With the start of the year past us, we’re all working hard to achieve our social media goals in 2022. I asked business owners, directors and marketers where their sights were set for this year. After 200+ answers, this is what I found out.
Engagement Over Views
A common thread through many of the 200 professionals was engagement. Whether they were B2B or B2C there was a huge push towards engagement. Not just views and impressions. A high view counts means nothing when you’re leveraging social media for conversions. After recent events, it’s clear social media platforms offer a lot more than brand awareness. Using social media for lead generation, eCommerce or brand awareness, you’ll only see a fraction of what you’re looking for if you concentrate on views over engagement.
“I want to grow the audience while ensuring that they are more engaged than other brands’ social media channels (typically around 5% for Instagram, for instance).
These two KPIs help us to grow the audience we want, rather than base our success on vanity metrics that might not really be doing much for us.” – Olivia Tan, Co-founder, CocoFax
“Our goal is to increase meaningful metrics for engagement and targeting. Of course,
I want more of everything in terms of reach, followers, and likes, but for
2022 our plan is to keep creating content that people will want to interact
with and then target people for engagement who are in our niche.” – Jonathan Fashbaugh, President, Pro Impressions Marketing
“This year, I aim to create better engagement with our audience. Doing so encourages them to continue supporting our brand; we gain revenues and increase brand reputation.” – Martin Seeley, Chief Executive Officer, MattressNextDay
Value Focused
Style over substance doesn’t really cut it anymore online if you’re genuinely looking to build an engaged audience. You need to be a valuable resource to anyone you’re asking to follow, like, comment and connect with you. This means creating personalised content that speaks to your directly to the audience you want to create.
“We want to focus more on the content quality that provides value instead of simply being promotional. The message overload is so big that it’s impossible to compete if you’re just aiming for the quantity. The best way to stand is to offer unique, valuable posts.” – Malte Scholz, CEO and CPO, Airfocus
“It’s important that our customers get to know us, like us and trust us. We’ll do this by showing up regularly, providing valuable solutions and being consistent.” – Hermione Sihukai, Founder & CEO, Hermione Sihukai Business Strategy Ltd
Short-Form Content
There is always a period of adoption that comes with a new platform. TikTok and it’s competitor, although created from it’s own success, Instagram Reels are now recognised as the platforms to be for influencers and companies looking to grow their business on social media. Reviewing the insights a quarter of the professionals interviewed mentioned TikTok or Reels. There is an understanding that short-form content created for these channels have a great amount of potential reach for any business.
“as short-form video content becomes more popular, TikTok is the appropriate platform to use in 2022. In addition, TikTok has also developed a variety of useful products, such as advertisements and business profiles…
…Overall, it’s poised to become one of the most important platforms for marketers to reach millennials and Generation Z.” – Adam Wood, Co-Founder, RevenueGeeks
“What is critical to remember for the future is that long-form content is no longer the way to go. Simply looking at the success of stories, reels, and TikTok demonstrates that compelling short-form videos are now the consumer’s favorite choice.” – Andrew Dale, Technical Director, CloudTech24
Overview
I appreciate everyone who submitted their ideas and talked with me concerning their goals this year. There were multiple common threads, but there weren’t any submissions stating business as usual. Professionals are looking to grow and expand their social media output whether this means creating more content, offering more value or entering a new medium.