Social Media Training for your Business in 2016
Social media, whether you like it or not, is an integral part of the internet that’s shaping our online experiences and helping us to plan how we spend our time and money. Don’t ignore it and be left behind.
Forecasted Social Media Trends for 2016
- The ‘smart money rests on mobile-focused online marketing’ says Jayson Demers, for Forbes. Mobile will completely dominate the desktop computer; this year Google announced that for the first time, mobile traffic overtook desktop in 10 different countries, the UK included. Their ‘Mobilegeddon’ algorithm update aims to phase out sites that are not optimised for mobile from their search results.
- The need for good content will not slow down, especially visual content. The speed at which you can create great content will play a huge part in your online success.
- eCommerce referrals from social media platforms has increased by 200% between 2014 – 2015. Social media now plays the biggest role in getting referral traffic than any other medium.
- Video Advertising will dominate social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 4 billion videos are viewed a day on YouTube – that’s the equivalent of more than half the world’s population watching one YouTube video every day.
- Competition in online marketing has dramatically increased in 2015 and this will continue into 2016, but as demand increases so will the price. While online advertising is still cheaper than most traditional marketing, expect to see some changes in pricing structure.
Last Christmas
Christmas 2014 saw online retailing account for a quarter of all Christmas spending – this totalled £17.37 billion for the UK economy. It was also found that 30% of Christmas shopping was done on mobile phones totalling £5.18 billion in sales.
“Social Media has taken the step from passive marketing platform to direct sales machine” Digital Visitor
Why is mobile dominating? Probably because it is more convenient. Often mobile website platforms are far more easily navigated then a traditional desktop website, which can be cumbersome in comparison. We are creatures of habit, so once something works well for us once, twice, three times, we convert to that approach every time after. Considering how Google are placing more focus on promoting mobile optimised websites, because they know that that is what most people are using as their mode of technology, you can’t ignore the fact that your business is going to have to have a mobile optimised website in 2016. Research has also shown that users are 35% more likely to share your brand profile on mobile than they are on desktop.
Pinterest, as an example, is the leader in Retail conversion, with 10% of Pinterest users more likely to buy a product featured on this platform than any other social media platform. Conversion rates are 50% higher with Pinterest than other social media, and Pinterest users spend twice as much money on items found on Pinterest then other social media sites. 60% of referral traffic to home furnishing businesses came from social traffic in 2015.
But the headline stat for Pinterest is that 87% of Pinterest users (85% of which are women) made a purchase after seeing a product they liked on the platform – 87%! To back this trend up, Shopify announced that 85% of eCommerce orders come from social media, mainly Facebook – 85%! These are not figures you should ignore if you are in the retail business.
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that video will become more crucial to advertising success. We have been brought up on television advertising most of our lives, so why wouldn’t that be effective on digital platforms? The really forward thinking businesses will want to tap into this medium fast, before the digital space becomes crowded with video advertising. Take the opportunity now to stand out from the crowd.
If the price of social advertising is going to increase, relatively, then businesses need to know that what they spend is going to give them the return they want. All the more reason to either make sure you have the right people with the right knowledge in place to create effective social advertising campaigns, or you make sure they are trained to deliver effective advertising. Don’t waste your time and money by not tapping into the knowledge resource on your doorstep.
So what can you do to make sure your business doesn’t lose out in 2016?
The short answer – get someone with the knowledge to develop your social media marketing and to train up your existing staff so they can acquire the knowledge to be successful social media marketers.
In the same way that you wouldn’t expect an employee without graphic design knowledge to design your logo or your next newspaper advert, you can’t expect people without knowledge of social media marketing, or marketing for that matter, to run a successful social media or digital marketing strategy.
Training is essential to the success and achievements of any business, and the benefit of training your staff is that your business ends up with better employees.
Tap into the Social Media Mind-set with Tuminds
At Tuminds Social Media we pride ourselves on getting our clients into the ‘social media mind-set’. In order to be successful on social you need to think social, and this is what we train you in. Of course we teach you how to do it, how to use the technology and to understand the practical aspects of social media marketing, but just because you know how to do it, doesn’t necessarily mean you can do it well.
That’s where you need to tap into the mind-set of marketing and social marketing, which is what we, at Tuminds, do every day; we live, sleep, breathe, eat and talk Social Media every day.
Unlike other companies who provide social media training as part of a wider marketing, digital marketing or PR offer, Tuminds is an expert in Social Media exclusively. Of course we understand how digital media, traditional marketing and PR fits into your overall marketing strategy, but our focus is social – which is what makes us experts at what we do.
Start Your Training Now
Tuminds will be running a series of open-to-all training workshops in 2016 from Beginner sessions to Masterclasses, and for this year we want to take your social media strategy to the next level.
We’ll be focusing on how to develop content for your business, how to run successful social advertising campaigns, how to identify and target the right customers and audiences online, understanding and using social analytics and social metrics, social media and mobile-optimisation, and much, much more.
We also run sector specific workshops and training sessions, so whether you operate in the tourism, entertainments, finance, food & drink, construction, energy, community, retail, manufacturing, education, technology, media, life sciences or creative industries we can run relevant workshops that give you a real insight into how your sector is using social media and how you can get in on the game too.
Introductory and beginner workshops will still be available throughout the year, so if you are only just joining the social media marketing world, don’t worry, we can guide you through those initial first steps to help de-mystify the world of social media.
Email us at [email protected] if you would like to added to our training opportunities mailing list.
In the meantime
Take part in our Tuminds Training Survey to help us tailor our 2016 training programme to meet your needs. It won’t take long – between 5 and 10 minutes – all answers are kept anonymously and we would be incredibly grateful for your feedback.
We want to provide businesses here in Scotland, with the right tools, the right knowledge and the right mind-set to be truly successful with Social Media Marketing, and to do that we need to know what your expectations and needs, as you see it now, are.
