We have so many people that contact us stating that their Facebook/Instagram/Twitter accounts used to yield such great results but it has just stopped performing. Usually they started noticing the drop in performance around the time of global Covid-19 outbreak, they haven’t changed anything but the results just ain’t there and they don’t know what is going on. This raises the question; is there any point in marketing on Social Media or has it died of Covid?
The good news is that Social Media Marketing is stronger than ever since the outbreak of the global epidemic. For example, Facebook ads reach worldwide grew by 30%, including increases of nearly 100% in some regions. Datareportal's July 2020 Digital snapshot shows a 10% year on year increase in usage resulting in 3.96 billion active users in July 2020. In April 2021, the total number of active social media users has grown again, to 4.33 billion, an increase of 9.6% in nine months! The opportunity to reach, engage with and convert your target audience has increased dramatically with the increase in the social community size.
The bad news is that NOTHING is the same as it was before the ugly C showed it’s ugly face...and we mean NOTHING…
What used to work, does not work anymore – user behavior has changed dramatically. This includes when social media users are online, how long they are online for and what they want to see which affects what they engage with and when. With people working from home their schedules changed as did when they are online. Isolation causes people to spend more time on Social Media and with social distancing people primarily wanted to connect with each other, not brands.
Furthermore, with most businesses having had to stop trading physically with Covid restrictions; every Jack and his mate jumped on the social media marketing band wagon. This resulted in a MASSIVE influx of content being posted which impacted the organic reach each post achieves. In short it comes down to that all platforms have been flooded with posts. This means your organic post (a post that does not include paid advertising) enjoys very few people seeing it and those that do are most likely just scrolling past them, resulting in lowered reach and engagement. With the low reach and engagement rates that organic posts generated more businesses started using paid advertising, this sky rocketed add spend on Facebook and Instagram. With the higher demand less can be achieved with the same advertising budget as pre-Covid. For example where you may have reached 3000 people with an ad spend of R500, you now only reach 1000 for the same amount.
So what does this mean for social media marketing?
The businesses that changed their approach to social media marketing grew exponentially, those that kept trying to do the same thing they used to do but under different circumstances did not reap the benefit of the changing market and the opportunities it holds.
What you can do today to capitalize on this digital revolution:
1. Place more value on content over engagement—passive audiences are still consuming your content.
2. Carefully balance your focus between quick bursts of ROI to generate cash flow for your business and delivering innovative experiences to meet your customer needs - this will build a pipeline for future conversions.
3. Ensure that the nature of your social media campaigns revolves around discovery, connection, and fun
4. Increase your campaign channels. According to Analytic Partner you can improve your ROI and effectiveness by up to 35% for every channel you add.
5. Ensure that paid advertising spend forms part of your monthly budget. Business best practice dictates that 10% of a business’ revenue should be spent on marketing and in this day and age we highly recommend that that be spent on digital marketing.
Alchemy Marketing has been riding this wave of digital revolution with great success for our clients. Let us help your business grow.
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