How a Competitive Analysis Can Improve Your Brand’s Social Media

A brand’s social media marketing strategy can be crucial to raising awareness for a new product or service. While we may think about social media strategies as a way to illustrate the brand via social media platforms and track engagements and impressions, brands can take a step further and look outside their brand by performing a competitive analysis. Performing a competitive analysis on brands you may be competing against is extremely important and beneficial, and throughout, we will dive into why!

social media for brands

What is a Competitive Analysis? 

competitive analysis can be defined as conducting a research report where you identify your brand’s competitors within your industry, allowing your brand to place where they stand among competitors and in the industry. Additionally, a competitive analysis allows for a deeper understanding of competitors’ marketing strategies and helps your brand identify its strengths and weaknesses among competitors. By knowing your competitors, you can monitor which strategies are successful for them, be aware of new products that may be launched, monitor industry-wide trends, and ultimately bridge the gap between current and potential customers and your brand. 

How to Make a Competitive Analysis and Tailored Social Media Marketing?

The first and most significant step in creating a competitive analysis report is performing thorough research to understand your brand’s competitors. Brands must identify both their direct and indirect competitors: direct competitors can be accredited to companies that have a similar product or service and a similar target audience to you, and indirect can be attributed to companies that do not offer the same product or service as your brand but have a similar target audience. It is crucial to be conscious of where your brand stands in the market and how consumers view you and your competitors. One way to discover competitors can be through a Google search using keywords you may use to describe your brand. 

Once you know who your competitors are, it is essential to perform market research on competing brands. Your brand will acquire information about the company, target audiences, products, and strategies from this market research. While understanding the company, looking at its social media marketing strategies and content creation is also precious. For example, look at which social media platforms they use. Are they active on Instagram, X, and Facebook, or just Instagram? What is their tone of voice on these platforms, and how do they interact with their target audience? Are they more casual or formal? Do they run contests and giveaways, what keywords do they use, how frequently and consistently do they post, and what are they posting? Social media for brands is a vital piece in marketing products or services, so by studying their strategies you can see their success in connecting with target audiences and growing their brand on social media. 

A competitive analysis will be highly informational and beneficial for your brand. It not only allows you to see the potential holes in your marketing strategy, but you can also see what is successful for your brand compared to others. You can gain additional valuable information and adjust or improve your social media strategies by looking at fellow social media and content strategies.

social media for brands

How to Monitor Competitors? 

To see how you are performing among competitors, brands need to be able to monitor how successful your brands and competitor’s current strategies are. Various social media analytics and reporting tools can make this data accessible. 

One helpful tool that brands can use is Hootsuite. Hootsuite offers various services that allow you to compare your brand’s data to those of competitors or the industry. For example, Hootsuite provides a tool that will enable you to create a competitor watchlist to monitor differences in audience growth, published posts, total engagement, and more. If you have a list of competitors, this tool is handy when comparing your social media marketing strategies. If you do not have a list of your competitors or want to see how your brand compares to the industry, you can monitor metrics on platforms such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. Hootsuite is a great tool to track, compare, and improve social media for brands.

Another valuable tool to use is Sprout Social. Sprout Social offers a competitive analysis tool that allows you to add competitors to compare your data. This tool can monitor data on X, Instagram, Facebook, etc… This service will enable you to see how many times your brand posts compared to competitors, engagement rates, and audience growth. Sprout Social has various other features crucial in monitoring how successful your brand’s social media marketing strategy is compared to competitors. 

It is no secret that social media for brands can be a significant factor in marketing a new product, creating connections with target audiences, and inherently growing your brand. By performing a competitive analysis, brands generate precious information that can permit them to improve their social media marketing strategies. When you want to perform a competitive analysis and need help with market research or content creation, remember that Bright Age is here to help! 

