With advertising costs on the rise and Google becoming increasingly competitive, what’s left for an ambitious small business in Ohio that wants to grow in 2022? According to recent trends, the answer is a strategic social media campaign.
In fact, two out of three companies have turned their attention to social media marketing in the quest for new client leads.
Of course, if you want impressive returns from the time and effort you put into social media, you’ll need to do more than post the odd bit of content.
You’ll need a streamlined social media marketing strategy using the hottest campaign ideas around. And we are here to help.
Read on and learn about the best social media campaign trends of 2022.
Social Media Marketing via Influencers
One of the most interesting cultural aspects of social media has been the rise of influencers. Gone are the days when influential people were a tiny handful of famous writers, actors, entrepreneurs, and politicians.
Nowadays, anyone can be an influencer.
And you’ll see influencers when browsing platforms such as Instagram and TikTok (though they exist on all platforms). They will often post about a niche topic. That can be anything from fitness to parenting, cleaning, to DIY.
These are people you can reach out to for a promotional social media campaign. If you want to know about growing social media for small businesses, this is certainly one we’d recommend.
Influencer marketing happens typically in exchange for a small fee. However, sometimes influencers will accept a free product in exchange for a promotion.
There are different promotions you can try. You can get an influencer to post a product review video to their followers. Or you could pay to have your website link added to their profile.
You could run a promotion via their account (e.g., a competition). Or you could pay the influencer to give your account a shoutout to boost your follower count. The latter is helpful if your social media presence is relatively new.
Short Form Video
With the emergence of TikTok, there has been an explosion in short-form video clips on social media. Instagram has joined in the trend with its reels feature. And short videos are increasing on Facebook and YouTube.
Short-form videos typically last between 15 seconds and around two minutes.
Short video clips are fun and get lots of engagement on your social media account. And because of their easy, quick nature, you don’t have to spend time or money on stylized video production.
You can do something as simple as speaking directly to the camera, shoot some behind-the-scenes footage, or (for the brave) even take part in a trending social media campaign challenge.
Competitions or Giveaways
Customers love connecting with their favorite brands on social media and entering competitions to win prizes. So why not try this for your next big promotion?
The most effective competitions need proper planning. First, create a landing page where your customers to sign up. Then, create some bold and unique marketing graphics to help promote the competition.
Give your social media followers plenty of notice about your upcoming competition and share high-quality images and videos showcasing your great list of prizes!
You could ask followers to send images or videos for their competition entry. The marketing term for this is user-generated content, and it’s got several advantages.
First, it will help fill your social media feeds with high-quality content.
Second, it will generate a buzz for your competition. The user will share that post on their social media accounts so friends and family will get to learn about your brand.
You can help amplify this buzz by asking them to tag a friend about your competition and by creating a unique hashtag for people to post when entering the competition.
Testimonials
Testimonials are fantastic for boosting social media campaign conversions, and they also help improve your engagement.
To get regular testimonials, offer an attractive incentive to your customers (such as money off their next purchase). And reward your customers generously for video testimonials as these will get the best engagement.
Don’t be afraid to repost your best testimonials now and again too. They always help you generate more business with those people who love your brand but are still unsure whether to make that purchase.
And try different formats. For example, fitness businesses do well when they post before and after shots of customers.
Professional businesses posting metrics about how they’ve helped clients achieve specific results do equally well in the B2B sector.
Post an Exclusive Offer on Social Media
Customers are quick to snap up exclusive offers on social media that they can’t get elsewhere. So run regular promotions on social media that you don’t offer via your website or email list.
And make them time-limited too to help convert more people. Alternatively, offer a limited edition product and sell a finite number on a first-come-first-served basis.
Customers will feel grateful that they spotted it while browsing their social media feed. They’ll often want to secure their purchase immediately, to avoid missing out.
While these sales tactics are highly effective, only use them infrequently. If you do them too often, people won’t convert as they’ll expect to see a similar offer from you soon.
Try Live Streaming
The last idea in our list of social media campaign trends for small businesses is probably the most fun (if you like appearing on video!).
If you want your business to become a leader in its field or you want to grow a community, live streaming is your best 2022 tactic. It’s a chance to build a closer relationship with your followers, as live streams feel pretty intimate.
Use them to add value, such as teaching a new (relevant) topic or motivating and inspiring your audience. You can also use these as a sales pitch, but keep the sales talk to the latter half of the live stream.
What Social Media Campaign Will You Try First?
With so many exciting and fun ideas to try, you’ll have plenty of opportunities in 2022 to get ahead with your marketing. Experiment with these social media campaign trends to see what impact it can have on your business.
But before you start jotting down ideas, get help from us. Our digital marketing company in Ohio has worked with small businesses just like yours, so book your call now and let’s see how we can help.