From brackets and buzzer-beaters to “Cinderella stories” and stunning upsets, even for casual fans it can be difficult not to get caught up in the frenzy of March Madness. And while Team Scooter Media may not exactly be hardened experts when it comes to the hardwood court, we do know our stuff when it comes to scoring a slam dunk on social media.
With that in mind, here are six quick “insider tips” that will help you get ahead of the competition and create social media content that scores with fans of your brand:
1. Start Using Facebook Stories
Although they’ve been around since 2017, the Stories feature on Facebook tends to “ride the bench” and is often overlooked by social media pros, who usually make Instagram Stories the star player of their campaigns. However, recent data from our friends at Hootsuite shows that a whopping 500 million people utilize Facebook Stories every day.
While your social media content will likely need to be adapted in order to take advantage of this feature, the simple fact of the matter is that Facebook Stories have the distinct advantage of appearing at the top of the News Feed — giving you a direct line toward attracting attention and outpacing your competitors.
2. Utilize Canva Video
While most brands understand the importance of utilizing video content for social media, historically video has been the most difficult medium to implement due to factors such as time, cost, and available resources. However, all of that is changing with the introduction of one of the newest MVPs for social media pros: Canva Video.
With the help of a user-friendly interface and simple drag-and-drop tools, Canva makes it easier than ever to create video content, even if you don’t consider yourself an editing whiz. Give it a try for yourself, then check out our YouTube channel for a few more tips on how to make sure your videos are prepared to make a full-court press.
3. Stay on Top of TikTok Trends
Since exploding in popularity at the beginning of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok has not only become a social media all-star in its own right, but also one whose influence has spilled over into the types of content that perform well on other channels such as Facebook and Instagram.
Social media pros would who haven’t yet started experimenting with the platform would do well to take a few minutes each week to check out what’s trending on TikTok and see if there are any easy alley-oops that can be adapted for their own brand’s purposes.
4. Advance Your Game with Snapchat Ads
While Snapchat can be a difficult platform to utilize for social media marketing purposes, if the channel’s key demographics are a good match-up for your brand, it’s worth trying out some of the newest ad formats the company has recently rolled out, including artificial reality (AR) lenses and “dynamic ads” that can help your brand come alive in new ways. (By the way, don’t be afraid to “double dribble” and try a few of these new formats at the same time!)
5. Let Team Spirit Shine on LinkedIn
Have you noticed lower reach on your brand’s LinkedIn posts? If so, that’s because you may not be tapping into your most engaged audience of all: your employees.
The next time you publish a post on the networking platform, don’t be afraid to ask for the assist by clicking the “Notify Employees” button, which will encourage all employees who are part of your organization to interact with the post. It’s like scoring extra engagement from the free-throw line!
6. Try Linkless Tweets
In a recent experiment done by Hootsuite, experts found that tweets without a link or picture have actually gotten higher engagement. While this goes against the basic tenets of strategy followed by most social media pros, it seems as though tweets loaded with pictures and CTAs (call-to-actions) may be causing sensory overload; at the end of the day, Twitter users are much more likely to engage with tweets that show off your brand’s personality in a conversational way.
Of course, given that conversation is what social media is about, this point proves that sometimes it’s the simplest strategies of all that can make the difference in scoring that game-winning point. Whether you try out a few or all of these social media insider tips, they’re sure to take your playbook to the next level!
Scooter Media is your top teammate when it comes to stepping up your social media game. While you’re here, read up on “The State of Social Media in 2021,” then check out “5 Strategies to Make Social Media Content More Inclusive.”
