As we enter a new decade, it’s a good time to look back at all the great work you’ve done and the successes you’ve had over the last few years. Now is also the time to start looking ahead at what else you can achieve. How can you take the next step in your digital strategy? How can you challenge your company to do more in the new year?
To help get you started, here are five challenges for your social media channels in 2020. Don’t forget to let us know if you’re taking on any of these challenges in your office!
1. Try something new
It can be easy when you know what works on social media to play it safe. You stick to the same kinds of content, speak to the same group of people and don’t rock the boat too much. Whilst you might be seeing consistent levels of engagement, there’s always an opportunity to reach more or different groups of people if you try something new. So for 2020 we challenge you to take some risks, make some bold choices and try something new. It’s suggested that you spend 20% of you time creating and innovating in digital marketing.
One organisation who did just that this year was Essex County Council who made a commitment to put more time into supporting and working with community Facebook groups which had more people following them than their own channels. It was definitely a bold choice to do this but has been paying off.
2. Be more social
The social of social media can often become an afterthought or forgotten completely, especially in organisations without much online customer service to worry about. So how can you challenge yourself to be more social online in 2020? Look for opportunities to ask more questions, create polls and set up Q&As. You can also search for conversations to join, whether it be trending topics, keywords related to your organisation or seeing what people you follow are up to.
Don’t forget you can create fun conversations with other brands too. We loved this light-hearted message from Aldi to John Lewis over their Christmas adverts and from looking at the comments, their customers enjoyed it too.
3. Don’t be afraid of what-ifs
It can be scary sometimes to stick your head above the parapet on social media and speak out about something. Knowing you may receive negativity can often be the thing stopping you from speaking up. It’s also important to not let the possibility of failure stop you from trying new things and experimenting with your social media strategy. Not everything is going to work, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
London Northwestern have recently taken this idea on board and have begun sharing daily updates of their performance and the cause of train delays. Sharing this information may increase the number of angry tweets they get in response but it means they can be open and transparent in their communications. People might not like the delays, but they will appreciate the honesty.
?We want to be more open about delays.
From today, we’ll post a daily update on how we’ve performed & cause of delays. From next week, we’ll also have a daily ‘blog’, explaining what happened, how we reacted & any lessons learned.
We hope you find it useful ?#keepingtrack
— London Northwestern Railway (@LNRailway) December 5, 2019
4. Tell more stories
Some of the most engaging and best shared content online over the last twelve months have been stories. Real stories of strange interactions, emotional moments and humorous escapades are fun to share with friends and audiences often respond with their own similar tales. It’s what makes social media so great. This is particularly the case on Twitter where threads have made it easier to tell longer stories. So how can you tell more stories in 2020? Who in your organisation has an interesting background? What customer testimonials have been particularly poignant?
The Museum of English Rural Life are well known for their storytelling on Twitter. Their use of threads to pace their story and tell an engaging narrative is particularly strong. check out the story of the bat and the story of the second hand book to see how they do it.
We’ve also written some advice on telling stories with Instagram Stories which might be of use if you’re taking this challenge on.
5. Share what you know
Very often you may be the only one responsible for the organisation’s social media, or part of a small team. That can leave a lot of your colleagues on the outside, confused by what you do and possibly even feeling intimidated by it all. If senior staff don’t understand your role, it makes it harder for them to support your work.
Not only is it great to share knowledge and build confidence in a subject many people still find confusing, it will help you do your job better if your colleagues understand what it is you do. You might also find they are able to provide you with more suitable content and ideas for your social media channels. Challenge yourself to share what you know with others and level the playing field.
One organisation who has committed to this is the Church of England who have trained up thousands of church staff and volunteers in digital communications through regular in person training and online blogs. They were able to help churches to understand the importance of social media and give them the tools to communicate with their local communities in new ways.
Our Social Media Training day with the @churchofengland digital team is underway – we’re looking forward to hearing more about ways our churches can engage with their audiences online. pic.twitter.com/cbIrBdjV2o
— Southwark Diocese (@SouthwarkCofE) November 7, 2019
Looking for digital news and tips that you can share with your colleagues? Try our monthly helpful links which includes all sorts of interesting blogs, articles and case studies. Keep an eye out for them in 2020!