Social Media Marketing

Guide to Social Media Marketing in 2020

Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons from the Pandemic and Beyond

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Business Challenges & Solutions 4-13

A. Adjusting to Working Remote 5-7

B. Reevaluation of Social Strategies & Budgets 8-11

C. Reinventing Social Media Content 12-13

Recommended Tools for Success 14-15

What Comes Next? 16-21

A. Trends - What new social media marketing trends are on the rise? 17-18

B. Predictions - What does the future of social media marketing look like? 19-20

C. Advice - How can social media marketers prepare for the future? 21

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O

Introduction

ver the past several months, we have been gathering feedback and information from our community to assemble a support guide for social media marketers everywhere. The goal was to

learn how others in our industry are being affected and handling new and unplanned-for challenges brought on by a global pandemic and how to tackle the rest of 2020.

Social Media Today’s community is comprised of over 3 million professionals passionate about marketing, social media,

communication, customer experience, content marketing, digital strategy, or any other discipline where a thorough understanding of social media is mission-critical.

In this guide, we share real experiences, challenges, tips, tools and advice from industry peers. There’s a lot we can learn from how this historic year has affected us all and how others have adjusted their work processes and marketing strategies to keep up with changing social standards and market needs.

O Sourced from Social Media Today’s community of over 3 million marketers.

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Business Challenges & Solutions

Marketers shared their most recent work-life experiences and social media challenges brought on by quarantine. Here are the major challenges, and possible solutions, that we identified in the community.

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Adjusting to Working Remote

Challenges Most of the challenges from this new normal stemmed from forced daily-routine changes, a lack of separation between work-life and home-life, a dwindling office culture and team motivation, and mental exhaustion. For example, parents struggled to work with their children distracting them. Teams missed those in-person moments for quick check-ins and collaborations. And setting schedules to create a clear work-life balance became necessary for everyone.

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Jennifer Baker | Social Media Trainer @JenniferBakerCo Replying to @socialmedia2day

A1: Challenge working at home with a preschooler. I work at nap time and bed time. I prioritize my son’s needs. #smtlive

Cassidy Rota @cassidyrota A1: Not having those face to face moments when I can chat with a co-worker to confirm a small detail or a last minute language check. #smtlive

Cassidy Hogan @heyitscass95 A1 - A challenge for me with working to home would be structur- ing a new schedule to make sure I’m not stuck doing the same activities daily. It has also given me the opportunity to workout more. #smtlive

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Solutions Even as stay-at-home restrictions lift, work-life may never be the “same” as many companies adopt indefinite or flexible remote work policies. Our community shared some great tips with us on how they have been adapting to remote work including new routines and structure to support themselves.

Nureen @nureenv Replying to @socialmedia2day

Lessons learned: Plan content when you’re most productive and a bonus if that lines up with waking an hour or two earlier.

Hydrate Marketing @HydrateMktg 5:00 Friday FaceTime happy hour! #smtlive

Cassidy Hogan @heyitscass95 I have been using guided meditation to ensure I stay productive throughout my work day. #smtlive

Adjusting to Working Remote 1

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Expect the unexpected. I don’t think any of us expected a global pandemic this year, nor for the entire world to essentially just shut down like it did. As marketers, we still need to have established marketing plans in place. But we also need to be able to pivot and adjust accordingly based on what is happening in the world around us. No one is immune to what’s going on, and the fallout may take years to recover from.”

Tabitha Jean Naylor, Owner at TabithaNaylor.com

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Challenges Social media marketers have faced challenges directly impacted by business closures, budget cuts, changes in customer and client needs, and losing access to high-quality production teams, spaces and equipment. One of the biggest challenges has been the “unknown” factor that has sent marketers back to the drawing board. Now is a time for experimentation.

Reevaluation of Social Strategies & Budgets 2

Travis Joyal @TJMO Our client base is all restaurant and retail so the #COVID19 pandemic hasn’t only negatively affected our social media budgets, it’s affected our agency revenue stream drastically. #SMTLive

Maddie @maddielydon Replying to @socialmedia2day

Some of the brands that I manage have an experiential fac- tor, which has been closed for the foreseeable future. This has caused us to pivot from a quarterly strategy to go week by week instead. #SMTlive

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Solutions As social media platforms have recognized an increased need, new marketing features and tools are being released constantly to support us. With more opportunities for content creation, advertising, and community engagement, marketers are turning up the heat on social and exploring new content formats, such as live video. Also, as competition for ad placements dropped, our community suggested taking advantage of cheaper ad spend opportunities and all the new features released by social platforms over the past few months.

