As 2021 draws to a close, I find myself with some free time to reflect in December on what can only be described as a whirlwind of a year..

In the first quarter of this year, I earnt practically nothing. My children were at home and I was responsible for homeschooling two primary aged children, and my husband was flat out in a job that carried on as normal throughout the pandemic.

It wasn’t the best start to the year for me and my business, and that’s putting it mildly.

Life got back to normal though as the country returned to work, but it took a while for me to recover my business and generate leads to provide me with work.

Luckily though, the background work on my business packages that I had done in the early start of the year paid off, as I got booked several times for organisations and businesses who wanted support with training on developing a social media strategy. Which leads me nicely to my first learning of the year. Although I would say this isn’t really a learning but more of a reinforcement of what I already knew…

1. Never put all your eggs into one social media basket

It’s very easy to invest all your time and energy into one social media network, but actually, is that wise? I would definitely say no. And what reinforced this for me in 2021 was the now infamous Meta outage back in early October when Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp all went down for several hours. 

Business owners went into panic mode. What if it didn’t come back? What would they do? How would they talk to their existing and potential new customers? How would they reach and reclaim their 1000’s of social media followers? 

The answer is that they wouldn’t be able to. The social networks have absolutely no obligation to do anything to help us. Scary right?

Another example that reinforced this was the amount of instagram accounts that got taken down in 2021 by instagram itself, for no legitimate reason. A network that makes it SO hard for you to understand why they’ve done it, and virtually impossible to speak to anyone about how and why your account might be recovered. I know this, because earlier this year it happened to me. 

Luckily I did recover my account, but many don’t. 

My advice? Have a minimum two social media platform strategy for your business (you can find me over on Linkedin as much as on Instagram), and, crucially, work on building an email list. You’ll own your email list, and you spread the risk of your social accounts. The learning? Solely focussing on one social media platform is high risk and not a sensible approach to your digital marketing strategy.

2. Short form video really is king

I’ll be the first to admit that dancing and pointing on instagram reels is definitely not my thing. I’m also a big advocate of the fact that social media should be something you enjoy doing, so if that sort of thing isn’t you, then don’t do it.

However (and here’s the important bit), investing time and energy into short form video creation for your small business is important, and you can do this without it being a painfully embarrassing dance or point. 

The head of Instagram Adam Mosseri confirmed himself this year that the platform prioritised video content, which was a message to us all. Sprout Social claims that video gets 49% more engagement on instagram than static posts, which is also quite an impressive stat.

So, video content creation should definitely form part of your 2022 platform strategy, in whatever form you are comfortable with. 

In the latter part of the year I have worked with two small business owners in the food and nutrition sector helping them understand how to create video content around recipes and food. Both owners were left understanding how to create short form video content that they would feel comfortable sharing. Satisfying for both them and me. 

3. Being visible on social media is important 

Ever more so, a good social media presence is important to get standout as a small business owner. So many potential clients I speak to don’t love social media, but yet they know they have to do it. There are now thousands of small businesses jostling for attention online.

Here’s the thing. As the front of a small business, you do need to be visible. The saying goes that people do business with people, and if you are hiding behind your logo and graphics, then that could impact the reach and success of your business.

Even larger businesses will benefit from sharing the company team and culture online. It’s what people are genuinely interested in. 

It’s also worth remembering that social media can do so much more than sell your product or service. You can develop collaborations, build your business network, get invited onto podcasts or to speak about your area of expertise, tap into PR opportunities and so much more by being active (and great!) on social media. 

One client I worked with this year launched his organisation on social media and within a matter of weeks was approached by a publisher offering him a book deal. 

If you don’t love social media, then you can invest in someone to do it for you, which is where someone like me steps in to give you a hand. Social media done well is really worth it, I promise you. 

I hope you found this helpful, and if you’d like more of my social media tips and insights then do join my mailing list here. I promise I’ll never email you too much or send you information you don’t need.