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Social Media Trends for Small Businesses

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Social Media Trends for Small Businesses in 2019

Social media in 2019 is in a transitional phase. Some social media networks are rising, others are starting to see user engagement drop, and Facebook continues to be a behemoth with the company passing 2 billion monthly users.

Social media trends for small businesses in 2019

Social media trends must be the focal point of small businesses that hope to promote their offerings on social media.

The audience is growing, but their habits are changing.

The top social media trends coming up in 2019 include.

1. Video is Taking Over

1. Video is Taking Over

Internet speeds are fast. There’s no need to worry about long buffering and loading times when watching videos. People prefer video. And this is a trend that’s starting to takeover social media this year.

You have a lot of options in the world of video:

  • Facebook Live
  • Periscope
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Snapchat

Video is everywhere, and when businesses use social media, they connect to users on a very deep, personal level.

When it comes to trust and engagement, video has come a long way. Small businesses that are using video to provide informative, useful information find that:

  • 64% of users are more inclined to buy a product after they’ve seen a video of it
  • Consumers, some 90% of people, state that they use product videos when making a purchasing decision

Businesses can use video to communicate complex subjects and topics in an interesting, unique way.

If your social media campaign is lacking engagement, start spending time on video and watch engagement soar in the process.

2. Engagement is Taking Over Views and Retweets / Re-posts

2. Engagement is Taking Over Views and Retweets / Re-posts

Social media for small businesses once revolved around page views, likes and retweets, but now a lot has changed. These superficial numbers are starting to fall to the wayside, with engagement being the dominate force.

What does this mean?

  • Engagement, or the amount of comments you receive, is taking prominence. If you have 10 million followers and just 10 people comment, your numbers mean nothing if another business gets the same amount of comments with a following of 1,000 people. Followers want to be engaged, so start a conversation that’s worth having.
  • Share Ratios are also a thing. This means that if 10% of viewers share a post, tweet or comment, this is a great ratio. You want your fans and followers to be sharing machines, so this is a metric to follow very closely.
User engagement on social media
User Engagement is critical for success on social media platforms like Twitter

Putting this entire section together, everything is starting to become more analytical in nature. Conversion rates are also becoming a hot topic. Why? Businesses need to know that their efforts are paying off.

The way that you measure your results with social media is to focus on conversion rates.

If you’re funneling a lot of resources into your social media campaign and you’ve seen no conversions as a result (results do take time), your campaign is either new or simply needs to be tweaked.

3. Participation on the Right Platforms is a Must

3. Participation on the Right Platforms is a Must

Facebook may be a great place for many businesses to promote their products, but it might not be the best place for your business. The truth is that some platforms work better for others, and we’re seeing a much more analytical approach being taken by businesses.

What does this mean?

Businesses have limited resources, so they’re targeting areas that they know will reap profits. This can provide a significant boost to your social media campaign, but you need to know where to cut your efforts.

A few ideas to remember is that:

  • Instagram’s main audience is 18 – 29-year-old users
  • Facebook has 2 billion users, everyone’s using it except younger generations
  • Snapchat is an option with younger teens, but it’s starting to lose traction
  • Twitter’s user base is active and filled with educated millennials

Putting this all together, if you promote to 18 – 29 year old individuals, you may want to put more of an effort into Instagram; the social network that is known to have a large population of your target demographic.

Quick, digestible content works best on social media, so ditch the long rants and fill your audience’s day with the content that they’re interested in seeing.

4. Conversions Are Becoming Increasingly Important

4. Conversions Are Becoming Increasingly Important

Conversions are the backbone of marketing. If you want to be able to make money, you need conversions to make it happen. Social media for businesses will become even more focused on conversions, and this means:

  • Tracking conversions across all social media platforms
  • Changing your strategy to increase conversions
  • Changing content plans to use only content that does work
Social media plan for business
Every company needs a good social media plan

If social media isn’t generating leads, it’s only being used for vanity. Remember this statement. You need to use social media with a purpose, and this purpose is the essence of everything.

If you find that your account isn’t generating leads, you may need to try different content:

  • Educational content
  • Informative content
  • Video content

You might also need to become more engaged with your audience by asking them questions, taking surveys and maybe even commenting or responding to their needs more often. 

Building a Social Media Plan

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Building a Social Media Plan for Your Business

Your business needs a social media marketing plan. Social media is simply too big to ignore. Billions of people log into social media platforms every month, and these people are often an integral part of your business’s demographic.

But you don’t have the money to pay a professional to provide your business with social media marketing strategies and a plan.

What can you do?