Why Your Brand Needs to Market on LinkedIn

When it comes to social media marketing LinkedIn has become an extremely powerful tool for businesses and individuals to utilize to connect in a way that promotes networking and marketing that no other platform on the market does today.  Globally, LinkedIn has 1 billion active users and this number is growing by the minute.  Companies have found LinkedIn to be an incredible resource for getting to know and connect with brands, and for that reason, it is so important that your brand markets itself on this platform.  

LinkedIn logo used to describe LinkedIn marketing tactics and strategies.

Why LinkedIn is so Important for Businesses 

LinkedIn is nearly 22 years old and with the platform’s growth in these last two decades, its impact on the business world has been huge.  In fact, LinkedIn is used by 80% of B2B marketers today.  Because it has become such a strong outlet for businesses to network with one another and promote their brand through content creation and interactivity, not utilizing LinkedIn’s benefits would set you behind other competitors in your industry.  LinkedIn is also the number one most trusted platform by brands, making it essential for businesses to use to increase their market value.  

The exposure that LinkedIn marketing can give your brand is massive.  When you have connections with people, and comment, like, or repost their posts, all of your followers will also see it even if they don’t follow that initial connection.  That is what makes LinkedIn so powerful when it comes to its ability to connect with other businesses or brands. You can see this in a post by Parex.  When someone comments on Parex’s post, all of the commenters’ connections will also see this Parex post.  This is an incredibly beneficial feature that can help brands.

Parex USA LinkedIn post example to show LinkedIn marketing and content creation by brands.

How to Market on LinkedIn

Demographics

For LinkedIn marketing, a brand needs to understand the demographics of those who are active on LinkedIn to know how to properly market their product.  60% of LinkedIn users fall between the age range of 25 and 34.  When your brand decides which specific marketing strategies to use to promote a product, this is something important to keep in mind to ensure your marketing to the correct audience.  

Two business people looking at LinkedIn on a laptop showing example of LinkedIn marketing.

Targeting on LinkedIn

When it comes to LinkedIn marketing and finding your target audience, it’s important to keep in mind that until you know exactly what audience you are trying to reach, keeping targeting tactics broad is your best bet.  There are so many different ways to target your audience on this platform: by country, job title, seniority, company, industry size, etc. It is imperative that for a business to market its brand successfully, they take advantage of the opportunities LinkedIn offers to aid in its marketing strategies.  

Unique Features

One of the features LinkedIn offers that can be extremely useful for marketers to use is their campaign manager account.  By creating a campaign manager account, marketers can easily create ads and see how they are doing after being posted on the platform. Users can also opt into LinkedIn Premium, which shows even more insights and analytics that can be useful when marketing your brand.  Here is an example of what Premium can show you using a company profile we all know and love, Shark Tank

Shark Tank ABC LinkedIn screenshot showing LinkedIn marketing and premium features.

LinkedIn can offer lots of benefits to your brand. The mere exposure that this platform can give to your brand is enough to convince anyone that it’s an essential part of successful branding for marketers.  On top of that, its ability to provide connections, create networking opportunities, and filter demographics to help you promote your advertisements, is something that you cannot find on any other platform.

The Importance of Social Media Brand Awareness

When thinking about your favorite brands, what comes to mind? Most likely their products and services but also the personality they have curated. These factors tie into creating social media brand awareness which can be thought of as consumers’ ability to recognize specific brands on social media. Several factors go into creating and increasing brand awareness, and it is crucial to differentiate your brand from others.

What is Social Media Brand Awareness and Why is it Important?

At its core, brand awareness is the idea that consumers are familiar with the products and services your brand offers. Social media brand awareness refers to raising brand awareness through social media platforms which has become an increasingly popular strategy. For example, through the use of social media, you can reach different target audiences through different social media platforms. Social media brand awareness is vital and allows brands to develop relationships with potential customers and strengthen relationships with existing customers.

How to Develop and Increase Social Media Brand Awareness?

