Five Key Social Media Trends for 2022 – Part Five

By: Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect

In this five-part series, we are taking a look at the 2022 social trends from Hootsuite. The final macro trend for 2022 is the customer care trend.

The Customer Care Trend

Social marketers rescue their brands from the customer service apocalypse

Spurred on by lockdowns and chaotic shifts in business operations, we’ve seen social marketers take on more responsibility for managing an influx of customer service inquiries.

Social has become the front line of this crisis

Consumers, fed up with waiting on hold, have discovered that service delivered via social is immediate, convenient, and effective. In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they now prefer to message rather than call a business. The pressure on businesses to adapt to as many digital customer service channels as possible is sky high.

According to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels by 2023. Consumer expectations are mounting. Demand for integrating customer care channels is increasing—and social is where that pressure is peaking.

Most organizations are not ready to deliver customer care on social.

Despite a rise in demand, many organizations aren’t well positioned to deliver effective customer care over social media…at least not yet. Our internal data from research conducted in July 2021 tells us that 71% of organizations have either not started investing in social customer care yet, or they don’t plan to invest in it at all.

In 2022, business leaders will look to social marketers to take a greater role in customer care. Pioneering social marketers will break from their departmental silos to build deeper inroads with customer service teams and take more agency in delivering customer care.

What do you think about these five trends and where does Social Media rank in your marketing priorities for 2022?

 

Did you miss one of the first four trends?

Five Key Social Media Trends for 2022 – Part One

Five Key Social Media Trends for 2022 – Part Two

Five Key Social Media Trends for 2022 – Part Three

Five Key Social Media Trends for 2022 – Part Four

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Even During a Pandemic, Influencers in the Trades Build On: Part One

by Andrew Poulsen, Content Engineer, Sonnhalter

With the stress and anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic constantly looming, finding silver linings throughout this situation isn’t always easy. But with millions stuck at home with their phones acting as their main source of entertainment and social interaction, influencers and content creators in the trades have been able to use this time as an opportunity to expand their audiences, connect and engage with their online communities and use their platforms to spread messages of positivity and encouragement. One of the leaders in this online community of DIYers and woodworkers is Rob Rein of Ginger Woodworks. Based in Grand Island, New York, located north of Buffalo and south of Niagara Falls, Rob is a full-time social worker during the day and a practicing woodworker and DIYer to his nearly 80,000 Instagram followers during all the hours in between. Sonnhalter spoke with Rob to learn more about how the pandemic has affected and influenced him, his content and his online community at large.

Courtesy of : @gingerwoodworks

Sonnhalter: When the pandemic crisis began in the U.S., how did you initially respond?

Rob Rein, Ginger Woodworks: Initially, I saw it as, “How are we going to balance this new routine, but also be productive?” So, I went out and bought all the supplies I needed to finish all the projects in the house. All of us have projects we get into and they get left behind because the next project happens and it all just snowballs. We grabbed everything for some projects we needed to finish and had a staged setup ready to go. I wasn’t going to let the time be wasted.

Have there been any unexpected benefits or positive experiences with your time at home?

With my kids, they are always busy, but with all that stuff no longer happening, I’ve been able to include my kids into my work. My oldest, he’s learned electrical in one month. He’s been wiring the outlets at my in-law’s house. We showed him over the last couple weeks how to do the outlets, and now he’s replacing all the outlets in the house. Those are the wins. It’s good to remind folks that you have an opportunity to pass skills onto your kids who otherwise would be too busy. My wife and I are taking the opportunity to help our kids come out of this with actual life skills.

With everyone being stuck at home, did you see an increase in your social media engagement?

