old strategy of creating great content that your audience will love and “share” is made more potent when paired with paid promotions. In this perspective, all your best content that had the most success organically, are primed for more exposure and engagement through paid promotions.
For smaller brands and startups where budget is constrained, a small budget set aside for a one time push via paid promotion can get the brand or product into the timeline of your targeted market. In order to stay afloat within Facebook, brands and businesses will need to invest in creating quality content with a sustainable budget for paid promotions.
The Future of Snapchat
During the rise of Snapchat, organisations quickly branched out to the platform in order to get in touch with Snapchat’s Millennial dominated demographic.
This is true especially for brands whose target are Millennials, as they are the ones who are spending more time using Snapchat compared to other age groups. However, a recent poll done by Social Media Masterminds group on Facebook reveals there is only less than 10 per cent of professionals who include Snapchat to their digital marketing strategy unless the company has a target demographic of between the ages of 13 and 24 years old.
This is why organisations are now steering away from Snapchat in favor of Instagram, since experts say Instagram is paving the way after having made significant improvements to its platform.
While Instagram is seen as a universal marketplace for advertising, Snapchat is becoming a niche platform for marketing directly to Millennials. For marketers, there are a number of creative ways to market directly to Millennials with a direct approach based on the following ideas:
- Snap your physical coupons then publish as a story. This is a convenient way to create an online voucher for your customers to present at your store’s counter.
- Hold a Snap Contest, with the best caption and snap winning a prize.
- Tease an exclusive behind the scenes footage or a product demo to generate excitement.
- Use Snapchat to deliver quick brand announcements via video stories.
Integration of Artificial Intelligence
Getting bots as an alternative to a dedicated community or social media moderator costs lesser in operational costs, as bots have proven to respond faster and can answer simple questions basing on frequently asked questions. Bots are a great help in building customer relationships since it has been found that 80 per cent of adults and 91 per cent of teens are using messaging apps every single day.
An example is the Messenger Bot on Facebook. It is helpful when there is an uncontrollable influx of customers who are asking frequently asked questions regarding your product or service. Messenger bots can either answer simple questions or provide an auto-reply to inform the customer that you’re away or you’ll respond to their queries as soon as possible.
In the future, expect Facebook’s messenger app to improve its auto-response functions as the AI improves its cognitive interpretation of the human language. Outside Facebook, chat bots and automated customer experience platforms are reshaping customer engagement.
Social Media is a platform on the internet that is immensely populated with different demographics. It’s also a place for organisations to market and gain a customer base through marketing. If you are passionate about marketing and have excellent communication skills, you can combine both as a viable career path. Melbourne City Institute of Education offers courses on Social Media Marketing Diploma in Melbourne to help students or professionals get certified with digital marketing.
For further information about our courses, call 1300 737 004 or email info@mcie.edu.au.