There are several ways to develop social media brand awareness, and it comes back to building a distinct and identifiable brand. Various factors play into having a recognizable brand which ranges from your brand personality to aesthetics and values. Starting with personality, it is important to look at what you are posting and how you are interacting with customers on social media pages. Are you formal or more casual when talking with customers? Customers enjoy unique and original content where they feel they are interacting with a person. Additionally, how you respond to and take care of customers if they are not satisfied with your product can impact your brand’s reputation.

Secondly, your brand’s aesthetic will help you be more identifiable. Having a consistent color scheme and style across various platforms will allow consumers to know and understand your brand better. If your website has a minimalist website, how are you portraying that identity on your Instagram and TikTok? Content between platforms will vary, but showing consistency is beneficial.

Additionally, showcasing your brand values can humanize your brand. Displaying brand values allows customers to build a sense of trust and loyalty with the brand and differentiate it from others. For example, if your brand is passionate about being an environmentally friendly brand how are you showing your customers that they can trust you? Maybe you make a TikTok showing the sustainable process of how you make your product. By knowing your brand, you can tailor your social media marketing strategy and content creation to be the most authentic it can be to your brand. Having an understanding of your brand and displaying that on social media platforms is an important first step in creating brand awareness.

Similar to displaying your brand values, another way to distinguish your brand from others is having a narrative. A narrative allows you to personalize and humanize your brand to your audiences. There are various narratives you can tell like the origin of the brand itself and the person behind it. Having a narrative is something that you can tie into your marketing strategy, and customers can see a more human side of your brand, increasing brand loyalty and distinguishing your brand from others. 

A third way to increase brand awareness is through contests and giveaways. Brands can run social media contests where they have users either tag a couple of friends in the comments or repost the contest post to their story. This is extremely beneficial in developing brand awareness as customers may expose their friends or followers to the brand. While it does require brands to give away something for free, the exposure they can generate from their audiences is greatly beneficial. 

You can also look outside just your brand when looking to gain awareness. Brands can partner with each other and perform co-branding or co-marketing. Collaborating with other brands allows your brand to be introduced to other audiences you may not be reaching. If you do not want to collaborate with another brand, working with social media creators or influencers is another great way to create brand awareness on social media as they can promote your product to their followers.

How to Track Social Media Brand Awareness? 

It is important to be aware of how your current tactics are working to increase your social media brand awareness, and luckily there are several ways to collect valuable information. 

Sentiment Analysis is one tool on Sproutsocial where you track customers’ comments and feedback. Customer sentiment analysis allows you to see how customers and people are feeling about your brand, whether it be positive or negative. With this data, you can track sentiment trends where brands can be proactive if there is consistently negative sentiment.

Sproutsocial also offers tools that allow you to monitor your Share of Voice (SOV). Share of Voice looks at how much your brand is being talked about in its respective market and where you stand among other brands. From the data, you can monitor how frequently and where your brand is mentioned.

One more valuable tool that Sproutsocial offers for tracking social media brand awareness is monitoring social media engagement. By looking at what and how users are interacting with brands, you can see which platforms they are having the most engagement on and see which methods are working for them.

One last valuable tool is Google Trends. Google Trends allows you to track how much your brand is being looked up across specific amounts of time and locations. Not only can you monitor your own brand’s data, but also perform research on competitors as well.

Social media brand awareness is crucial in being recognized and building loyalty with customers. Bright Age can help your brand generate social brand awareness whether it’s through branding itself, running a contest or giveaway, or altering your strategy to raise more awareness. Social media brand awareness is extremely valuable to brands and being effective in strategies allows your brand to reach as many customers as you can. 

Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2024

As we stand on the brink of a new year, the ever-evolving trends of digital marketing continue to shape the way brands connect with their audiences. Going into 2024, we’re already seeing a shift online as we move to Web 3.0.

At Bright Age, we are eager to explore the upcoming trends that we believe will redefine the way businesses engage with their customers and elevate their online presence. Here are some trends to be on the lookout for:

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Emerging Platforms and Video Content Dominance

Video content has been on the rise for several years. In 2024, we predict it will continue to dominate the digital marketing space. Short-clip videos, live streams, and interactive video content will be key components of successful marketing campaigns. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels featuring User-Generated Content (UGC) will be essential for reaching younger audiences, while long-form video content on platforms like YouTube will remain crucial. For many users, these platforms have even taken over as a search engine. 

