Social media marketing (SMM) is the basic element for achieving success in the digital world of marketing and for attaining business growth through the usage of various platforms. Companies that want to increase their brand awareness online must begin by creating an SMM strategy, according to their industry. For that reason, we decided to interview our colleague Daniela Dukovska who has been working in Cosmic Development for more than five years. Her vast experience in the social media world took her from the role of an assistant to a team leader and she is the most suitable person to discuss which social media platform is better and why.

Throughout the past five years, Daniela and her team have been working diligently for our client Social-Hire helping them achieve their social media goals and obtain positive results. One of the recent recognitions they earned is being named the Top 12 Social Media Agencies for 2020. As a result of this achievement, we decided to ask Daniela how she helps with the SMM strategy and how she delegates responsibilities to her team. We were also interested in finding out which social media management tools she prefers to use and which is her favorite social media platform. To discover that and more, continue reading the entire interview below.

1. You have been with Cosmic Development for over five years now. Could you tell us how your Cosmic journey started? What were the challenges you faced when you started working for Cosmic as a Social Media Assistant?

My journey as a Social Media Assistant in Cosmic Development started in April of 2015. I was one of the first employees to join the team in the newly opened office in Bitola. At that time, I was looking for a career change and I stumbled upon an opportunity from Cosmic where they needed English native speakers for one of their clients. 

I had never worked as a Social Media Marketing Assistant before and at that time I was not aware of the tremendous impact it had on businesses. As this was all new for me, everything was challenging and exciting.

2. Which social media channels do you recommend for businesses and why?

It really depends on the business. The best approach for most businesses is to handpick social media channels that make sense for their brand. For instance, if you are in the fashion industry, the best choice would be to use Instagram because it is visual. If you’re in the tech industry, for example, using Twitter or LinkedIn would give the best result. Curating content and engaging with your audience is the most important when trying to grow your business. 

By using Google Analytics, you can see which channels are bringing the most traffic to your site and concentrate more on them, rather than wasting your time on a platform where you aren’t able to get any engagement.

Read more: Top Tips for Improving Social Media Marketing

3. Which social media management tools do you use?

Buffer, Feedly, and Hootsuite are just a few of the tools I use on a daily basis to stay on top of my social media tasks. Buffer is used for managing content for all social media accounts. It offers two products: one for publishing content and the other for analyzing SMM performance. I prefer the latter. Hootsuite is a tool that is used to monitor all social media networks and I strongly recommend it for Twitter accounts. And last but not least, Feedly is an app that is used to curate content.  

4. How to encourage engagement on social media?

If you want to increase social media engagement, first you’ll need to grow your followers. You can do this by advertising on Facebook or Twitter, depending on which social channel is more relevant for your business.

Being active on your social media channels shows that you are worth following. By posting content regularly it is only natural that your followers will grow and engage with you. When customers contact you on social media you are presented with an opportunity to build long-lasting relationships. 

5. What’s your favorite social media platform personally and why?

I’d have to say that LinkedIn is one of my favorite social media platforms because it is strictly for business. You don’t encounter a lot of spam as you do on the other platforms and you connect with many interesting personalities around the world. LinkedIn allows you to meet people from around the world who share similar professional interests as you. Moreover, you get to know professionals who work in your niche and share valuable experiences and insights. I like the fact that you get very positive and friendly feedback from educated people.

6. Throughout the years working as a Social Media Marketing Assistant in Cosmic Development, you became also a Leader of the Social Media Marketing team. Could you tell us how you motivate your team?

I motivate my team by supporting them. When leading my team, I listen to them, value their needs, and respect them for the work they do. I do my best to provide an opportunity for each team member to learn new skills and help them grow professionally. In my opinion, communication is very important for achieving the goals we want as a team. Therefore, it is crucial to communicate on time and about every possible issue that may affect the business.

7. How do you delegate responsibilities to your team?

When managing a team, you need to divide the tasks equally so that not one person has more responsibilities than the other. Therefore, prior to delegating the responsibilities, you need to know which team member is the most appropriate person for a specific task. When I choose the right person for the job, I have a talk with them to make sure that they are comfortable with taking on the responsibilities. Afterwards, I give them instructions on who can provide the proper training and feedback. 

8. What is your most valuable personal achievement?

My most valuable personal achievement would have to be maintaining a happy family life while going to school to finish my degree as a lab technician in Danish. I went to school during the day and took Danish lessons in the afternoon. This particular achievement was very challenging for me because I was taking care of two small children at the time. Actually, I often wonder how I found the strength to accomplish this. 

9. What do you like to do for fun?

The current situation has disabled us to travel, which is something we used to do often. Having a close family all over the world prompts us to visit many different countries which we enjoy very much. Nowadays, I find myself doing a lot of reading, baking, and gardening during my spare time.

