5 Social Media Takeaways from the Year 2016 for 2017!

The year 2016 has been an interesting ride for Social Media.  There have been changes in the strategies and evolution in the understanding of how social media can be used for business.

With 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally, social media is definitely heading the charts for digital marketing in 2017. Consider that there are 1 million new active mobile social users added every day.

Related: Powerful Social Media Marketing Strategy For Better Brand Promotion

Looking back, here are 5 lessons from 2016 which we should keep in mind for the New Year 2017. Let’s delve deeper and explore the possibilities.

Lesson #1: There’s no one-strategy-fits-all scenario:

2016 taught us that there’s no ‘correct’ way to approach social media marketing. Different marketers believe in different strategies. Some believe that creating a small but highly engaged community is the best approach, while 27% believe in creating a large community of followers irrespective of the engagement. It all depends on your unique business case.

Every business is unique and there’s no one strategy or course of action that fits all. You can create your own path and choose to walk on roads untraveled. That’s, after all, uniqueness and innovation.

Lesson #2: SOCIAL INTERACTIONS are a thing:

Everyone wants to feel the connection with the brand they follow. Social interactions are real and the boundaries between business and consumers are no more restricted to a helpdesk. There’s more to it. The Social factor is the all-powerful factor now-a-days. Businesses have started spending on supercharging their social interactions with their followers to build a lasting impression of approachability. Every social platform, be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Snapchat, strives to establish a connection between the accounts- a connection that is more real and strong.

Lesson #3: Smartphone is the most powerful device:

Marketers have realized the importance of smartphones. It’s now or never. If your business is not mobile, your business is behind the times. As stated, there are 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally. That’s a huge number. Consider your own dependability on mobile. There’s an app for everything. An app for even finding apps! It is high time you adapt your social media strategy to the mobile users to garner the highest ever attention of your target market. There’s no section of the society unaffected by the smartphone revolution.

Lesson #4: Context, Content, Conversations:

Content is king for a reason and the sooner you realize, the better. Social media is most effective when the content you share on it is powerful and appealing. Conversations built on social media depend on the content and the context. Once mastered, it becomes a strong canvas to build impactful social interactions to build brand identity. Context is when you understand the difference in ideal approaches for different platforms. You cannot talk to your friends on Facebook the same way you interact with your followers on Twitter. The year 2016 highlighted this difference with a growing number of businesses realizing this difference and adopting contextual strategy for different platforms.

Lesson #5: Share-ability is the key:

What is the primary reason people use social media? To share their lives with their friends or network! This sharing involves sharing their likes and dislikes, beliefs and convictions. Missing out on this fundamental principle would be the greatest mistake of your social media strategy. Generating content that gets shared is the key. To understand what gets shared, you need to spy your target audience closely to understand their tastes, likes and dislikes. The year 2016 marked the growth of this awareness wherein marketers decode the consumer psychology and present them with content that gets shared.

All set to create your social media strategy for the year 2017? Keep these takeaways in mind and consult the experts at ResultFirst to devise a social media plan that works.

Also Read:Social Media: An Indispensable Tool for Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy