Over the last couple of years, social media platforms have evolved from platforms meant to connect people with their friends to great funnels for internet marketing campaigns. At this time, the importance of social media marketing is undeniable. SMM can help increase website traffic, build conversions, and improve brand awareness, as well as enable effective customer engagement and loyalty.

As part of this article, we will outline some of the main social media marketing trends you want to keep an eye on this year, and also share several eye-opening statistics meant to put things into perspective. Chances are, you already know success is attained by providing readers with a quality mix of text, images, videos, and personalized content. Yet, for guaranteed success, you need to dig a little deeper.

Your main focus should be placed on customer engagement

The advertising market no longer yields results by relying on generic and non-targeted advertising campaigns only. Customers long for a feeling of importance in the eyes of businesses. Facebook’s algorithms have been updated to take this factor into account, so if your posts lack a call-to-action for comments or likes, chances are the algorithms will ignore your page. As such, organic reach can be facilitated by creating posts that are engaging, appealing, and interesting.

For instance, on Facebook, blog posts that are longer than 1,500 words tend to attract an extra 22.6% likes, alongside numerous comments, which are essential for customer engagement. It may be wise to also add images, granted that well-designed graphics can improve advertising effectiveness by 75-90%.

Keep an eye out for what’s trendy, so you can attempt to design posts that take aspects like these into account. For instance, the meme economy has done wonders for marketing efforts throughout the world. Doing your due diligence and researching who your customer base is can help design smarter social media advertising strategies, thus facilitating communication between businesses and potential customers.

Consider promoting your brand through micro-influencers

Let’s be honest. Hiring big-name influencers with millions of followers can majorly increase brand awareness. But the market is already saturated with ads like these. On the other hand, micro-influencers remain a mostly untapped market with loads of potential. Budget restrictions shouldn’t be a problem since you can probably hire 20 micro-influencers for the price that a big name may quote.

The reach also grows, since most people do not subconsciously expect too much advertising to come from micro-influencers they follow or may personally know. Because of the closely knitted circles of followers, their influence might be even stronger when compared to big influencers, thus leading to better branding results. It’s also important to point out that photos of people with faces, even with product placement in the background, can lead to 38% more likes.

So far, 75% of users tend to take action after seeing a product they like on Instagram, so research your local micro-influencers and try your luck. After finding several accounts you might want to collaborate with, ask for high-quality posts and stories relevant to your market niche. The stories’ hype will surely give your products a nice boost. Just don’t overdo it.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, if followed correctly, these two trends will likely increase your customer brand loyalty, conversion rates, and overall brand awareness. Social media is especially helpful when you try to advertise in cities or countries where you’re lacking a customer base.