ARTICLE
By: Ami Hooper, Spiel PR - for the Temple Chamber of Commerce January 2019 Focus on Business 2018 has come and gone and it is time to start making plans for marketing in 2019. Here are five tips to amp up your social media this year. Privacy & GDPR GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and it’s data privacy law started in the European Union (EU). The law’s goal is to protect an individual’s data and force companies to offer more transparency throughout the data collection process. Why should you care about laws in the EU? Even if you think you don’t deal with customers in the EU, any U.S. company that has a Web presence and markets products over the web needs to be aware and comply. If there is just one purchase from the EU, you could be subject to fines if you don’t comply with GDPR regulations. And it is better to comply now because chances are some type of regulations may be heading our way in the U.S. Facebook You can’t have a social media list without mentioning Facebook. Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users so it is still the behemoth of all social media channels. Even with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and congressional hearings, the company hasn’t seen a significant drop in users. Your customers are still there and they range in age from 18 to 80. If you only do one social media channel, it needs to be Facebook. Instagram According to the Search Engine Journal, Instagram is the fastest growing social media network with at least 1 billion monthly users. While Facebook is still the most popular network, Instagram followers are more likely to share and engage with content. According to the Pew Research Center, Instagram is getting 15 times the engagement as Facebook. Anyone can easily search, find, and follow your business making it an easy way to connect with customers. You can easily link to other social media channels, like Facebook, making it easy to cross-post. Stories, Stories, and More Stories Social media is pivoting from a text-based platform to a mobile, visual one. Stories are the easiest way to transition. If you aren’t using the feature on Facebook and Instagram, you are missing out. Stories are easy to create so you don’t need a high skill set. Don’t forget to shoot your story videos in a vertical format for easy mobile viewing. Messaging According to Hootsuite, users are spending more time on messaging than they are on sharing news on social. This shift to more private communication is changing the way consumers engage with your business. So, how do amp up your messaging online? Start by making sure your Facebook Messenger is enabled and set up for instant replies. You also need to add a way to drive your website customer to a messaging app like Facebook Messenger. This makes it easy for people to reach you and get the information they need to make a purchase. Ami Hooper Spiel Communication & PR www.spielpr.com