INSIGHT | The Wood Works
JOSH DELANE, THE WOOD WORKS
Understanding the shifting algorithms
The Wood Works’ director considers the changing ways that retailers can engage with social media marketing in 2024 and gives his advice about how they can best use each of the various platforms to promote their business in the right way
I
n the ever-changing social media marketing landscape, there are currently a handful of crucial platforms. Across them all, it’s key to tailor your message and your content (be it photo or video) to the specific platform. But as we head into 2024, you simply can’t be all present on all channels, all of the time. So, where should you focus your energy? This will ultimately be driven by who you do business with. If you’re predominantly a B2B supplier, you should focus most of your efforts on LinkedIn. However, if you sell direct to the public, Instagram and TikTok are going to be your best bet. Right off the bat, Twitter (or X) can be ruled out as a KBB platform. What we do is a visual art and you’d really struggle describing an appealing kitchen in 290 characters or less.
LinkedIn There is simply no greater platform for B2B companies than LinkedIn. It’s where your prospects hang out most of the time and where they’re most likely to see your content. When LinkedIn shifted to a content-based platform, it meant there were more content consumers than producers, which is still the case. This means that every post you make has a higher chance of going viral and reaching the masses. Video content is currently favoured on LinkedIn and tends to outperform media like text or still images. If you worked with a specific developer or supplier on a project, tag them in your post. Individuals work better than companies, in this case. For example, If I post a photo of a kitchen with a Quooker tap in and tagged MD Stephen Johnson, not only will my whole network see that post, but if he engages with it, so will his. Also, it’s good to always post from your personal account. When people see posts from companies, they often tune out.
Post a few videos per week. Tap into the analytics, see what works and what doesn’t, then tweak your plan from there
Set your personal profile to a ‘creator account’ and choose five hashtags of things you’re going to be speaking about. With every post, you’ll want to add these five hashtags – you’ll get between a 10-15% uplift in reach as a result.
Instagram
Once a simple photo-sharing platform, Instagram is now pushing short-form video content to compete with TikTok. These days, It’s extremely unlikely you’ll be able to post a photo with some hashtags and reach significantly more people than your existing followers. You can still use still image posts as a polished showcase of your work, but you’ll want to focus your time and effort on Instagram Reels.
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SHORT-FORM
Reels are short-form videos that push creators to massive audiences to encourage them to make more video content. Attention spans are shorter now. You’ll want to produce short-form videos that are snappy and quick. Try changing frames every three seconds so that the clip isn’t stale. Also, when you upload a reel, scroll down
just before posting and click on ‘Topics’. Choose three topics that best describe your video. This helps the algorithm find the right audience for your video and should help increase the number of people that will see it.
TikTok
Last but not least is the baby of the group. TikTok is a short-form video powerhouse with interest at the core of its algorithm. It shows you more videos that you’re interested in, and learns from how you interact with the app. This differs from old-school Instagram, which worked by showing you images of friends, and their larger extended network. This is changing the whole landscape of social media, and is why a single TikTok video can get millions of views overnight. Short-form video is all you should post on TikTok. Similarly to Instagram reels, you’ll want to produce short and snappy videos that hook users and get them to watch until the end. Go to the search bar and search for a topic, such as ‘kitchen design’. Filter and sort the responses by ‘Like Count’ and ‘Last 3 months’. You’ll see the best performing videos for that search term and start to get ideas for your own content. Retailers, get your existing marketing person to start playing around with short-form video. You learn by doing, so try to post at least a few videos a week. Tap into the analytics, see what works and what doesn’t, then tweak from there. Alternatively, hire a creator to do this for you. You could either have them in-house or work with a marketing agency that does this sort of thing all day long.
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• December 2023
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