According to one study by the Pew Research Center, nearly 40% of Gen Z use TikTok more than Google for their online searches. This goes to show just how important creating a presence on these platforms is in increasing your brand presence for the new generation. Check out Dancing With the Stars trending video content on TikTok for inspiration.

woman on computer

Taking on a Privacy-First Approach 

As concerns about data privacy have continued to grow, we will need to adapt to a privacy-first approach. Personalized advertising will need to adapt to a new expectation for user privacy going forward and the need to navigate the evolving landscape of privacy regulations and find innovative ways to deliver targeted content while respecting user privacy preferences will be important in 2024 and beyond. 

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AI and Machine Learning 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been pivotal in reshaping digital marketing strategies. In 2024, their influence is set to intensify. From personalized customer experiences to predictive analytics, AI will play a crucial role in understanding user behavior and tailoring marketing efforts accordingly. 

Machine Learning algorithms will enable us to make data-driven decisions, optimizing campaigns in real-time and enhancing overall efficiency. For more information on integrating AI into your business strategy, refer to our post to help build your marketing plan. 

How We Can Help 

As we step into 2024, the digital marketing landscape is booming with opportunities for those ready to embrace these new trends. New Platforms, video content, privacy considerations, and AI will be crucial in the continuation of the industry in the future.

At Bright Age, our commitment is to stay at the forefront of these ever-evolving trends in digital marketing. We’re here to help you navigate the digital landscape and unlock new avenues for success to grow your business. Our services can help you stay on track with these trends with ease in 2024.

Content Creation for Social Media Entertainment

Social media has changed the way in which we consume entertainment in the past decade. Whether it be through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or even Threads, consumers approach social media content creation in an entirely new way. Additionally, algorithms are at the forefront of controlling what we see and don’t see on search and explore pages, so understanding and implementing new strategies is important to gain traction and stay relevant as a brand.

There are a variety of ways in which brands can stay on top of the algorithm and cater towards the new and ever-changing entertainment sphere. Here are some ways to create more engaging social content that will speak to your customers!

social media content creation - computers
  1. Finding your voice 

As a brand, it is important to understand how you want to appear and who you want to market yourself as to consumers. There are millions of brands and other companies out there with similar products and ideas, so it is necessary to grab the attention of customers and win them over with your personality. With that in mind, you can craft media posts that give a glimpse into what your brand stands for and create a persona you want people to perceive you as. 

social media content creation - audience

2. Stay Up to Date

Trends eb and flow and social media is always moving onto the newest and latest topics. Taking notice of popular sounds on TikTok and trending hashtags is a great way to stay on the forefront of the algorithm and have customers feel like you understand their interest and humor. 

Demographics are just as important as trends. Watching and creating up-to-date demographic reports on your customers is vital to create content that connects with them. If your target audience is primarily Gen Z, using trending TikTok sounds is an easy implementation strategy to market toward that generation.  

Lastly, staying up to date on competitors is critical. Competitors are the most helpful way in seeing if their marketing strategy is appealing to their audience. If it is, then implementing some of those strategies can aid in shaping your social content.

3. Videos, videos, and more videos

Screen time is at an all time high in 2023. Although screen time is up, people have adapted a short attention span with the millions of social media posts constantly circulating around them. This means that creating content that is engaging for consumers to stop and look at is necessary. Videos in the format of TikToks and Instagram Reels are the most engaging form of content that keeps consumers from scrolling. People enjoy using social media to relax and watching a video is far less energy than reading up on a long caption. With this in mind, utilizing relaxing audios over videos can keep consumers watching for more than a few seconds! 

