The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 28: Dec/Jan 2016/17 | Page 28

CREATIVE THINKING

GET YOUR BUSINESS SOCIAL MEDIA
READY FOR 2017
Naturally Social’s Natalie Luckham gives us her top tips for making
sure your social media is ready to make the right impression and
impact for your business in the year ahead.
1. AUDIT YOUR PROFILES.
Do you have pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
and Linkedin because someone told you that’s what
you needed? It’s likely that most of these are probably
lying dormant, with out of date information and under
utilised features. This is a good time for you to be honest
about what you have time to do. Pick what you’re most
comfortable with and are currently having the most success
with, then delete the others. There really is no benefit to
you having inactive accounts everywhere. Then, spend a
couple of hours updating your cover pictures and profile
images, refreshing your pinned posts, completing your
account descriptions and biographies and adding your
website address.
2. MAKE A CONTENT CALENDAR.
Benefit from some quiet time after the festive period
and plot the key events for the year ahead. Include local
and national holidays relevant to your brand or business,
industry events, awareness weeks or days, conferences
and events you’re attending or offers you’re putting on.

Entering this into a calendar and reviewing once a month
is a great way to always be thinking about what you’ll be
talking about on social media that month.
3. INVEST!
If social media scares you or you don’t know your hashtag
from your mention it will be more cost effective, and
quicker in the long run if you seek professional support
and training to bring you up to speed. You might not know
where to start in terms of what channel to pick (and trust
me - not every business needs to have a Facebook page!)
and a professional should be able to make sure you get
set up in the right places based on where your audience
is, while at the same time understanding your resource
pressures.
T: 07730 872 575

For more info:
www.naturallysocial.co.uk

@Nlysocial

2017 Digital Marketing Predictions
Social media moves fast. Just as you’ve
wrapped your head around a set of
features or developed a great new
marketing tactic, the rules change.
Looking back at the recent developments
can help us work out what to expect in the
future. Here are some predictions for social
media trends in 2017 from David Bolton at
Corsham-based Inbound Digital Marketing
agency Tain Brae Digital.
1. Brands Will Shift Focus Towards
Messaging Apps more users are retreating
from traditional social media networks and
moving to messenger apps. The rise of
Facebook Messenger, Slack, and WhatsApp
speaks to this transition.
By the end of 2017, we’ll see many more
brands adopt branded Slack channels,
sell via WhatsApp and, eventually, utilise
sophisticated chatbots on Facebook.
2. Video Will Reign Supreme according
to Syndacast, 74 percent of all traffic will be
video in 2017. Social video platforms like
Facebook are riding the tide and optimising
feeds to improve the viewing experience.
Having more videos also improves SEO, as
Google—which owns YouTube—favours
them in search results. So get your cameras
out and start filming.
3. Users Will Crave More Vicarious
Experiences people are also starting to
demand social media as a conduit for more
vicarious experiences. It’s no longer enough
to post your sentiments about an event; you

28

THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2016

have to show your users what it’s like to be
there. You can do this with things like live
video, 360 images and video, and even just
more real-time posting. The idea is to make
your users feel like they’re a genuine part of
the experience, as it’s unfolding.
4. Personalisation becoming a priority
as tools have become smarter and people’s
resistance to general advertising grows
higher the need for personalised and
relevant content and advertising delivery
becomes more important.
Facebook re-targeting and adverts driven
by identifying where you have been on
the web and your interests are becoming
the digital advertising tactic of choice for
campaigns. It delivers relevant content that
converts at a much higher rate.
5. Automation moves to mainstream
Digital marketing automation can provide
the data and the tools to send the right
content at the right time to the right
customer. Apps like Marketo, Hubspot,
InTouch CRM and other marketing
automation software platforms are now
essential tools for any company.
If you need help generating more leads
and automating your follow up then request
your FREE Inbound Marketing Assessment
here www.tainbraedigital.co.uk/inboundmarketing-assessment

Creative solutions for brand, print & digital marketing

Juicy Designs is a creative design agency and we’re passionate about
crafting effective communication solutions for our clients. With over 25
years industry know-how, working with lots of exciting clients both large
and small, we have the expertise to help you communicate and engage
with your customers.
Let us help you make your brand shine.
For a fresh perspective, please get in touch:
01367 820 929

www.juicy-designs.com