Guide to social media holidays

Meltwater.com has released its 2022 Social Media National Celebrations calendar. This is a fun, but also handy calendar if you're coming up short on trying to come up with creative and catchy social media content.

Can also provide you a guide to celebrate a day, week or month that directly corresponds with your business. Thus, it helps expand your brand awareness.

Examples:

• Jan. 29: National Puzzle Day
• Feb. 16: National Almond Day
• March 23: National Puppy Day
• April 10: National Siblings Day
• May 4: Star Wars Day
• June 30: Social Media Day
• July 22: National Hot Dog Day
• Aug. 19: National Photography Day
• Sept. 15: National Online Learning Day
• Oct. 1: International Coffee Day
• Nov. 17: National Hiking Day
• Dec. 5: International Volunteer Day

You can get the interactive calendar by clicking here.

Tips on social media ROI

It's an important question, right? Are we getting enough value on our investment? Was the investment worth it?

In many ways, it's the way to understand the ad spend investment, or key performance indicators (KPIs).

If you're using social media for your digital marketing, there are many ways to analyze your campaigns.

Among those ways was supplied in a nice tip guide by Hootsuite: "How to Measure the ROI of Your Social Media."

Here are some highlights from the guide:

• You can't focus on organic or paid alone.
• Each step in the buyer journey will have different success metrics.
• Use link tracking.

You can download the guide here.

TikTok settles class action lawsuit

TikTok users nationally, and especially in Illinois, can benefit after a $92 million settlement was reached.

According to a website that details the settlement, TikTok was alleged in the complaint "to have violated federal and state law by collecting and using, without sufficient notice and consent, plaintiffs' personal data in connection with their use of the TikTok - Make Your Day video-sharing application (and/or its predecessor app Musical.ly) distributed in the U.S."

TikTok says it denies "these allegations and other material allegations in the operative complaint."

The settlement affects two groups of people: nationwide and the state of Illinois.

Those eligible nationwide are those who used the app before Sept. 30, 2021. For those eligible in Illinois, they must reside in Illinois and used the app in Illinois before Sept. 30, 2021.

Claims can be submitted on one's behalf or of a minor child.

Read more about the settlement and what steps to take by clicking here.

Understanding the digital audience

This is the first time in history, especially in the U.S., where there are four generations of people in the workforce. Simply put: we have a diverse group of people living today and all have different backgrounds and abilities.

Thus, in this digital age, it can be challenging to figure out which one is our target audience.

Recently, Mavrck, an influencer marketing technology company, released "The Influencer Marketing Guide by Demographic." It is a very detailed look at the different demographics that make up the population.

The company, in its introduction of the report, said, "We live in a technology-driven era with overwhelming domestic tech literacy amongst most living generations. But that doesn’t mean one influencer marketing strategy fits all. So many factors contribute to how consumers interact with social media and branded content. It’s impossible to generalize just how any singular consumer may react based on their age. What we can do is understand each generation’s tech literacy level and keep in mind the driving factors that define their lifetimes.

"Our demographic guide helps provide a foundational understanding not only of what formed each generation’s behavior, but what that means for social media and content creators. We’ll look at what each generation often values in a brand and a marketer, as well as the best platforms to reach each one. We’ll talk about opportunities and challenges for each cohort as well as the kind of content that drives engagement."

It is a 12-page report that breaks down the demographic categories such as Gen Z, Gen Y or Millennials, Baby Boomers, etc.

For example, when describing Millennials, the report says, "Millennials (sometimes called "Gen Y") reached adolescence and/or adulthood during the 2000s. They were early adopters on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. Elder and midrange Millennials taught themselves code during the MySpace era, IMed their friends over AOL in high school, saw firsthand the transition from track phone to Razr to iPhone. They’re well acquainted with the changing tides of social media and are now highly adaptable, tech-savvy adults."

Under each demographical category, Mavrck lists key events for that demographic, preferred social networks, top celebrity influencers and more.

The report also details social media platform use (with help from Pew Research). Here are the highlights of that breakdown:

• Most popular social media platform for those 65 and older: Facebook, followed closely by YouTube.
• Most popular platform for those 18-29: Instagram
• Most popular platform for those 30-49: YouTube
• Most popular platform for those 50-64: YouTube

You can download the full 12-page report here.

Predicting 2022 social media behaviors

It's November. Yikes! Where did the year go? In less than two months, we'll be welcoming 2022. With that, a new year of challenges and opportunities.

What will social media marketing look like in 2022? While we don't know the exact answer, it doesn't hurt to make some predictions and Hootsuite recently made its attempt to do so.

Hootsuite has released its "Social Trends 2022" report in an effort to predict 2022 trends on social media. The report (which can be downloaded in its entirety here) had 18,100 respondents with 48 percent of the respondents holding a title of director and above and 52 percent being managers and practitioners covering nine industries. I was one of the participants in the survey. (Here is some more information about the survey)

Hootsuite laid out five key takeaways from the survey's result in its 53-page report:

• Brands finally get community right (with the help of creators).
• Marketers get creative as consumers wise up to ads.
• Social quietly matures out of the marketing department.
• Social becomes the heart of the post-pandemic shopping experience.
• Social marketers save their brands from the customer service apocalypse.

Social media is likely going to continue to play a large role in 2022, much like it has over the last two years during the pandemic.

According to an April 2021 survey by Pew Research, 70 percent of Americans are using social media on a monthly basis. Another study, this one by statista.com, showed that people with a social media account has grown 38.6 percent between 2017 to 2021. That is expected to grow an estimated another 10-15 percent over the next five years

The top-three goals for social in 2022 will be brand awareness, customer acquisitions and driving conversions.

