Stop Doing That! THIS Is The Social Media Strategy That Works In 2021

Looking for the best way to engage with your audience on social media in 2021? 

We have collected social media strategy here! Follow these tips for better results, as you’ll attract more customers and ultimately increase SALES for your small business! 

Here are the 5 effective social media strategies for 2021.

1. Start from your profile
2. Write engaging captions
3. Apply the best practice for social media photography
4. Play around with different content styles
5. Use content formats that works best for each social media platform

1. Start from your profile

Start your social media strategy right by optimising your business profiles. You need to fill in the necessary information in every field to educate and attract your customers. This is so your audience knows what to expect when they see or find your content. 

Here are some key things to look into:

• Use the right size for your profile images – there are different image sizes for each social media platform i.e. 

         – Facebook profile picture: 170 X 170 pixels

         – Facebook cover photo: 828 X 465 pixels

         – Instagram profile picture: 110 X 110 pixels

         – Twitter profile photo: 400 X 400 pixels

         – Twitter header image: 1,500 X 500 pixels

• Make sure you use the same image for all your social media platforms – Use your brand logo for all social media accounts for consistency. It’ll help  your customers and audience remember your brand identity.
• Standardise your handles across platforms – don’t confuse your audience by using different names or handles for each social media platform. Standardise your handles by using the same name and spelling for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media accounts. For example, if your store name is “Pizza Pops”, use this for all handles. It’ll be clear when people type “@” and easier when they want to tag or mention you on their social media.
• Tell your audience who you are – write concise and explicit sentences telling your audience what your brand/store does, what you offer, and some call-to-actions so your audience and customers knows what to expect from your platforms.
• ALWAYS include keywords – make your social media discoverable when people search for something related to your business. Make sure you use relevant and niche keywords in your profile (about and bio sections) and ALSO the posts itself. We highly recommend Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner for your keyword research. A plus point, these tools are FREE!
• Maximise your chance for a sale by updating your “about” and “bio” sections – state your online store links to increase your sales opportunity, namely ecommerce website, food delivery link, and other social media channels. In addition, display your full contacts details and operating hours too. This way, your audience and customers know where and when to contact you. 

If you set up your social media profiles right, you’ll be recognised as a professional and reliable brand. Then your audience and customers are more likely to engage. By making sure you keep all your social media profiles updated, you’re all set for the next step.

2. Write engaging captions

Images via @sugarandi/Instagram

Now it’s time to strategise your captions to engage your audience and convince them to buy your products or services. 

We understand that writing social media captions can be tiring sometimes, and you might be facing writer’s block creating some good captions for your audience. 

So, we’ve compiled effective and engaging caption tips here as follows:

• Have a clear intention in your caption – we create a post with a purpose. That’s why it’s important to write your social media captions with intention. Are you trying to interact with your audience, engage with them, or want them to take action after reading it? 
• Focus on your audience not you – it’s good to put yourself in your audience’s shoes so you know what content you’d like to see from a page or a brand you follow. Think about what your audience would care about most, what they would find interesting, what value they would get, and what your audience would respond after reading the captions.
• Make it conversational – social media is not just for likes and shares. You also want your audience to respond and interact with your posts too. So ask questions to entice your audience to respond. You may run a poll asking about their favourite colour of your products. Or you can even ask an open-ended question so that your audience can express their opinion more.
• Reflect your brand personality – Always be unique and represent your brand personality when you engage and communicate with your audience on social media. Be true to yourself, and you’ll stand out from the crowd!
• Utilise hashtags – hashtags do not only help your brand become more visible on social media platforms but it also increases your engagement, helps you stay connected with your fans, and also build your brand image. This is an important social media strategy that many missed out on. For best practice, you should always include hashtags on your social media captions – Facebook: 1 – 2 hashtags, Instagram: 10 – 30 hashtags, Twitter: 1 – 2 hashtags.

Remember social media is all about getting your audience to engage and interact with you, not just you posting out there. Therefore, encourage your audience to have a conversation with you with these powerful caption hacks.

3. Apply the best practice for social media photography

Images via @ohchamatcha.kl/Instagram

Posting photos on social media can be more complicated than what it seems as you have to take into account lighting and small details. 

