How to keep your brand relevant on social media

Use this short guide to learn best practices for social media right now.

A happy person on a tablet. To keep up with ever-changing trends on social media, businesses have had to shift their practices to stay relevant on social platforms. Adapting to these changes — like allocating more of your social media budget to influencer marketing — will ensure you are growing alongside competing brands, not falling behind.

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1. Put more money behind video and content production.

With the quick rise of platforms like TikTok, businesses should focus on content creation to grow exposure and interaction with their audience.

As of 2022, the average American spends about two hours and three minutes on social media per day. With this high exposure rate, content creation is a great way to get a lot of consumers to see your brand, even if it’s just through a 30-second video. This year, marketing departments are expected to allocate between 21 to 40% of their total budget to video production.

Not every video should be specifically intended to increase profitability. Instead, many videos should be meant to answer consumer questions before they are asked. A way to predict these questions is to incorporate social listening. Understanding your target audience and what they need can help you determine what content to produce.

2. ‘Surprise and Delight’ posts are the rule, not the exception.

The idea of Surprise and Delight marketing is to grow a positive connection with individuals in your audience by rewarding them in ways they don’t expect.

This could be anything from sending them a coupon, to commenting on their social media page, to wishing them a happy birthday on social media. The great thing about Surprise and Delight posts is that they gain value the more you use them. Consumers do not expect these, so connecting with different members of your audience as much as possible will help you grow a relationship with as many viewers as you’d like.

The facial tissue brand Kleenex spent a day scouring Facebook to find people who were posting about feeling sick or changed their status to sick. After finding people, they contacted that person's family for more information. Within a few hours, a Kleenex Care Package was delivered to their door. This campaign was called the “Feel Good” campaign, and it generated over 650,000 impressions and 1,800 interactions between the brand and social media users.

3. Utilize influencer and content creator marketing.

Brands have started to rely on influencer marketing more than ever. Last year, influencer content was viewed 13.2 times more than media and brand content combined.

This trend is expected to continue growing, and significantly: Viewership is expected to reach over 10 trillion views per month in 2023, which is double the reported number at the beginning of 2022.

The ‘Got Milk?’ campaign has spanned over 30 years and continues to have an impact. The campaign has often relied on celebrities to endorse the product and take the iconic milk mustache pictures. But in the past few years, they have gained more influencers and creators to take the iconic pictures and share with their audiences. This helps the brand target their younger audience and stay relevant on social media.

An example of "Got Milk?" on social media.