Communicating on social media in 2022

10 years ago, for better or worse, social media became part of our everyday lives and radically changed the way we live and communicate – both in our private lives and our professional lives.  While some still maintain that they are only good for hilarious cat videos, animated GIFs or moments from reality shows that go viral (like Nabilla’s Non mais allô quoi… moment), social media have become an undeniable advantage for the communication professions and for businesses.  In its early days, Facebook, the pioneer and high chieftain of social media, allowed businesses to communicate for free on its platform and to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people in an organic way.

Before long, ads started appearing on social media, and this gave businesses the opportunity to communicate by themselves, directly to their target audience, and at minimal cost, to promote their goods and services. Social media needed to carve out a space for itself in the face of the regulations and traditional advertising and/or existing digital ads; it was therefore priced relatively cheaply.  Almost overnight, therefore, the world of business was given access to the same tools for handling its online communication.  With a little bit of investment, it was easy to get a decent return in terms of renown and sales.

Social media quickly built up its reputation around this idea.

Today, that is no longer the reality. In the collective subconscious of the business world, “putting an ad on Facebook is expensive”. While Facebook remains free for individuals, the situation is very different for professionals. And while, for some, investing part of the budget in a platform like Facebook (or Instagram) may seem expensive, that isn’t actually the case.  If you were to decide to put €2,000 into a social media campaign tomorrow without any kind of strategy or goal, you would be throwing that €2,000 in the bin. In that scenario, advertising on Facebook is an onerous activity.

It’s for that reason that it’s now vital to work around a clearly established and defined strategy, before throwing yourself into the ruthless bidding war that digital marketing has become.  You will realise that, ultimately, it’s not all that expensive, by comparison with the impact that your online actions can have.

It’s fairly affordable if things are done in accordance with standard professional practices. Because, in 2021, whether it’s affordable or not, having a presence on social media is essential for your business. 

Why do you need to have a social media presence in 2022?

Today, targeted online advertising on social media is firmly rooted in everyday communication. In order to reach everyone, what people used to do was put a poster up in the street or in a magazine, or even use a radio or TV ad.  This traditional form of advertising still exists, but…today, the one place where you can be sure of finding everyone is behind a screen: computers, smartphones, tablets, smart watches – everything connects us to the digital world today, regardless of age, gender, religion, the sector we work in, etc. And the digital natives, a.k.a. generations Y and Z, are merely reinforcing this idea of constant connection, everywhere and all the time.

The biggest advantage of social media, and the thing that undeniably distinguishes it from traditional advertising, is the analysis and optimisation, but also the targeting and, of course, the budgets at play. Once your campaign has been launched, digital offers you the ability to edit its parameters at any time, depending on the results and the statistics that stem from it.

As part of this approach, the social networks’ advertising platforms allow you to test your ads, and those in the know will tell you that testing is key when it comes to getting to know your digital audience. A/B testing (a marketing technique that consists of offering several different variants of a message, so as to work out which one gives you the best results among users) plays a crucial role in building your communication. Because the best advice we can give you is this:

“If you speak to everyone, you’re not speaking to anyone.”

Good digital communication will be achieved by going towards your community, because today, thanks to social media, a digital relationship cuts both ways: a community interacts with a business that engages with its users.

The ability to analyse your results directly: you can’t put a price on that. Whether it’s for your social networks, your Google Ads campaigns, or for your website’s statistics, having access to your data is also a big advantage of digital.

At La niche, we automatically put detailed, customized Data Studio dashboards in place, giving you an overview of all the actions taken, and their results, in real time.

And if you want to communicate on the internet in 2021, you have a huge range of options open to you.  After being confined to Facebook and Instagram for a number of years, today, the field of possibilities is far larger. TikTok no longer needs any introduction – for months now, people all over the world have been talking about it. Linkedin is constantly developing its advertising formats. Spotify is becoming an incredibly interesting channel, for audio ads in particular but for other kinds as well. YouTube is like the second Google.

But be careful to avoid pigeon-holing all these platforms: Linkedin is for professionals, TikTok is for teenagers, Facebook is for private individuals, etc. No. That’s where a good communication and content strategy, and the importance of good targeting, come into play.

Customized storytelling

Digital communication is not just about your budget – far from it. The heart of your communication is the story that you decide to tell. With La niche by your side, from the first advertising banner on Facebook to the last page of your website, there will only be one story being told: your story.  Good storytelling is essential and will enable you to achieve better conversions, because authenticity, originality and the quality of your content will make all the difference, and will mark you out sufficiently for you to be able to position yourself appropriately in the bidding war.

And good storytelling is achieved, in part, through the business’s branding. We define the visual guidelines that have to be respected if you are to achieve a consistent look at every level, at all times. Photos, videos, images, colours, tone of voice, choice of emojis, and motion design – these will be the key elements that will let your users recognise you straight away when you pop up in their already overloaded newsfeeds.

A selection of stock photos that match up with your business’s ethic? That’s one way to do it. But a photo-shoot that shows you in action – that’s even better! We decide together how best to communicate visually, so as to mark yourself out from the competition! Because a picture is worth a thousand words…

3 words that sum up our method

Quality, consistency and regularity sum up the way we work on social media. To achieve your goals, we let these 3 words guide our actions throughout the entire mission. A tailor-made strategy, storytelling that shows the real you, high-quality content and constant communication with your community are our priorities. 

Herve Société is one of our best examples. Gourmet communication, a strategy that gets the community involved, a Facebook page with more than 20 000 engaged fans, and authentic articles that highlight the client’s strength – its local setting – and the magic happens. Because the local aspect of the business is its strength, this was the strategy we chose for taking on the major rival businesses with far larger resources. From the Facebook page to the website, via Google Ads campaigns, newsletters and creative workshops, Herve Société’s communication is now firmly ensconced in the digital landscape, with ever more convincing results and an increasingly engaged community.

At La niche, we love to put a step-by-step methodology in place and gradually support the client in its approach, because we are aware that each business’s reality (on the ground) is different.  We listen to our client – to their wants and needs, but also to their fears. You know your product better than anyone else, while we master the digital arts on a daily basis: our collaboration is the perfect match of your expertise and ours.

Put your trust in La niche, a partner that listens to you and supports you

To meet your objectives and reach your target audience efficiently, we have some finely-honed, innovative digital marketing solutions at our disposal. Optimise your online presence, boost your renown and get people talking about you, target your audience, start a dialogue, engage and, above all, convert… Every day, we commit to supporting you and guiding you towards success, in an increasingly complex digital universe. We adapt our method to your business’s reality, whether you’re an SME, a VSB or a big company.

We do all this with highly detailed monitoring of your campaigns and constant optimisation of your audience and your ROI. Our approach is based on the market and oriented towards business, and places the connected user at the centre of our thinking. With our dedicated team, discover realistic digital marketing that makes sense, and rest assured that your digital communication is in good hands. 

And one last promise: we will post cat GIFs from time to time, because…well, what would digital be without that? Non mais allô quoi…

Would you like to find out more? Read our article about TikTok right here.