4 Key Elements of Focus for Social Media Marketers within the Second Half of 2023

We’re just past the midway point of the 12 months, which implies that it’s time to start out planning your holiday campaigns, with the intention to maximize your efforts within the lead-up to the important thing spending season.

And while it might feel somewhat too early to be mapping out your full campaign strategy, it’s essential to notice that different consumers begin their shopping journeys at different times.

That is from TikTok’s 2023 Holiday Planner, which is certainly one of several guides which are already available to assist shape your approach. 

Searching for other guides and notes to raised inform your marketing plan? Try this overview of key suggestions, pointers and best practices on your planning.

Social Marketing Fundamentals

The primary place to start out is our 2023 platform-by-platform guide, which incorporates overviews of key best practices and suggestions for all the most important social platforms.

These guides provide a full overview of the collected best practice suggestions, and while social media is all the time evolving, these function solid starting points for establishing the most effective approach on your holiday marketing effort.

You furthermore mght need to determine the core elements that may underpin your entire efforts, and this infographic provides some good notes on these points.

There’s also this guide on handy growth hacking suggestions, which can provide inspiration on your promotion and brand awareness push, as well as this overview of common social media marketing myths:

Also price noting the following pointers on best times to post – which can vary by audience, business, etc, but can still assist in your initial planning.

Finally, this collection of additional hacks and notes could offer you some inspiration on your content planning:

Recent Trends

But as noted, social media is all the time changing, and we’re seeing latest usage shifts that reflect a big change in how persons are using social platforms to attach.

Within the early days of social media, the chance to broadcast your thoughts and perspective was a key lure, but now, we’re seeing more people pull back from this, and opting as an alternative to share more privately, via enclosed messaging groups and personal connection.

That’s a very important trend to notice, which could have an impact on the way you look to market your enterprise – because according to the shift away from public posting is the re-shaping of social feeds into key entertainment sources, versus connective surfaces.

Led by TikTok, every social app is now seeking to provide more video content, primarily short-form, vertical video, because that’s what’s keeping users around. And while post engagement stays a key driving think about algorithmic amplification, it’s essential to acknowledge why people are actually using social apps – to be entertained, way more so than to directly engage and interact, with much more sharing now done via DM.

So how does that change your marketing strategy?

Instagram’s added a spread of recent elements to tap into the rising popularity of DM connection, including lead forms for business profiles, which prompt users to share their contact info within the app.

Instagram’s also launched Channels, a one-to-many broadcast chat feature. And while that’s only available to creators for now, it could soon turn into a brand consideration also, which might add one other strategy to communicate along with your audience.

Back in April, Instagram also shared some helpful suggestions on how brands could make use of DMs to maximise customer connection.

And, after all, there’s also now Threads – which continues to be in its early stages, but is worthy of attention.

On Facebook, Meta’s also added Click-to-Messenger Ads to your Facebook Reels promotion options. Facebook’s also added Lead Gen form for Company Pages, which provides one other strategy to gather contact info via Page visitors, while Meta’s also improving its connective tools in WhatsApp – which has seen big growth in North America of late.

LinkedIn has also launched DMs for Company Pages, adding one other consideration for connection:

While Twitter’s just launched latest restrictions on who can send DMs within the app, which can force businesses seeking to use Twitter messages to subscribe to Twitter Blue, or the costlier Twitter for Organizations.

Twitter’s almost in its own category in the intervening time, given the raft of changes on the app. But immediately, what brands have to note is that Twitter is continuous to push brands towards subscriptions, by forcing brands to pay up in the event that they need to advertise within the app, while it’s also restricting the reach of tweets from non-subscribers, ostensibly to combat spam.

However the major driver appears to be higher subscription take-up – and if you happen to are considering Twitter in your holiday push, you’ll likely have to subscribe to benefit from the app.

The Generation of Generative AI

The opposite big trend of the moment is generative AI, and the way marketers could make best use of AI tools of their process.

We covered numerous potential AI use cases in our 2023 posting suggestions overview, including utilize ChatGPT, and similar tools, as idea generators for social posts and the like.

Along with this, it’s price noting the varied ways during which the platforms themselves need to integrate these tools, and what that might mean on your process.

Instagram, for instance, is testing a brand new AI chatbot option, as Meta looks to bring generative AI into its apps, while it’s also testing latest generative AI prompts for ad captions, in addition to background generation tools for ad visuals.

It is a key area that Meta’s seeking to implement generative AI, in helping advertisers benefit from their campaigns, with a spread of tools that might essentially automate the whole ad creation and targeting process for you, based on Meta’s own understanding of what works, and who’s more likely to reply to your campaigns.

TikTok’s also launched a brand new script generator tool, that may map out your entire TikTok campaign creative through using generative AI.

LinkedIn, meanwhile, has added a spread of generative AI prompts, including inspiration for job posts, InMails, and even a tool that may give you LinkedIn feed posts, with minimal input from you.

I’m not personally certain that that is the most effective strategy to go, nevertheless it may very well be one other strategy to get inspiration on your content, with the intention to maintain an lively, engaged profile within the app.

As well as, listed here are some good suggestions for creating more practical generative AI prompts, to recuperate results on your needs, together with some key do’s and don’ts of generative AI use.

Video Push

The ultimate key element to think about in your planning is that with the broader shift towards entertainment, video stays a key focus for all platforms.

Meta says that time spent on Instagram has grown by greater than 24% because the company launched Reels, and implemented AI-based content matching, while Facebook usage can be rising, driven by the identical.

Price noting, too, that each original post creation and user-to-user engagement on Facebook is declining – so while persons are spending more time within the app, they’re primarily watching more video content, not posting to their very own feeds, as per the aforementioned shifts.

Again, it’s TikTok that’s modified the paradigm around what ‘social’ media is on this regard, with people now turning to those apps as an alternative choice to traditional entertainment options, versus a supplementary element. That’s essential to notice from a marketing perspective, as people now need to see more entertaining content, versus engagement bait or similar.

Following this trend, Twitter’s also set to make video an even bigger focus, led by Tucker Carlson’s latest show, and the appointment of former NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino as its latest CEO.

Expect that to guide to a brand new push for more exclusive video content, which could facilitate more opportunities for video ads, and will see Twitter put much more emphasis on video moving forward.

While on Pinterest, Idea Pins can now include video as much as five minutes in length.

LinkedIn also recently shared some video marketing suggestions.

If you wish to maximize your marketing resonance, it’s essential consider creating entertainment-focused video content, which aligns with the trends of every app. For those who can get into these feeds, whether via your individual creation process, or by partnering with relevant influencers, that might play a giant role in improving brand awareness for the vacation season.

These are the 4 key elements that it’s essential factor into your planning for the upcoming holiday push, and it’s price considering how you’ll be able to align with each in your efforts.