So what can you do to make your photos stand out on social media and capture your audience’s attention? 

Best practices for social media photography:

• Use simple colour-saturated images – be simple but creative when you edit your photo. Try simple and colour-saturated images because this grabs your  audience’s attention best.
• Use lifestyle photos – use more lifestyle photos to highlight your products and services. Avoid illustrations if unnecessary. Moreover, use natural, indirect lighting, and add in a few related elements to make your products striking.
• Keep the consistency – your photos will always have to fit your social media theme, and that’s the reason why you should keep the style consistent.
• Highlight features and benefits – show how your products and services benefit your audience (and even the world) in the photos. Also include human elements to make your photos more interesting.
• Optimise photo formats for Instagram Stories – always shoot vertical photos for Insta Story – model wearing/using your products, behind the scenes, customer reviews, etc. Photos that fit the Instagram Story dimension perfectly will make your story more compelling and engaging.

For social media, visuals are the first thing most people will consider when deciding to click through your posts. So pay close attention when you create photos and apply these practices to leverage your social media strategy this 2021!

4. Play around with different content styles

Images via @machimachi_malaysia/Instagram

People tend to get bored when they see the same things repeatedly, and you don’t want that to happen. That’s why your brand should avoid this to prevent your audience from unfollowing you and not buying your product. 

To avoid this, you should keep them engaged with a fresh variety of content on your feed.

The content styles that impress your followers:

• Tutorials – show your audience how they should take care of your product or how to utilise your product for their daily use.
• Trendy topics – one of the social media strategies that works in 2021 is posting trending topics. Always ride with the wave when you can and make sure it’s timely, relevant, and valuable for your brand and audience.
• Holiday and special event posts – holiday greetings (Christmas, Chinese New Year, Ramadhan, etc.) and special events (booth, shop event, charity, etc.) are also a great way to help you communicate and engage with your audience. So, make sure you stay top of mind with some creative greetings and postings for different occasions. 
• Promo – this can be your long holiday promos or flash deals. Remember to put the date and time of the deadline on your promo posts, so your audience can feel the urgency of making the purchase decision. With this, they’ll be more inclined to buy your product even faster than usual.
• Giveaways – did you know over 34% of new customers are acquired through Instagram contests? Thus, it’s not a bad thing to apply this strategy for your social media channels like Facebook and Twitter too! Just make sure the prizes are enticing enough and have special hashtags for your campaign to increase brand awareness.
• Social Proof – 86% of Malaysians trust in word-of-mouth recommendation. Hence, you should never overlook your user-generated content and customer testimonials. You can even ask them to post on their own social media platforms to boost your brand presence!

And if you’re looking for more social content ideas, click the button below to find out!

These content styles can be curated in so many formats – photos, videos, album posts, blog links, user-generated content, and so on. It depends on how you plan and how it fits your audience’s liking. Remember that your feed is more appealing and valuable with the right content and the right format. So study it well!

5. Use content formats that works best for each social media platform

Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

As mentioned above, there are so many content formats that you can play around with on your social media feed. However, this is not a one-size-fits-all social media strategy because each platform has its own “preferred” formats.

For example, posting a blog link on Instagram post may not be ideal since it’s not clickable on captions. Accordingly, you need to keep this in mind when deciding on which formats fit best for each platform. So…

Find the content formats that works best for each social media here:

• Facebook – Videos, live videos/Facebook Live, blog posts, curated content
• Instagram – Hi-resolution lifestyle photos of products, vertical InstaStories, related/funny quotes
• Twitter – product/store updates, your related blog posts, cute and funny gifs
• Pinterest – How-to guide, beautiful and insightful infographics

Understanding these will help you strategise your content for your social media better.

Alternatively, you can learn more about social media marketing guide for restaurants and cafes below! This will guide you from the basic to the best practices, so your social media journey will be at ease.

Your turn!

Social media strategy is so important in 2021, and this is a growing trend that will be more immense in the next few years. If you want to stay on top of your competitors and continue engaging with your audience till you have more sales, apply the strategies above with your own brand.

Don’t underestimate this powerful channel, and leverage your social media game to build your brand awareness and increase sales now!

Or share your social media strategy with us below if you have some secrets to unveil!