The United States and the rest of the world have been living a pandemic lifestyle for over a year now. In just 365 days marketing and public relations strategies have had to be turned upside down and completely revamped to help businesses stay relevant when the world was staying home.

What Has Changed in the Past Year in Social Media

We have seen an increase in social media events and virtual gatherings and a complete stop to in person events that would jeopardize the health and safety of the host company and guests.

The CMO Survey released a special Covid-19/26th edition to track marketing trends and spending throughout the pandemic and found that Social Media was critical to businesses and their marketing and PR strategies during the pandemic.

Social media spending has increased from 13.3% of marketing budgets in February 2020 to 23.3% in June 2020.

Digital marketing spending has increased over 11% in the past year and is intended to grow another 10% this year!

An interesting find is that Customer Experience ranked #1 across product and service companies over superior product quality, low price, innovation, trusting relationships and excellent service.

72% of marketers reported that the role of marketing has increased during the pandemic. This should also expect to stay increased throughout the 2021 year.

What Does this Mean for Your Company?

All of the facts and figures laid out in the above section all lead to creating a better online marketing strategy.

Take what you’ve learned from the past year, combine it with your traditional marketing and PR strategies and then adapt it to our new way of living. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you do have to take it from stone to rubber. This has been and will be a transformative few years for marketers and public relations firms with people utilizing the internet more and more every day.

What this Means for Social Media

Social media will be your biggest aid this year in connecting with customers. With the launch of TikTok, Instagram Reels and the tried and true platforms of Facebook and Twitter, you can reach your target market in creative and innovative ways that catch their attention.

What You Should Focus On

Stand Out. You only have seconds to draw them in so you need to stand out and be unique.

Be consistent. Post fresh different content at least 3 times a week. Share a quote, promote a specific product, go live with a brand tutorial, post a fun and informative video; the options are endless. You can mix and match the content between social media platforms.

Be adaptable. Deeply structured content calendars might get disrupted with the arrival of every new day. The post you planned on uploading might not be right for whatever the climate of the moment might be.

Stay current. It is crucial to stay on trend and up to date on what is happening in the world. What you post needs to resonate with your audience and stay true to your brand.

Be mindful. Posting about sensitive or political topics can cause more harm to your brand’s reputation than trying to prove you are “woke” and “in the know of what’s going on in the world”. Be thoughtful and kind in your posts. Don’t allow negativity into your posts and overall brand identity.

Find your influencers. Influencers are the new brand ambassadors for your company. Find influencers that fit your brands identity and can tell your story and promote your product or service on different social media platforms.

How Our Firm Can Help

As the top Houston PR firm and the leading Austin PR firm, The PR Boutique, can help businesses thrive in the digital online industry. We offer services in social media management, media relations (see our latest post: “What is Media Relations?”), virtual-event management. Web development, influencer and community outreach.

We can take the pressure off of trying to get it right on your own, by doing it right the first time around. We will take on your social media management, influencer outreach and more to help you grow your business and build your brand.