When it comes to social media trends in Australia, staying up to date and fine-tuning your strategy won’t just help you reach your intended audience, it will make your time – and money – spent on social media networks go further.
As we mark 20 years since the launch of Facebook, the way people engage online continues to evolve and change. Here are our five golden rules for leveraging social media for your brand or business in 2024:
- Start with a clear strategy! Identify your target audience and go where your customers are. 49% of Facebook users are aged between 25-44, Instagram over indexes with women aged 25-34, and Tik Tok reigns supreme for those aged 11-17. When it comes to creating a strong brand presence, you’re far more likely to be successful if you choose 1-3 social media networks and tailor your plan to their strengths and nuances, building and engaging with your core audience over time.
Source: Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for January 2024. Source: Vivid Social – Social Media Agency. Figures correct as of 31/01/24.
- Content matters! While cat videos aren’t going anywhere, always ensure that YOUR content has a clear link to your brand or business and adds value for your audience. As they compete with Snapchat and Tik Tok, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) continues to prioritise short videos, reels and stories. We’re also seeing that the quality of posts is becoming more important than frequency: you’re better to run fewer, stronger posts so that people engage with your content in which case it will continue to appear in their feed. Inundate people with low quality posts and you run the risk of being ‘snoozed’! Always check your call to action and post when your followers are more likely to be online.
- The way people use social media has changed. With fewer personal updates and concerns about privacy, over 30% of people turn to their social media for news, 43.6% of people say they check out a brand on social media before making a purchase, and local community groups and special interest pages remain popular. What does that mean for brands? Consider how you can post in or engage with relevant groups, encourages reviews where you can, and focus on your point of difference or benefits.
- Social media has been operating as “pay to play” for several years, which means that the only people seeing your posts organically are your super-loyal highly engaged followers (usually around 5% of your total followers) and your Mum! It also means that if you want to reach new customers – or potential customers – then you need to invest in social media advertising. You don’t have to spend a fortune, just consider who you want to reach, choose your best performing post, include a clear call to action (‘Learn More’ is the most clicked) and monitor your results so you can test what works and incorporate your learnings.
- Security first. Ensure you have a secure password, verify your account if you can, use 2 factor authentification and make sure you don’t have any legacy users (old employees or partners) who can still access your page.
As Taylor Swift said “I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.” The key is continual improvement and learning so that social media works for you, and not the other way round! For more practical tips to grow your business, follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook
