Read our most up-to-date post for March 2023.
Every month, we’re sharing bite-size summaries of the top social media trends, best practices and ideas we’ve come across. These are based both on our own experience working with our clients, and from what we’ve been finding around the web.
See if these tips for March 2022 can help you improve your social media strategy. Just be sure to always test before changing your strategy entirely, as not every approach works for every type of account.
Want even more social media tips and tricks? Check out our May 2022, April 2022, and other monthly roundups.
1. Social media news: Catch up on the latest platform updates
Stay up to date with the latest social media platform news and developments for March 2022:
- Instagram rolls out private Story likes.
- Facebook launches Facebook Reels globally.
- Snapchat are rolling out mid-roll ads in Stories for creators.
- Reddit announced a new Discovery tab, as well as image editing tools and a new full-screen video player for Android, moving the platform one step closer to other social media platforms’ offerings.
- Twitter’s top emoji is once again 😂 tears of joy, beating 😭 loudly crying face to take back the top spot.
- Pinterest introduces AR try-on technology for home decor, that enables users to virtually place items in their homes before they buy.
- Q4 2021 results: Twitter added 6 million users, Snapchat added 13 million daily active users, while Pinterest’s and (for the first time ever) Facebook’s number of daily active users dropped.
2. Social media tip: Post “virtue” content in the morning, and “vice” content in the evening.
Social media managers are always on the lookout for the best time to post on social media. But recently published research by the Rutgers School of Business reveals that the answer could depend on the type of content you’re posting.
After analyzing more than 7 million Twitter likes and 100,000 Twitter follows, the researchers found that, to receive the highest engagement on social media, you should:
- Post “virtue” (educational) content, such as news, the latest research, or how-to guides, in the morning.
- Post “vice” (entertainment) content, such as memes, sales, or celebrity gossip, towards the evening.
- This also applies on weekends, and for topics that are not related to work.
The report suggests that this is because our self-control declines during the day. And when self-control is lower, we look for immediate gratification over long-term benefits.
3. Social media benchmarks: How do you stack up against other brands?
Rival IQ just released their 2022 social media industry benchmark report. The report breaks down the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram metrics of thousands of brands across 14 industries. It also includes insights about how metrics have changed over the years, as well as tips to optimize your strategy.
These were the report’s main takeaways on how brands are performing on social media:
- Brands are seeing less organic engagement.
- Posting frequency is increasing.
- Brands post most frequently on Facebook.
- Instagram consistently sees low posting volume and high engagement rates.
- Contests, giveaways and holidays are the top-performing hashtags.
- Every brand should post carousels on Instagram to increase engagement.
- Brands are already struggling to keep up with enough video content.
Which industry has the highest social media engagement and activity rates?
According to the report, sports teams came out on top with the highest Facebook and Twitter engagement rates, and second highest Instagram engagement rate. They also had the highest Instagram activity and second highest Twitter activity.
The media industry leads the way when it came to activity, with the highest Facebook and Twitter activity and second highest Instagram activity. While higher education organizations benefited from the highest Instagram and second highest Twitter engagement rates.
Read the full report for detailed insights into your industry, and to measure your success against your competitors.
4. Social media tip: How to increase web traffic from social media
Is one of your organization’s goals to increase web traffic? See how you can tweak your social media strategy to increase click-throughs to your website with these tips:
- Increase your social media reach and engagement.
- Focus on the social media platform that drives the most web traffic, which for most industries is Facebook.
- Include referral links in your social media bios.
- Add links and CTAs (call to actions) to your posts.
- Adapt your post frequency to work with each platform’s algorithm.
- Share links in social media groups.
- Use content techniques such as creating a hook, appealing to your audience’s FOMO or including a CTA.
- Increase traffic through social media shares.
Read more about each of these tips, alongside examples, in our article on how to drive traffic from social media to your website.
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5. Social media tip: Engage your employees with personalized content
This tip comes from one of our clients, FC Utrecht. The Dutch football club created personalized matchday visuals for each of their players, using their branded template.
The result? Several of their players shared their visual on their own social media accounts, in advance of the match. With players often on the lookout for great content, this extra exposure was a win-win for both the club and its players.
See if you too can create personalized content for your employees, customers, players or other stakeholders, to encourage sharing and increase your brand’s reach.
6. LinkedIn tip: Avoid unsolicited DMs
Social Media Today recently ran two polls on LinkedIn, asking users what annoys them most on the platform. After more than 5,000 votes, “unwanted messages” came out on top.
So while the poll doesn’t reveal how successful such attempts at reaching people are, it’s clear that they are unlikely to be well-received.
7. Social media trend: Build a community
HubSpot’s 2022 survey found that the majority (64%) of marketers are using social media communities. And this looks like a growing trend. 96% of those who already leverage communities plan to invest more. While 30% of those who don’t yet use communities plan to start in 2022.
Communities are a great way to bring your audience closer to your brand. They enable customers to get actively involved with your brand, helping you strengthen your existing relationships and amplifying your messages. Plus, they can help you gather insights into your audience.
And communities are not just for customers or commercial purposes. You can create a community based around different goals and types of audiences, such as partners or even employees (current, past or future).
However, it is worth noting that managing a community (well) often requires a significant time commitment. A community with no recent activity is never a good look. So if you’re interested in starting up your own, make sure you can secure the right resources to consistently engage your audience.
8. Social media content tip: Ideas to fill up your calendar
Stuck on what to add to your social media content calendar? Check out ConversionMinded’s cheat sheet filled with ideas:
Get more social media tips and ideas
- Catch up on the top social media tips for February and January 2022.
- Get inspired by 36 examples of sports social media templates.
- Discover how VIVES/Brugge Business School creates social media visuals 10x faster with our tools.
Plus, follow us on LinkedIn to get our monthly social media best practices and more straight to your feed!