4. Be a human, not a robot

People just want to feel understood and that a brand gets them. Being relatable is the most important factor in social media content creation. It is easy to see through a facade. No one is at their best 100% of the time. Some ways to humanize your content are showing what goes on behind the scenes or what a typical work day can look like. A great example for a makeup brand could be a video of what your everyday two step makeup routine is because realistically no one has time to do full-glam everyday!

social media content creation - world around

5. Utilize the world around us

The last way in which to create content for social media entertainment is through utilizing the world around us. There are so many national holidays and different events going on throughout the world, allowing brands to tap into a new market and gain access to a new audience. For example, with the Women’s World Cup going on, you could create content geared towards the world of soccer and focus on popular players.

Social media content creation is an important topic for brands to understand in this day and age. The way in which we engage is social media entertainment has shifted and to flourish within this shift, staying on top of the trends, algorithm, and the newest marketing strategies is how one  can succeed. There is no telling where social media will go in the future, but for now, we must recognize the culture we live in and utilize the tools at hand!

How to Stay on Top of Graphic Trends on Social Media

In our current age of social media marketing where graphic trends are changing at a rapid pace, it’s very important to stay on top of what’s changing to ensure relevancy and public interest within your brand. Design has a key place in marketing and delivering a successful product to a client which is dependent on what’s trending at the moment. Design trends on social media are now directly related to those within the graphic design community and there are many ways to stay up to date and informed. Here are some ways that we as a content creation agency stay informed on graphic trends. 

Why are graphics important?

Social media design can set your brand apart when done correctly; eye catching graphics and images can boost your engagement while working hand in hand with your brand guidelines. As stated on our site, it is very important to maintain consistency on social media. Consistency and a well planned out social media profile shows professionalism and knowledge of branding. The current trends show that video and imagery content is performing the best on social media; visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared than any other types of content. To implement visuals into your brand, there are many new content creation sites that make this process efficient. For example, sites such as Pictory and InVideo can generate high quality video content from something as simple as a short script. Tools such as these can ensure relevance in social media marketing for the current trends. 

Repurposing content is a great idea!

Social media marketing is all about efficiency. A creative way to stay up to date with current trends is to use your own analytics from various platforms and repurpose content with posts that worked well. You can repurpose these just by using simple updates with what’s trending at the moment. This process saves time and is already ensured that this content will perform well based on past analytics. Repurposed content will always perform when relevant to your brand, consumers look for consistency when trusting in brands. Things such as color, typography and visuals are extremely important in expressing your brand’s purpose. As a creative content agency, the content we use is often remastered into something slightly different based on performance. 

Don’t be afraid to experiment!

While staying informed and relevant regarding trends is important, do not be afraid to experiment and try new things. This is how design trends work, a designer tries something new and it is repurposed and recreated in countless ways which then becomes a trend. Our Bright Age Clients’ social media pages are constantly evolving based on the current trends while also maintaining a consistent page layout to remain professional and true to their brand. Check out our Instagram pages for Social Media Data, Galaxy Theaters and our own Bright Age account to see how we stay up to date with current graphic trends while still maintaining our brand guidelines. 

Most importantly, stay inspired!

The most important way to stay on top of graphic trends within social media is to stay inspired. To do this, follow trend setting designers on social media; platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook allow access to their latest work and can provide some key inspiration for aspiring projects. Collaborating with other designers and professionals in the field can also serve as a source of inspiration. Furthermore, subscribing to newsletters, blogs and staying up to date with content creation agencies plans for social media marketing are efficient and interesting ways to stay up to date with changing graphic trends. Inspiration is a key factor for all things creative.

Conclusion

Staying on top of graphic trends will ensure success on social media as it proves relevance, drives visual interest and can contribute to your brand guidelines as a whole. While graphic trends are changing at a fast rate, these tips will help you stay on top of what’s changing. To learn more about what Bright Age can do for you, head here

How to Integrate AI into a Social Media Marketing Strategy

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In the landscape of social media marketing today, businesses need to stay ahead of the curve to maintain a competitive edge. One such approach that has gained significant traction is the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into social media marketing strategies. AI offers a wide range of benefits, from creating graphics and copywriting to optimizing scheduling. AI is the newest tool to improve efficiency and help aid social media managers. According to the Harris poll, 97% of leaders agree AI will allow companies to analyze data and insights more efficiently. Explore how to effectively incorporate AI into your social media marketing strategy.