The post How to Manage a Social Media Marketing Team appeared first on Cosmic Development.

The social media trends for 2020 are a very important element of the marketing strategy that all companies must know in order to surpass their competitors and always be one step ahead. Business owners must tend to implement the latest trends in their company’s strategy and get full advantage of social media platforms for attracting new customers. That way they will also improve the company’s social media marketing (SMM) strategy. Regardless of the size of the company, entrepreneurs need to utilize all social media that their targeted audience uses. That way they will stay on track with the latest technologies and will know how to take advantage of each social platform separately.

The major social media platforms currently are Facebook and Instagram. In addition to them, people use other social media apps such as LinkedIn for B2B strategies, YouTube for reaching larger audiences, as well as other trending platforms. However, the question is: “Will this stay the same forever?” 2020 brings new social media trends that may reshape the social media landscape, especially with the emergence of new platforms that were not so popular till now. To discover more information about the latest social media trends that will dominate the new decade, read more about five of them that we chose as the most important:

• Temporary Content
• Emergence of New Social Media Platforms
• Domination of Video Content
• Expansion of the Social Commerce
• Reshaping of the Social Media Landscape

Temporary Content

Temporary content is one of the social media trends for 2020 that companies need to pay attention to. The temporary content is also known by the term “ephemeral content” and it stands for content that is available on social media for a short period of time after which it disappears entirely. People nowadays are addicted to such temporary content because their attention span is short and they want to consume content in a rapid manner. Great examples of temporary content are Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat Stories, which disappear after 24 hours. The content shared via Stories is more engaging and acts as an addiction to users, so they spend hours scrolling through one Story after another. 

Business owners who want to follow the latest social media trends must take advantage of the temporary content and publish their companies’ content on these platforms. Building a brand requires following the trends such as the temporary content. Companies tend to post a Story on one of these social media platforms at least once per week in order to stay up to date with the trends and get people’s attention. 

Emergence of New Social Media Platforms

Till now, the social media trends were revolving around the two major and most popular platforms: Facebook and Instagram. Other popular social media platforms are LinkedIn for businesses and for developing a B2B strategy, as well as Twitch for the gaming community. In the past several years, other platforms have begun increasing their dominance and approaching the already popular ones mentioned above. In 2020, other social media platforms, such as TikTok for instance, will continue emerging. Youngsters have made TikTok so popular that even companies are beginning to discover new ways how to use these platforms in their favor. TikTok is a social platform where companies can create their personalized marketing channel. This channel can be used for creating new branded videos for the company. 

Once companies create their own accounts on TikTok, users can get an immediate preview of the short one-minute videos that the companies post. The company’s videos will get higher engagement even if the number of followers is very low. This is one of the advantages that TikTok offers to companies. Moreover, marketing a business on TikTok will increase the user’s engagement, due to the fact that 90 percent of TikTok users enter the app numerous times on a daily basis.

Domination of Video Content

Another of the newest social media trends for 2020 is the increased domination of the video content. It is general knowledge that younger people do not want to waste their time reading long articles. Instead, they prefer watching short videos that will grasp their attention while providing them with beneficial information at the same time. Video content is engaging users regardless of whether it is in a short format for TikTok or Stories, or it is in a long format as the videos for YouTube. In 2020, most of the online content is expected to be converted into video content, adapted for each of the social media platforms.

Companies that have not yet created video content are advised to begin with their content strategy in order to keep up with the latest social media trends. Furthermore, they need to become aware of how to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for optimizing their video content and obtain a high position on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). To begin, business owners can begin uploading Stories on their social media platforms and then pass over to longer videos for YouTube.

Expansion of the Social Commerce

In 2020, social commerce will continue to expand as one of the social media trends that are going to mark the new decade. Popular brands have been using social media platforms to sell their products. The most used platforms for social commerce in the past years have been Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. In the new decade that has just begun, business owners expect social commerce to be the new retail channel, in addition to websites and offline stores. 

Social commerce is one of the social media trends that is expected to continue growing through the introduction of features such as posts that enable online shopping. Business owners who have recognizable brands will continue using social commerce for improving their sales strategies. Companies plan to use social networks and evolve them to retail platforms that will help their brands to sell their products easily. That way social commerce will continue trending and business owners will carry on with shoppable posts on social media. 

Reshaping of the Social Media Landscape

The final and most interesting social media trend for 2020 is the possibility of having the social media landscape reshaped. In the last year, there has been a rumor that social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will remove the number of likes under every photo. Removing the number of likes on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is due to the fact that people see the number of likes as a determination of their social value. This in many cases has proven to be very bad for people’s mental health and that is why Facebook and Instagram plan to reshape the social media landscape by removing the number of likes thus preventing a social value to be added to each person. 