Social media networks to target

Choose the Networks to Target

What social media network is your demographic using? Which networks are the biggest? You need to figure out where your demographic likes to spend their time. A few statistics to help you are:

  •  
  • 75% of males and 83% of females online are on Facebook
  • 32% of teens are on Instagram
  • Females use Instagram more than males
  • 29% of Twitter users have a college degree
  • 81% of Millennials log into Twitter daily
  • Instagram users fall between the age of 18 and 29
  • Over 22% of the world is on Facebook
Target the right social media platform
Target the right platform

Target the right platform for your audience
So, if you’re targeting teens, you may want to focus on Instagram, while a generally good choice is Facebook. Twitter has struggled to stay afloat, yet the social media network attracts millennials and has a high portion of users that have a college degree.

LinkedIn, on the other end of the spectrum, is filled with professionals and companies, making it a great choice when trying to network and make connections.

While this is a brief look at social media sites, you can use this information to narrow down your social media target.

These will be your key social channels.

Create a Plan for Your Posts

Social media relies on you posting content and mingling with your target audience. You have a lot of options, and these include:

  • Checklists
  • Videos
  • Images
  • Infographics
  • Education posts
  • eBooks
  • Blog posts (linked to in posts)

It’s always a good idea to mix in educational posts to build trust with your audience. If you simply post promotional content, you’ll quickly find that your audience is getting bored of you. You need to be personal and informative to really attract a following  that’s responsive.

If your goal is to increase leads, you’ll need to get your audience to your website or landing pages via blog posts, videos or images. This can be done with short posts that lead the viewer to more information.

Consistent Posting

Schedule your social media posts
Schedule your social media posts

Schedule Your Social Media Posts

There’s a recipe to follow when posting to your audience. This recipe takes into account:

  • Times when engagement are high
  • Content that works the best

But everyone’s audience is slightly different. The best you can do in the beginning is to start with consistent posting. CoSchedule looked at 14 studies and found:

  • 1 Facebook post per day between 1pm and 4pm works best
  • 15 tweets per day between 2am and 10pm work best
  • 11 pins per day between 2am and 11pm works best
  • 1 LinkedIn post per day between 10am and 11am is ideal
  • 1 –2 posts on Instagram is ideal, with one between 8am and 9am and other at 2am

There’s a lot of work to do, so start by creating an excel file and tracking your posts. I recommend starting with one social media network and expanding as you master each network.

Adjust and Measure

You should adjust and measure your results. There’s no sense in doing what doesn’t work. I recommend using tools to help you monitor your results, but you can also do this in an excel file, although it’s a lot of work.

Keyhole has a great list of tools for measuring results.

There’s also the option of using a scheduling tool, which I highly recommend for businesses that need to post often. A few tool options, include:

There are other options, but these are the most affordable options in most cases. You’ll find some free tools, but a lot of these tools only work for a short period of time before they either go without updates or are changed to a paid service.

Once you start measuring your results, you’ll be able to find out what works for you.

Just keep in mind that every plan needs to be long-term.

Successful social media campaign
A successful social media campaign will connect with your users for the long term.

A successful social media campaign will connect you with your customer for the long term

If you only use social media for a week or two, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The goal is to build an audience, and once you really start building your audience, you’ll be able to expand your reach much further through shares, likes and retweets.

Once your plan is in place, keep up with your posting, measure, tweak and reap the benefits.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important social media trends for small businesses?

Based on the trends discussed above, the most important social media trends for small businesses include the rise of video content, a shift from vanity metrics like views and retweets to meaningful engagement, choosing the right platforms for your target audience, and focusing on conversions. These trends reflect the changing habits of social media users and the need for businesses to adapt their strategies accordingly.

How can small businesses increase engagement on social media?

To increase engagement, businesses should focus on starting conversations that are worth having, as mentioned in the article. This means posting content that encourages comments and shares, such as asking questions, taking surveys, and responding to your audience's needs. Engagement is measured by the amount of comments you receive, so it's important to create content that resonates with your followers.

Which social media platforms should a small business use?

The article emphasizes that participation on the right platforms is a must. Businesses should analyze where their target demographic spends time. For example, Instagram is popular with 18-29 year olds, Facebook has a broad user base but is less popular with younger generations, and Twitter attracts educated millennials. Choose platforms that align with your audience and where you can effectively reach them.

Why are conversions becoming increasingly important in social media?

Conversions are the backbone of marketing, as they directly lead to revenue. The article notes that social media for businesses will become even more focused on conversions, meaning you need to track conversions across all platforms, adjust your strategy to increase them, and use content that actually drives results. If social media isn't generating leads, it's only being used for vanity.

How often should a small business post on social media?

While the article doesn't provide a one-size-fits-all answer, it references CoSchedule's findings on optimal posting frequencies: about one Facebook post per day, 15 tweets per day, 11 pins per day, one LinkedIn post per day, and 1-2 Instagram posts per day. However, it's important to start with consistent posting and adjust based on your audience's engagement patterns.

What tools can help with social media scheduling and measurement?

The article recommends using scheduling tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to manage posting, and analytics tools to measure results. It also suggests starting with an Excel file to track posts and results if you're on a tight budget. Measuring your results is essential to understand what works and to tweak your plan accordingly.