Enhancing Graphics and Visual Content

Having compelling content is essential for social media. Incorporating AI-powered tools can significantly improve the quality, consistency, and appeal of visual content shared on social media platforms. Artificial Intelligence can analyze data from previous successful posts, user engagement patterns, and industry trends to generate visually engaging graphics and images. There are so many different AI tools you can use for creating graphics, a popular one being Canva. Some of the tools they offer are text-to-image ability and Magic Design which will create templates for images you can upload. 

AI-driven image recognition can also help businesses better understand their audience’s preferences by analyzing the types of visuals that garner the most interest and engagement. This data can be used to create more targeted and appealing visuals in future marketing campaigns. By using AI to create stunning visual content, social media marketers can capture the audience’s attention and increase engagement.

Empowering Copywriting and Content Creation

Crafting captivating and relevant social media copy is a vital aspect of any marketing strategy. AI-powered tools can aid social media marketers by suggesting compelling blog posts, generating content ideas, and even drafting social media posts. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data and identify trending topics, customer preferences, and suitable language styles, streamlining the content creation process. 

One tool is Copy.ai, which can be used to write captions, product descriptions, or blog posts which can all be customized to fit the style and voice of your brand. While AI can suggest content ideas, the human touch is still necessary to ensure the content aligns with the brand’s tone, voice, and messaging. Social media marketers should use AI-generated content as a starting point and then personalize and tailor it to resonate better with their target audience.

A group of team members working collaboratively on a project

Optimizing Scheduling and Posting

The timing of social media posts plays a crucial role in reaching the target audience effectively. AI tools can analyze historical data and user behavior to identify the optimal times for posting content on different platforms. By scheduling posts during peak engagement periods, businesses can maximize the impact of their social media campaigns.

ClickUp is an AI tool which can assist in a variety of ways, ranging from campaign strategy to event planning. Moreover, AI-driven automation can help manage and streamline posting across various social media channels. Marketers can use AI to schedule posts in advance, ensuring a consistent presence on social platforms without manually handling every post.

Integrating artificial intelligence into your social media marketing strategy can undoubtedly enhance various aspects of your campaigns, from graphics and copywriting to scheduling. AI-powered tools can streamline processes, improve efficiency, and provide valuable insights to optimize your marketing efforts. However, it is crucial to remember that AI is a valuable aid to your team and not a replacement for human creativity and expertise. By combining the strengths of AI with human insights, businesses can create compelling social media marketing campaigns that engage and resonate with their audience effectively. Learn more about Bright Age and its services

How to Use Social Media for Market Research

Customers are one of the most important indicators that measure the success of a business. In order to understand what customers want and for them to buy into your business over competitors, it’s necessary to engage in comprehensive market research. Market research is compiling information about consumer preferences and needs. As technology continues to flourish and social media is at the forefront of marketing strategy, social media has become the primary and best place to conduct market research. 

Rather than pouring money into traditional market research consisting of focus groups and annual surveys, social media market research is cost-effective and opens up more valuable real-time data. This data provides diverse customer, competitor, and industry analysis. However, because social media is filled with so many insights, it’s important as a marketer to know what specific research you should focus on. 

Here is a list of 6 different insights that are essential for a business to know and how to use social media market research to find them.