Travis Joyal @TJMO Social media ads, particularly on Facebook, are cheap right now. If the budget and strategic messaging are there, I’d recommend increasing spends!

Sophie Clarke @clarke_sophie A2: It’s key to focus on what matters: if your business isn’t doing well & you had to take actions like letting go staff then now isn’t the time to boost all content. We see that organic works for the right content: share useful info the user needs + invest time in customer care

Amanda Shepherd @missamander If your ads are providing value, this could be a great time to establish a presence. You have to tread lightly and carefully. But I think that people will remember the brands that have some good during this time. #smtlive

Reevaluation of Social Strategies & Budgets 2

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In response to content consumption and user habits changes, Twitter has been releasing new features and platform research to help brands keep up with the trends. From user stats and marketing tips to recently released platform features, see what Twitter now has to offer.

Instagram noticed a significant uptick in user activity and content engagement as more and more communities went into lockdown. In response, Instagram began releasing new content, community engagement, and advertising features along with research and support guides for marketers.

Over the past few months, Facebook has come out with so many new updates it’s hard to remember them all. From advertising guides and marketing education sessions to new features and tools, the platform is constantly releasing updates specifically to help brands and marketers during uncertain times.

Similar to other social media platforms, LinkedIn has been releasing regular tools, features, guides and courses to support brands through the pandemic. LinkedIn even took it a step further by launching ‘mindfulness courses’ to help people manage stress due to the lockdowns.

Instagram Facebook LinkedInTwitter

Learn more about how social media platforms are helping guide brands through the global pandemic.

Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More

Since the lockdowns, it’s been really nice to see the human unfiltered side behind brands. It’ll be interesting to see whether this continues post-COVID. Similar to brands realizing that their staff can actually work remotely, I expect brands to be more comfortable with creating and publishing unedited visual content.” Neil Sheth, Digital Content Strategist

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Reinventing Social Media Content

Challenges Similar to the strategy reevaluations, social media marketers have had to rebuild content from the ground up. New challenges include creating content without large-production capabilities, constantly adjusting your messaging to be mindful of current situations, finding creative ways to engage your audience, and learning how to monetize your new content efforts. Also, as everyone turns to social media to answer their engagement and marketing problems, content overload, once again, is a battle marketers face.

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Amanda Shepherd @missamander Replying to @socialmedia2day

It forced me to completely reevaluate every individual post I had scheduled. For one client, we focus a lot on serving k-12 food service pros. Once schools closed, we had to change ALL our content through the rest of the month & really shift our strategy. #smtlive

Hydrate Marketing @HydrateMktg A1 - Definitely. Like we said, we can’t go get images and shoot videos for most clients. This situation calls for a lot of virtual communication, both externally and internally. Just got off of a two hour @zoom_us call during which we solely discussed social media!

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Solutions Creating new and engaging content on the fly in an unpredictable time is not easy work, but there are tricks to making sure you do it right. The positive side in all of this is the shifting expectations of audiences who now are comfortable with and enjoy the more raw, unfiltered, authentic content that brands are producing. The main piece of advice our community continued to come back to was the importance of creating content that adds value and is empathetic towards current situations.

Robin Selvy Re @RobinSelvyRe Replying to @socialmedia2day

I thought this was a good checklist for “Responsible brand communications in uncertain times” via @GoogleAds: Keep talking Craft your messaging Act responsibly Think ahead Be the King of (your) Content #SMTLive

Travis Joyal @TJMO Our focus now, at least on social media, is to share content that is helpful, accurate, timely, compassionate and/or human (the HATCH method). And, we’re tasking ourselves to be proactive thinkers and planners and prep content once this nightmare is over. #SMTlive

Reinventing Social Media Content 3

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There are numerous powerful and innovative tools that can help social media marketers work more effectively and efficiently on the job. Here are some of our community’s favorites for social media management, project management, and team (or client) collaboration while working remote.

Recommended Tools

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Content Creation

The tools our community recommends for designing social media graphics.

Social Media Management

The tools our community recommends for social media content scheduling, monitoring, tracking and general management.

Team Collaboration & Project Management

For all design levels: • Canva

• Sprout Social • Hootsuite • BuzzSumo

Best for collaboration and project management: • ActiveCollab • monday.com • Basecamp • Asana

For experienced designers: • Adobe Creative Cloud

• LaterMedia • Croudfire • SocialPilot • Airtable • MeetEdgar

Best for task management: • Trello

Best for saving, sharing and collaborating: • G Suite (Docs, Drive, etc.) • Dropbox • Box

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What Comes Next?

