Lots of companies couldn't rely on foot traffic any more to generate revenue because of the lockdowns and social distancing. This led to huge explosion and demand for digital marketing and social media is one of the best channels for businesses to leverage.

Sprout's Social's 2021 index found that nine out of 10 consumers will buy from brands that they follow on social. 86% will choose that brand over a competitor and 85% will buy from that brand more often. So our competition is expected to grow, so as consumers willingness to use this marketing channel to make buying decisions. You can expect social media to get even more competitive over the coming year.

And as companies start getting better and more competitive in social media marketing, you'll have to compete for attention far more than before.

So here's some things that you can do to compete in a level playing field. According to Sprout Social, there are a few key factors that'll differentiate you from your competition. The first one is, respond to customer service questions in a timely manner. Don't you just hate it when you hit someone up and you have issues and it takes them a few days to get back.

You want a answer right then?

No one wants to wait, even an hour. Time is everything. A lot of social media users are engaging with their brands beyond just following up. You need to demonstrate responsiveness and answer the customers in a timely fashion. Next, demonstrate an understanding of what they want and need.

So what do people want and need? And as you go about creating content, you should keep customers in mind because it's all about servicing them and providing stuff for them.

I'm going to make s'more brownies. And I'm like, this is cool, but is there a demand for it? It may taste good, but if there's not really a demand for it, it won't do well. And it's not about you and your brand. It's about how we can serve your customers and your audience.

Knowing what your potential customers want and need is going to differentiate you from all these brands and other brands that are just churning out content for the sake of highlighting their products, their services, and their own brands. A good way to measure this is by looking at different content pieces and seeing which one gets the most engagement.

Whether it's the format, the message type itself, the content type, whether it's video or text, it's always good to see what stands out and gets more engagement. As you discover the types of content that tend to perform well, just do more of them.

But here's the thing that no one really talks about in marketing. For the ones that don't do well, try them again? Every once in a while, whether it's a few times a year, or once a quarter, test them out again because trends change and people may like them again.

And then if you do that, you'll keep staying ahead of the curve and you'll start doing better. Next, I want you to create more culturally relevant content. So when you create content around some of these moments and events, especially the ones that you want to support and believe in as an organization and as long as, you know, no one's doing anything unethical it's great to support events and different people and cultures.

And what you want to do is leverage them and show that you're there, and if you can do anything that ties your company into them.

And not just leverage them to make financial profit, but leverage them to also help people. That will resonate with them and it'll create a win-win situation, but you should only do it if you truly care. Don't just do something for marketing. Do something because you truly care. You should be listening to what's drawing your audience's attention and create content that resonates with those topics.

This is where, this is the difference between selling and showing up.

Look selling is great, but you want to show up and have that generate sales for you. When it's about your product, it shouldn't just be about, hey, let me go and sell this. It should be about educating and putting things first for others. For example, if you have some cool makeup product and your product helps people not just put on the makeup quicker, but just take it off really quick.

You should be able to show your product in a way that revolves around your customer's problems, their needs and their wants, and not just try to sell to them, but help them solve those problems. One brand that does a fantastic job of this, when it comes to this type of content, is Whole Foods. They invest in visual content in the form of images and videos with their audience with recipes and highlighting factual benefits and different types of foods that they're showcasing. And they're super responsive and engaging with their audience.

So you want to tell people, hey, engage with me. Just like, I'll tell you right now, check out my profile. My Facebook here. Send me a message any time.

And you should be actively engaging with them by answering their comments, their questions, even looking at their profiles and responding and engaging their webs on Instagram or Facebook, or even adding stories or tagging people.

Hope this helps. As always you can check my blog for passive crypto ideas and some affiliate marketing stuff.

Have a great one!