I have noticed that [likes and views] are probably up 20-30% from before. You have outliers, like a video or post that speaks to the community. You really have to make content that is a three-headed monster. It has to be a quality post, have quality writing and it has to engage people. Sometimes, you post something and don’t realize that people give a crap about it. For instance, I got these nail pullers. I could post a video of these and show people how to use them and it could flop. But I would take a chance on that, because it’s possible that a lot of people right now are doing home renovations or some kind of demo. All of a sudden, I get 74 comments that say, “Man I wish I would’ve had these last week,” or “Man, I’m gonna need that.” (more…)

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Getting the Most Out of Your Company’s Instagram Account (Part 2)

By Andrew Poulsen, Content Engineer, Sonnhalter

Last summer, we published a blog that outlined some of the best practices for running an Instagram account for your company. Since then, Instagram has grown to be arguably the most useful social media tool for the trades. If you’re still new to Instagram, we encourage you to go back and read the blog and some of the basics for getting your account started. Say you’ve set everything up, posted some cool product shots, gained a respectable number of followers and have a pretty good understanding for how the app functions. The next step is to take advantage of some of Instagram’s more advanced features and strategies that can improve your ROI, grow your number of followers and increase your brand’s visibility. Here are a few things to consider incorporating into your Instagram strategy moving forward.

Influencer Marketing

One of the fastest-growing marketing strategies on social media, particularly Instagram, is what’s known as “influencer marketing.” Influencer marketing is when brands collaborate with opinion leaders in an online community, known as “influencers,” to create content that endorses a product. This collaboration is typically done for a monetary fee, free products or a combination of both. What that content looks like varies between influencers and is usually negotiable. Content can range from a static shot of the product with a written review, to photos or videos of the product being used in the field or for building something in a workshop.

Finding the right influencers in your target audience can build credibility by using a trusted source in the community and, thus, increase sales. Like the online forums of the past, professional tradesmen use Instagram to be a part of a bigger community within their trade, and these influencers are often considered leaders within these communities whose word matters. Ingratiating yourselves with these influencers can go a long way in terms of improving brand recognition within these targeted groups. (more…)

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How Effective is Your Social Media Strategy in Reaching the Professional Tradesman?

By Andrew Poulsen, Content Engineer, Sonnhalter

Social media has been an essential cog in every consumer brand’s marketing machine for more than a decade, but manufacturers in the trade industries have been slow to embrace the many marketing advantages that come with social media. I believe this comes from the perception that social media had originally only targeted the younger generations, and with the average age of the professional tradesmen skewing higher and higher, these manufacturers felt more comfortable using more traditional methods with their marketing dollars.

However, with Facebook and Twitter both grossing hundreds of millions of users, it quickly became clear that almost any brand had customers and prospective customers on these platforms. While many companies in the trades have adapted and are actively using Facebook and Twitter to connect and engage with its audience, there are plenty of other digital and social platforms whose features can be useful to companies in these industries. And with only so much time, effort and money available, brands should examine all of these platforms and their potential and effectiveness in reaching the professional tradesman.

Here is a rundown of some of the most popular social and digital tools out there, how they help reach the professional tradesman and how well they do it.

Facebook

Despite its well-documented PR hiccups, Facebook still casts a wider net than any other social media network…for now. Facebook has more than two billion users, and there are more than 65 million businesses using Facebook Pages. Because of the sheer volume of users, every company should be on Facebook to regularly promote new products, announce trade show appearances, share positive media coverage and company news, etc. (more…)

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How to Repurpose Content for Contractors

by Matt Sonnhalter, Vision Architect, Sonnhalter

For those of you who might be looking for ways to generate more awareness and conversations, generating new content may not be your only option. It makes sense to use other social media outlets as a way to get your existing messages out.

To achieve higher reader engagement you need to know your audience, their habits and pain points. Different social media outlets reach people differently. So whether you’re looking to repurpose existing data or convert outdated info, consider delivering them in smaller bite size pieces using alternative avenues.

Looking for ideas on how to do this? This article in Social Media Examiner, “19 Tools to Create Social Media Content,” shows you ways to repackage existing material and use other social media outlets to get the message out. They outline several ways and give examples of tools to use.

Here are some highlights that I think manufacturers could use in reaching the professional tradesman:

Present your business via video. Tell your story, not the corporate one, but the one that talks about ways to come up with solutions to help contractors do their jobs better.

Use infographics. They are 30 times more likely to be read than pure text. People like visuals and are more likely to share them.

Convert long form content into slides. Use existing presentations and break them up into smaller groups. You can use them as PowerPoint presentations or there are programs that will easily allow you to incorporate animation.

Use podcasts to share your voice. Podcasts are one of the fastest growing mediums for social media and it comes as no surprise. Interview contractors and talk about the newest technologies. I’m sure you can come up with a multitude of topics to cover.

 

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