Social Media
5 Principles to Dominate Social Media in 2020

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Angie Smith
January 15, 2019

With greatness, comes great minds. Having had the privilege of learning from some of the greatest minds on earth over the last 10 years and practicing the art of social media since the age of 18, I have picked up some principles that have remained rock-solid through the test of time. Application of these principles will help you dominate social media in 2020!

1. The separation principle

 

Image Source: CNBC

The separation principle was devised by 5-time NBA champion and 2-time Olympic gold medal winner, Kobe Bryant. The separation principle states that 1 extra hour a day of work, whether it is on yourself, social media or your personal brand adds up over a lifetime. For example, if you work for 1 hour extra per day, just 30 minutes before you start work and 30 minutes after your official finishing time, you are working:

  • 5 hours extra a week
  • 20 extra hours a month
  • 240 extra hours a year, that equates to 1 extra month of work a year!
  • 12 months in 12 years.

These cumulative figures are achieved simply by putting in the work for just 1 extra hour per day. It will ensure that you are outworking your competition.

 2. Attention

“Social media – a term to describe the current state of the internet and the place where the consumers’ attention is” – Gary Vaynerchuck

Image Source: Scoopnest.com

The current opportunity is that people spend an estimated 4 hours a day on a smartphone on average. This includes all demographics. Out of the 4 hours spent on the smartphone, around 2 hours are spent on social media every day! These are usually in small snippets throughout the day so creative messaging is important.

This means that with people’s attention now on their smartphones, this gives incredible opportunity to marketers to use the platforms on the phones to tell their stories!

3. 40% Rule

“When your mind is telling you you’re done, you’re really only 40 percent done.” – David Goggins.

This principle allows us to think in the way and frequency we produce content at. With people’s attention for around 2 hours every day on social media, imagine the potential audience around the world for your content and the frequency the content needs to be produced at. Applying the 40% rule to your content production, would look something like this. Say you make 1 post a day for your business, making it 30 posts per month.

According to this theory you are only using 40% of your production capacity. With the increased attention on social media platforms, the content strategy needs to reflect it. Applying the 40% rule to social media production would mean implementing that work-ethic and discipline to improve current standards and strive towards the elusive 60%.

4. Don’t be romantic

 Social media platforms evolve depending on the current attention landscape of its audience. This means that platforms that are relevant today do not hold their weight in the future. Myspace for example, was one of the most popular social media sites in 2008 but is not relevant in today’s market simply because the attention turned from Myspace to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat and so on.

Similarly, your content strategy should not be just for 1 or 2 platforms as attention of your audience keeps shifting. The strategy should include an equal balance for all different content platforms for your social media. Another good example is email marketing. When email marketing was first becoming popular, a staggering 80-90% open rates could be seen, which is almost unimaginable in today’s email marketing campaigns for even the biggest brands.

In summary, if your content/paid ads strategy is working well today, it will most likely change over time as your audience’s attention will shift to a platform that is more relevant and where everyone else’s attention is. Therefore, don’t be romantic with a specific platform that is working well today, its important to keep measuring and optimising according to your audience.

5. Patience

The number of followers, likes and comments are not the appropriate metric to measure success in the initial stages of your social media growth. Growing organically takes time and depends on a lot of variables. With the changes in all social media platform algorithms, it is most likely that you will need to invest some ad budget to see growth in engagement with your audience. The initial stages of growing a social media following can be frustrating and you may not see the rewards in the first 6-12 months of your growth. However, patience, persistence and consistency in posting content will ensure that you will most likely be noticed. Once the snowball effect starts, whether it is after 8 months or 10 months of you producing and posting content daily, there is no looking back. Hence, patience is the key to producing content for a long time before you start seeing results organically. Quality content that resonates with your audiences is absolutely vital to drive growth.

In conclusion, although there are many ways to accelerate growth and dominate social media in 2019, these above five principles will make sure you are covered through the test of time. It makes you aware of a different mindset to look at social media moving forward. Every post counts! If you need a partner to support you with your social media planning and execution, the team at MediaSmiths is here – we’re only a click, email or call away.

About Angie Smith
Before founding independent agency MediaSmiths in 2007, Angela had worked on the agency, broadcast, and publishing sides of the media industry and has an incredible insight into how each world works. Since then, Angela has worked across numerous well-known brands covering the whole spectrum of media, and leverages this know-how with her experienced wider team to get the best results for clients.

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