  1. Customer preferences and wants

Social Media allows businesses the opportunity to connect with customers on a more personable level. Using different platforms like Instagram and Twitter, you can communicate and understand the preferences of your target audience through comments, public polls, subtweets, etc. This information can help you understand what customers like and dislike. Depending on your company’s product, you can learn about popular colors, flavors, scents, and much more. Utilizing these preferences, make changes to future products because it can benefit both your customer and your company.

social media market research - target audience

  1. Industry emerging trends

There are always new and upcoming trends, topics, and products floating around on various social platforms. Understanding and staying on top of these emerging trends can help your business gain views and traction on your different accounts. Not only can it open up new opportunities for people to see your product, but it also allows your target audience to feel connected to your brand and feel that you understand their interests. For example, if Gen Z is your primary target audience, uploading content to trending sounds on TikTok will be the most beneficial platform to utilize.

social media market research - competitor research

  1. Competitor analysis

Your competitors are also staying up to date with trends and interacting with customers. It is necessary to monitor your competitors’ social platforms so that you have an understanding of their marketing and content strategies. This opens up the opportunity to pick apart their strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly help you restructure your marketing strategy accordingly. If a competitor is doing something that customers enjoy, it might be time to reassess some tactics to have customers click on your profile instead. 

  1. Target audience demographics

Various social media platforms offer insights into the demographics of its users. Use social media to find out the typical age, gender, and interests of people in your market. Grasping a greater understanding of your target audience will allow for you to make more articulate and tailored content for the niche target group. Location of target audience is also important. If a large sector of your audience is based in Los Angeles, implementing a pop-up shop of products could spread word of your business.

  1. Influencer partnerships

Once you have an understanding of your target audience, take a look at what type of influencers they follow. Influencer partnerships are a great way to raise reach and engagement levels for a business. Look at various influencers that match your brand values and have them create content that resonates with your audience. For example, a new makeup brand that markets to Gen Z could utilize a partnership with a beauty TikTok influencer because that platform reaches their target audience. Then, reviews of the products spread across TikTok which reach a larger audience ultimately. 

  1. Existing customer reviews for future product development 

One amazing aspect of social media is that people are allowed to freely speak their minds. This opens up the opportunity to read into what consumers are saying about your business. Gathering data on various opinions, feedback, and reviews can aid in redesigning existing issues with products, as well as creating new products customers would buy into.

Social media is the most valuable way to conduct market research. Insights are up-to-date and constantly changing allowing companies to have a deeper understanding of what their customers want in a product. Whether it be looking at target audience demographics, industry emerging trends, or customer preferences, they are all important insights that can aid in the success of your business.

How Social Media Can Benefit HR

Social media allows for people to connect with people they did not meet in real life. People who are far away geographically can be connected via social media. Social media is a great tool for the human resources field; people become more connected through social media. It is a valuable tool for people in this profession, it helps businesses attract job candidates. Social media can also be a great place to engage with employees that are already a part of the company. Using social media as a tool is one way to promote inclusion in a company as well. It is a way to find employees that are from diverse backgrounds. Seeing what people are up to on social media can help people stay connected as well.

Recruitment can be done on social media, which is a large part of human relations. Social media can be a wonderful tool for sourcing job candidates. Human resources departments can use different forms of social media to recruit new employees to their company. One form of social media that is good for recruitment is LinkedIn. On LinkedIn you can recruit individuals to your company. LinkedIn is a great example of social media that is good for the human resources field. LinkedIn is built for people to connect in the business world, which is perfect for human resources. People use this to promote themselves or their company. Jobs are posted on LinkedIn all the time, and it is a common way most people will find their job. People look on social media to find jobs among other things. Social media makes the candidate pool wider than it would be without. Since you can reach people across the world on social media, there is a more divorce candidate pool for a lot of jobs. People will come from many different backgrounds; this leads to having a more diverse workplace. More ideas will come from a diverse group of employees, which will better your company. Being able to connect with people through social media is important even in a professional way. 

Relationships with employees can be preserved through social media. Your reputation as a brand is defined by the employee’s experience working there. They might showcase this on their social media. Human resources can utilize this to understand why employees might have a low success rate. On social media, employees can find a sense of community within a brand. Company news and employee recognition can be shared on social media. This will facilitate communication and collaboration within the company. Through social media, you can see how your experience differs from competitors. Learning about your competitors and how successful they are is important for being successful within your own company. Social media will help businesses understand their competitors better, it gives them access to the inside of their brand. 

