Social Media (and Marketing) Manifesto 2020

New year, new things to look forward to (look back at our ‘predictions’ for 2019)

1. Create for quality (not for algorithms)
2. Don’t forget your audience (they’re always evolving)
3. Bring back truth and honesty (don’t just jump onto trend bandwagons)
4. Influencers can go to hell (not all influencers are built the same)
5. Digital commerce will rise (but eventually cash is (still) king)
6. Being human is good (and surprising)
7. Scaling isn’t for you (concentrate on what’s actually important)

That’s it, just 7 things to keep in mind as we tackle digital marketing in 2020! Some of these we’ve been talking about for some time already, and we might still be early on a few of these things. But have these in mind, and you’ll do well. Good luck!

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Create for quality (not for algorithms)

Good content wins. Always.

While many marketers focus on what the algorithm dictates, they end up worrying about the things that give them an edge (length of videos for example) and forget what really matters — good content!

Tapping into viral trends can be good, but the benefits are limited, and it’s difficult to actually see great results. Adding to that, unless you have a full team of marketers, it’s impossible to dedicate enough energy to make it work, it would be more beneficial to focus on other things instead.

Good content still works, it always will. If you’re creating good value, people will pay attention. Videos that are 20+ mins on YouTube? They work if the content is good (and not full of ads)!

Don’t forget your audience (they’re always evolving)

Who are you creating for, and what do they want? Are you creating value for them? If not, of course, they don’t care!

Are you designing content that is meant to be scrolled past, or are you engaging them? On Instagram, 99% of the content is meant to be quickly scrolled past (look at what competitors are doing) and hoping for maybe a quick like.

Create content for a reason — provide value. You can measure this (in Instagram) not by the reach or number of likes, but by the number of comments, DMs or saves that you get. Design for this (like this), and you’ll do well.

Bring back truth and honesty (don’t just jump onto trend bandwagons)

Social Entrepreneurship — everybody is talking about this now (a few years ago it was blockchain). Most companies, however, have no interest in it, it’s just a marketing message to attract a certain audience (or get a good grant). This is infuriating for various (obvious) reasons.

Be honest, be who you are (and what your company cares about). Your company is like a person, you can only like so many things (and if you like EVERYTHING, you’re likely not very interesting).

Marketing is what other people tell other people your brand is. And if they associate your brand with spammy influencers, something has gone very wrong.

You don’t NEED to appeal to everyone to be successful, you just need to find your core fans (people who care about what you care about). Be yourself, be generous.

Influencers can go to hell (not all influencers are built the same)

Most influencers are garbage. It’s actually easy to understand why. Outside of traditional influencers (actors and athletes who both have management), most modern-day influencers got a following by chance (not by design) or by cheating (buying fans). As a result, new-age influencers don’t know how to help your brand (as many are in it for selfish reasons).

For a few years, there was an advantage with working with smaller, micro-influencers. Those days have come to an end as 1) they are used too often and 2) they are losing trust with their own followers.

There are of course good influencers to work with — a few things to consider: 1) what is the demographic makeup of their fanbase? 2) do their followers engage with their content; 3) how often do they work with brands? 4) do they actually use your product?

Digital commerce will rise (but eventually cash is (still) king)

Everybody has a payment system now — and they’re great, they make life a lot easier! It’s important, however, to consider whether customers are coming to you because of all the ways you accept payment or because your product is worth paying for?

When your counter space is just filled with all the varieties of payment methods, something is wrong. There are other things that are more important than having one more payment system (that may account for <5% of your sales). Diner’s Club? For years this was available in only select places, and restaurants did not fail because they didn’t accept them.

The other thing to consider here is that there will inevitably be some data leakage at some point. Trust is going to leave digital commerce and people will revert to cash (also because it’s TOO easy to spend money right now, there’s a huge detachment on spending money).

Cash will make a comeback, it might take a while, it might even become a trend, but it will eventually happen.

Being human is good (and surprising)

Human interaction has become very rare. Even in restaurants, we are encountering more and more robots, as business owners are looking to become more efficient. Good customer support is, therefore, harder and harder to find.

An easy way to stand out is by having great customer support! While everyone is toying with chatbots, have actual people talking to your customers (and don’t outsource it). It may seem like a lot of work, but take a bigger picture look at the situation — very likely you’re not even getting that many responses on a daily/weekly basis.

Marketing extends to the way you answer emails or the vocabulary you use. If you want to be a brand that cares about its customers, you have to make that the case. Being human and having real human interactions, sends a clear message to your customers about what your brand is about.

(If you’re a very large company, this might not make a lot of sense, but most companies are small.)

Scaling isn’t for you (concentrate on what’s actually important)

Scale only when you need to. Everyone likes to get ahead of themselves, dreaming of running big companies, when they should be concentrating on having a business that actually makes money.

Instead of thinking about warehouses and fulfilment services, concentrate on making the sales! You don’t need to outsource your work to assistants if you’re only getting 5 emails a day. You don’t need to hire full-time designers when freelancers will do.

It’s the same with marketing. Social media can be great, but it might not be what you need to tackle for the time being (i.e. don’t worry about posting every day, there are better things to be spending your time with).

Yes, in the event that your company becomes profitable and massive, you will need to scale up. But don’t scale up until you actually need to. Concentrate on what’s actually important to your business. Don’t wait until it’s too late.