We asked the Social Media Today community to share their predictions for the future of social media and digital marketing. What lessons can we learn from this year so far, what social media trends do we see gaining momentum and how can we prepare for the future? Here is what they had to say.

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“Digital events may stick. We were forced into them but some brands & media outlets are seeing huge returns: captive audiences, lower cost to pull off and hyper-relevant msg. Ppl are loving the “community” of virtual -- it’s an introverts dream & ideal for super busy.”

@Brandi_Rand

“Live and on-demand video content are an important way to connect to audiences in the absence of in-person events.

Challenges: bandwidth, monetizing digital events, so.much.noise.”

@SheSpeaksSocial

“Social media groups and small, niche, interest driven communities appears to be on the rise and I see this impacting social media marketing positively. I think it will place greater emphasis on social media listening, versus simply surface metrics of likes and shares.”

@dignajoseph

Trends

Digital Events Video Everything Social Media Groups

What new social media marketing trends are on the rise?

“Ecom integrations like Teespring w/ Twitch YouTube and shops w/ Facebook & Instagram are providing native solutions to compete w/ Amazon are rising trends”

@brucekraftjr

“Not a trend but a movement, Anti-racism & diversity will become prioritised to ensure long- lasting change & positive impact is made in the industry. We will see inclusive representations internally and externally, as brand communities demand change and accountability.”

@SocialDisruptpr

“The impact of Covid-19 has increased the need for brands to create relatable user-generated content and form meaningful connections with their community. Working with Micro-Influencers will continue to increase to achieve this efficiently and cost-effectively.”

@SocialDisruptpr

Trends

Social Media Shops Social Advocacy Raw, Unfiltered Content

What new social media marketing trends are on the rise?

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Predictions What does the future of social media marketing look like?

“Out of all marketing strategies, I believe that social media will be the main one to thrive in the post-COVID world.”

Lilach Bullock, Founder, Lilach Bullock

“Since the lockdowns, it’s been really nice to see the human unfiltered side behind brands. It’ll be interesting to see whether this continues post- COVID. Similar to brands realizing that their staff can actually work remotely, I expect brands to be more comfortable with creating and publishing unedited visual content.”

Neil Sheth, Digital Content Strategist

“My prediction is that social media content from businesses will become more creative and digital strategy will be better than ever. The businesses that pushed up their sleeves and got to work on social media marketing efforts during a major crisis will reap the rewards when the crisis starts to fade.”

Anna Rudicel, Marketing Director of Cyclone Social

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Predictions What does the future of social media marketing look like?

“In a post-COVID world, I think there will be a continued emphasis on the needs of the consumer. Social media will become what it has always meant to be: social. Social media content will be created to better engage the consumer — asking questions, sharing polls, and hosting mini-events like Twitter chats and movie watch-along nights that are relevant to their industry.”

Deborah Sweeney, CEO, MyCorporation

“I think we are going to see online video continue to explode. I mean, look at the massive surge in popularity of TikTok since this all started. The company’s growth has been incredible. I also think that, at least for the foreseeable future, we’re going to see brand messaging that’s much more empathetic and compassionate.”

Tabitha Jean Naylor, Owner at TabithaNaylor.com

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Advice How can social media marketers prepare for the future?

“Think about the value you really want to bring - don’t overkill - stick to the basics of good marketing that’s been working for over a 100 years. Go back to the roots.”

Wisken Beeckman, Founder & CEO, WIScan

“Make room on your editorial calendar for surprises and changes. In a pre-COVID world, these were documents that had been established months in advance. Post-COVID, it will gradually become a bit easier to plan ahead but this kind of planning should still be somewhat loose and open to new concepts and ideas.”

Deborah Sweeney, CEO, MyCorporation.com

“I believe that brands focused on establishing an emotional connection with their audiences, through meaningful content, will come out ahead post-COVID. Authenticity will play a vital role. No one wants to be sold to or seen as taking advantage of the circumstances surrounding the pandemic. I recommend that marketers refrain from jumping on the bandwagon “du jour” for the day and skip the overused phrases like: “We’re in this together” or “During these uncertain times.” We get it. Just be real and relevant.”

Rachel Strella, Founder, Strella Social Media

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Hope you found the advice shared in this guide useful. Join our #SMTLive Twitter Chat Club to be a part of future social media marketing conversations with your industry peers.

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