On social media, you can showcase your brand and what you stand for. The human relationships part of your company can use social media to highlight the values of your brand. When people are searching for a place to work this is something they want to know about a company. Having it be easily accessible to anyone is a helpful aid in that process; this will help to attract talent and community easier. Highlighting employees and company events can be one way to do this. People searching for the company will be able to get a good feel for the company by browsing your social media profiles.

This all being said, having guidelines in place for using social media in human relations is important as well. Making sure that social media is used ethically and in a responsible manor is important. Furthermore, social media is still a very effective way to improve human relations within a company. It is beneficial for recruiting new individuals to a company. It can also be important so that your brand can understand competitors. Competitors can be closely compared on social media; it is easier than any other type of engagement with competitors. Individuals who are looking for a job will be able to understand what your company stands for by looking through your social media pages. Overall using social media in the human relations field is beneficial and your human relations team can use social media to enhance your company. 

How To Host a Social Media Giveaway Contest

Anyone running a business today should know that social media is one of the most integral and powerful tools around. Companies and influencers are able to use social media to connect with consumers, market products, and even promote their own brands. In order to maximize the benefits of this platform and generate quality engagement, businesses and brands often host social media giveaways or contests. Essentially, a social media giveaway is a raffle that grants followers a chance to win a prize while boosting engagement for the company. In this article, we will share the best tips and tricks for running a seamless social media giveaway from start to finish. 

1. Define your goal and platform 

Before planning your giveaway, you must define the goal you aim to achieve. Goals for giveaways can range from brand awareness to gaining followers to product promotion. When working with a digital creative agency like Bright Age, we will help you hone in on the most efficacious goal for your company. 

Once your goal is determined, you will need to decide which social media platform to promote your giveaway on. The type of target audience you aim to reach with this giveaway is dependent on what platform you use. It is common for a brand to promote a giveaway contest on several platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. 

Person writing the word audience on a white board with an Expo marker. There are arrows targeting towards the word audience.

2. Set Rules 

To ensure that the giveaway is fair and easy to execute, the company must set rules.For example, in order to enter the giveaway the rules may state that a user must follow the brand, like the post, and comment.In this case, less is more. Easier rules yield a more successful giveaway! Oftentimes, you will see the brand asking the followers to tag a friend so they can bring more engagement to their page. For example, in order to enter the giveaway the rules may state that a user must follow the brand, like the post, and comment.Many brands will develop a campaign hashtag to continue driving people to the giveaway. This hashtag will represent the band and will ensure that contestants remember that they are entering a giveaway associated with the company. 

3. Decide on a Prize & Hashtag

There are endless opportunities when deciding on a prize. Sometimes prizes can be smaller scale, such as sweaters or posters, but can also range from items like extravagant trips or electronics. The prize you decide on should be in line with your budget and also with your goals. The type of prize you set typically dictates what type of participants will enter your giveaway.

4. Pick a Winner

Here comes the fun part! There are many ways to pick a winner for a social media giveaway, including randomly selecting a winner or choosing a winner based on prior engagement or demonstrated interest. It is worth mentioning, however, that if you will be choosing the winner (or multiple winners) at random, you should let your audience know. Sometimes at the bottom of a giveaway post, brands will write, “the winner will be chosen randomly on 2.23.2023,” just so the contestants know how the giveaway will operate. As always, transparency is key. 

5. Foster a Connection

Once you decide on a winner, feel free to contact them privately or post the announcement on your brand’s socials. It is important that as a brand, you reward all of your loyal followers and giveaway participants. This could be done with a follow up message or by letting the participants know that there are more exciting giveaways around the corner. By following up, individuals will feel as though the brand actually cares about them.

When working with a digital marketing agency like Bright Age, you will receive guidance on your social media giveaway from start to finish. We will be there every step of the way, from ideation to facilitation to ultimately ensuring you are generating the best engagement possible. We can’t wait to work with you!