When broken down by company size, companies with less than 100 employees will use social media as a way to increase acquisition of new customers (Learn more about that in a previous blog post about small businesses and digital marketing here). Companies with 100-999 employees will use social media to improve the employee experience, followed by brand recognition and risk mitigation, And, for companies with more than 1,000 employees, social media will be used for brand protection and risk mitigation, followed by improving the employee experience.

The predicted challenges for social media use in digital marketing in 2022 will be consistently producing creative social content, followed by the decline or organic reach and need to increase paid advertising budgets on social, and integrating data and technology to build a unified customer view.

That last point is going to be a challenge overall, not just in social media. It's expected by 2023 that third-party cookies will be gone. In addition, companies such as Google, have already rolled out tools for their customers to opt-out of data tracking. Thus, this will make it harder for marketers to get a clear picture of their consumers' demographics.

Facebook and Instagram remain effective platforms, but, there is concern for how long that'll last. TikTok saw a 700 percent increase in perceived effectiveness. In addition, 36 percent of companies are planning to increase their investment on TikTok, compared to only 13 percent a year ago. Pinterest and Snapchat are also seeing growths as well.

Digital marketing tips for small businesses

It's hard to standout in the digital space. It's so wide and flooded with competition. For small businesses, it's often hard to compete with the big box brands who have had years to develop name notoriety and brand recognition. Not to mention have massive budgets to work with.

The good news is digital marketing can be done for small businesses.

The one thing small businesses have an advantage on over the big box brands is personalization. What customers (current and potential) want these days more than ever is personalization. It is much easier for small businesses to have that person-to-person communication with consumers because small business owners are often embedded in the community. By comparison, big box brands are in the community, but only by location only. Rarely are they involved in the community.

So, how can small businesses compete in the digital space?

Have a quality website

By quality, this means have a professionally looking site, but also a functioning site. Nothing irritates consumers more than having to wait for a slow website to load. Several studies show consumers wait less than a few seconds for a website to load. Anything beyond five or so seconds is a negative customer experience and that's where you first lose consumers.

Once a site is loaded, does it look professional? Social media is a great way to generate leads to a website. But, it's the website that provides validation to a business to a potential customer. Think of it as social media is the front-facing of your house, the website is the living room, with the corresponding rooms of the house being the different sections of your site.

If a site is too complicated to navigate, that's a turn off for consumers. Make what they're looking for easy to find.

A site with all sorts of graphics and moving parts is great and all, but all those elements can hurt website loading speed. In many cases, simplicity is the best way to go because it doesn't hurt website speed nor makes the navigation experience easier and more effective.

Be on social media

Whether you like social media or not, being on social media is a must in today's digital world.

According to an April 2021 survey by Pew Research, 70 percent of Americans are using social media on a monthly basis. Another study, this one by statista.com, showed that people with a social media account has grown 38.6 percent between 2017 to 2021. That is expected to grow an estimated another 10-15 percent over the next five years. (Read more here)

Simply put, consumers are on social media. So should small businesses.

Couple pointers to keep in mind.

• Be active on social media. Post consistently, engage with consumers.
• Find the platform that best fits your target demographic(s). You don't have to be on every social media platform.
• Social media is a fraction of your marketing strategy. Shouldn't be entire strategy.

Be transparent

This is one of the biggest ones in any marketing strategy, let alone a digital one. Be clear and concise in what you're communicating to your present customers and your potential ones. Understand what your customers need from you and what you need from them. Concentrate on not what product/service you're selling, but why.

Author Simon Sinek once said, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it and what you do simply proves what you believe."

New podcast now available

Facebook announced Nov. 2 it plans get rid of its Face Recognition system and will delete more than a billion users' facial recognition templates. Face recognition is used to analyze the photos and videos users are in on Facebook, such as a profile picture and photos and videos that a user has been tagged in, to make a unique number for a user.

Why the change?

Instagram has rolled out a major change that is a big win for marketers looking to generate website leads from the platform.

Also covered:

• LinkedIn reports record-breaking engagement.
• Latest in email trends; reliance growing.

Download for FREE on Apple, Amazon Radio, iHeart Radio, Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Buzzsprout.

Pictures from Wisconsin Marketing Summit

It was a pleasure to speak as a panelist at the Wisconsin Marketing Summit on Nov. 4 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee.

It was a great day of networking and learning.

I shared the stage with:

• Ishita Chakraborty, professor, Quant Marketing, Wisconsin School of Business
• Julia Currie, marketing director, Direct Supply
• Brian Garrigan, vice president, agency and brand sales, Simpli.fi

It was moderated by Kimberly Douglas, sales, strategic planning, iHeartMedia Milwaukee.

Facebook to ditch face recognition system

Facebook announced Nov. 2 it plans get rid of its Face Recognition system and will delete more than a billion users' facial recognition templates.

What is the Face Recognition system?

According to Facebook, face recognition is used to analyze the photos and videos users are in on Facebook, such as a profile picture and photos and videos that a user has been tagged in, to make a unique number for a user, called a template. (Learn more)

Why the change?

Facebook said, "This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history. More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted in to our Face Recognition setting and are able to be recognized, and its removal will result in the deletion of more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates."

Here is the full statement from Facebook.

This change also happens on the heels of Facebook rebranding its parent corporation to Meta.

What is Meta?

Set to speak at Wisconsin Marketing Summit

On Nov. 2, I will be one of the featured speakers at the Wisconsin Marketing Summit.

I've very honored and excited to be apart of this event. I'm looking forward to it.

Here is the event agenda. 

Here is the event website.