However, if these media platforms reshape the social media landscape, brands will be unable to measure the impact of their Facebook or Instagram campaigns. Removing the number of likes from the two most popular social media platforms may cause problems with the companies’ campaigns. However, this may also prove to be useful for brands because they may get encouraged to invest their money in Facebook and Instagram Ads and track the Return on Investment (ROI). Getting marketers to use the ads features could also cause a major transformation in the social media marketing strategy. If this works, other social media may try and do the same reshaping method by removing the number of likes. We can hardly wait and see whether this trend will happen or not.

Sources:

• hootsuite.com/research/social-trends
• searchenginejournal.com/2020-social-media-trends/342851/
• searchenginejournal.com/social-media/
• searchenginejournal.com/social-media/biggest-social-media-sites/
• influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-trends/
• medium.com/@bryanswitalski/6-surprising-advantages-of-tiktok-marketing-for-your-brand-e777d5771f68

The post Five Important Social Media Trends That Companies Need to Know appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Social media networks are the most important internet platforms that people use on a daily basis. Nowadays, a company can hardly imagine its existence without implementing the appropriate social media marketing (SMM) strategy. Marketers who want to use social mediums as part of their marketing strategy need to constantly follow the new trends and to try and improve the company’s marketing strategy. To discover some useful tips for improving a digital marketing strategy through social media, continue reading the sections below.

• Share Your Blog Posts on Social Media
• Use Infographics to Attract the Reader’s Attention
• Incorporate Audio in Your Content
• Implement Content Calendars for Social Media and Multi-Profile Scheduling

Share Your Blog Posts on Social Media

Social media strategy involves creating and sharing a wide range of content which is relevant and compelling to your business. One of the most effective pieces of content for an online marketing strategy is a blog with news and articles that can be shared and promoted on various social media platforms. 

Writing blog articles is an excellent opportunity to mention people, apps, and businesses that are closely connected to your industry, thus expecting from them to do the same thing for you.

Why blog? Having a blog on your website is an excellent way to demonstrate your company’s knowledge of the industry, but it is also a tool for attracting a relevant audience. Before writing blog articles, a company must determine the targeted readers and understand their needs. After determining your reader’s requirements, you can use your blog for social media purposes. That way, you will increase the number of people that will visit your website. 

Use Infographics to Attract the Reader’s Attention

Another powerful tip for improving your social media marketing is to utilize well-constructed infographics that will deliver the information to your readers in a concise manner. Infographics are a highly-effective tool when intending to present information and when portraying stories visually. 

The aim of using infographics is not directed only toward visual representation of an idea, but also toward increasing the company’s sales. Most users love infographics because they can preview the information in a concise and clear format. Companies, on the other hand, like the infographics because they can provide links that will lead readers back to their website, thus gaining more traffic.

Incorporate Audio in Your Content

To get full benefits of social media, companies need to pay attention to all methods for delivering a message, such as written content, audio, video, etc. An audio format is a medium that uniquely conveys information, and it gives the user an experience that an image or a text cannot achieve. 

Including audio in a company’s social media marketing strategy is a great idea when marketeers want their company to connect closely to the audience. Some of the audio incorporations on social media are the following:

• Podcasts that cover your business’s niche audience
• Audio-tweet on Twitter
• Record clients’ interviews and testimonials
• Record interviews and audio messages from the company’s executives and key persons

Implement Content Calendars for Social Media and Multi-Profile Scheduling

When creating a social media strategy, it is highly important to use content calendars that will help you organize the content that is supposed to be published on a specific date and at a particular time. Companies need to implement the content calendars for social media in order to get a better preview of the work ahead and to know when to schedule a specific post. 

Part of the preparations for an excellent strategy for social media marketing is to save time on posting the same post on different social media platforms. For that reason, companies are encouraged to use programs or apps that provide them with the option of multi-profile scheduling. Those programs on the internet may be used for scheduling posts at the same time on multiple numbers of social media profiles.

There are also tools that help companies schedule posts for an entire month ahead by only dedicating a few hours at the beginning of each month. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t carefully keep track of what is going on your social media channels. On the contrary – online communication between your company and your customers requires attention and care, thus appointing a dedicated person to monitor and manage your social media is crucial. 

Tell us which of these tips you find most useful for improving your social media marketing strategy. 

Sources:

postcron.com/en/blog/18-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

blog.hootsuite.com/ways-to-improve-your-social-media-profiles/

forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/04/07/12-ways-small-businesses-can-improve-their-social-media-presence/#1cc2fd0a33e6

entrepreneur.com/article/311384

awwwards.com/20-websites-that-play-with-audio-and-music.html

docs.later.com/scheduling-with-later/schedule-one-post-to-multiple-social-profiles

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