7 Ways to Spruce Up Your Social Media in the New Year

Social media is an incredible way to touch the lives of a variety of people and potential buyers that you may never meet in person. Or, as Michael Hyatt says,

“Social media is the greatest leadership tool ever invented. It gives you the opportunity to amplify your voice, extend your influence, and create a tribe of passionate followers who want to hear from you.”

Just imagine having enough influence on a person through social media that they feel they know you and trust you well enough to then place an order with you online. What an incredible way to have influence!

7 Tips to Help You Spruce Up Your Social Media

If you’re looking to garner that kind of influence and spruce up your social media in the new year, check out these X tips below.

1. Embrace a People-First Mindset

The heart of social media lies in engaging others, investing in relationships with your followers, and, ultimately, making the human connection with those you have the privilege of connecting with online.

While it’s tempting to click and post with no real thought involved, challenge yourself to spend some designated time each day, perhaps as little as ten minutes, giving your best efforts to making connections online.

• Can you adjust the text or your post to be more conversational and engaging?
• Can you reach out to a specific follower on Facebook with no agenda other than to check in on their business?
• Or, perhaps you can set a goal of connecting with one new person on LinkedIn each day.

These are small efforts that build up over time, and they will make your print business all the better for it.

2. Use it for a Cause

As 2020 has brought even more reasons to remind everyone that we’re all in this together, it’s important that you continually build on this by speaking to the issues close to your customers’ hearts.

While it may be unwise to use your social media platforms to focus on political, environmental, or other social issues, it is important to recognize that this unrest is still prevalent in the social realm today.

What does this mean for you? It means that if you want to cut through the discouraging noise, focus your content and angle on the things that better all of us. Make it your goal to serve others well and put your generosity and heart for others on full display.

3. Center on Nostalgia

How many times over this past year have you longed for the simpler and happier days before the ravishings of a pandemic took over?

In this next year, be mindful of an upcoming marketing trend that will focus on nostalgia. Remembering what life was like before reminds us that there can be good again, and it ushers in hope. Other marketers have tapped into this idea as well. According to a recent report, marketers will narrow in on this nostalgia-themed content because it “connects strong positive emotions to your brand.”

Nostalgia was becoming a growing trend even before the coronavirus changed everything, so expect to see it (and use it) more in the next year.

4. Dip Your Toe in the Waters of Video

As attention spans continue to diminish and businesses are forced to try and “beat the scroll” of impatient fingers, it grows harder and harder to capture (and hold) the attention of your audience.

Because of this growing trend, it’s time to start giving thought to “going live” in your social media posts. These short videos offer tremendous benefits to both you and your viewers.

For your viewers:

• They get welcomed in your world to meet you.
• They get to see your whole smiling face (without a mask) and mentally capture your smiling face with your brand.
• Videos keep their attention because minimal effort is required to engage.

And for you:

• Live videos are easy. No big production, just a simple, quick, and authentic way to engage your audience.

5. Become More Intentional

If you want to be more successful with social media in the new year, it really all comes down to that one word: intentional.

Designate (or delegate) time to track and understand social media metrics. This doesn’t need to be complicated, but prioritizing the important metrics to monitor and ignoring vanity metrics that don’t really matter will help you better adjust and cater your social media strategy to the goals you set.

And before you become overwhelmed, remember that metrics are important, but they’re not as important as being authentically you, which brings us to number six.

6. Be Authentically You

Buyers today can smell if they’re being sold to from a mile away.

Your print buyers don’t want your picture-perfect business image on social media; they want to get to know the real you – the human behind all the fluff.

If you’re unsure of who your brand persona is, try asking yourself questions, such as:

• What do I want our business tone to be (humorous, educational, playful, or serious)?
• What are the values of my company that I want to be sure our audience is aware of?
• Who are other brands or people we support that our audience should know about?

Once you have a solid understanding of who you are, it’s time to become authentically you.

7. Build a Solid and Consistent Baseline (and then Expand)

Social media offers its greatest advantages when you can be consistent. But true, not everyone has the time or the resources to invest in order to do that.

That’s when you can call in reinforcements for help. Implementing a consistent social media baseline can be as easy as subscribing to a social media marketing service, where completely customizable content is delivered right to your inbox each morning. And, once you have that solid and consistent baseline in place, you can then add to it as you have time without the burden or pressure of having to come up with something every day.

For great ideas on things to post to add to your content, be sure to check out the Social Media Hashtag calendar. It features a hashtag/topic for every day of 2021, so you’re never without content ideas. Get your free copy below.