19 Nov 2024 Social Media Updates That Will Impact Your 2025 Marketing Strategy
With another year *almost* under our belt, we’re back with a recap of some of the most impactful social media platform updates that will impact the marketing strategy for your crafting business next year. Keep reading for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube updates!
Facebook Updates
- Community is the priority: The Facebook algorithm continues prioritizing posts from friends, family, and your community – including Events and Groups – over brand content. While it doesn’t negate the need to post to your brand page, it does mean you should invest in creating engaging content and using post types prioritized by the algorithm (more on that next).
- New fees hurt small businesses: If you’re someone who likes to boost your Instagram or Facebook posts in-app, you may have noticed new fees this year: Apple In-App Purchase Fees. To align with their in-app purchase policies, Apple started charging a 30% fee for boosted posts set-up in iOS apps, which Meta graciously passed on to businesses to pay. This can obviously be a huge detriment to small businesses as the fees add up quickly. Fortunately, you can avoid these fees by boosting posts through Meta Business Manager or by logging into your account on a browser.
- Facebook Offers: Facebook’s new “Offers” feature – not to be confused with the older Offers capabilities – allows advertisers to include special discounts or promo codes directly in their ad creative to boost engagement. These offers can be a percentage or monetary discount, set with specific validity dates and can display within the ad if Meta predicts it will enhance performance. Note: This feature is not yet available to all users.
How to apply these updates to your 2025 marketing strategy:
- Prioritize community engagement.
- Facebook Groups can work for you.
- Join relevant, existing Facebook Groups where you can engage crafters and locals. Adhere to group best practices when engaging with members and crafting posts to share.
- Consider creating a Facebook Group to encourage community and attract new crafters to your business.
- If you decide to create a group, you (or your marketing partner) need to dedicate time to engaging and cultivating that community.
- Groups should not be used just to promote your business. They should be a space of community where your customers and prospects can connect.
- It’s a great place for members to share crafting project updates, troubleshoot project blocks, and gain inspiration.
- Promoting sales and classes should be a minor part of group activity.
- Facebook Events are easy to add to your marketing strategy.
- Create events to generate interest and RSVPs for classes, limited-time sales, and in-store events.
- Within the event set-up, include all of the relevant information, including links to your website.
- You can also engage interested individuals with posts and reminders in the event feed.
- Facebook will notify users if an event in their area or among their connections is gaining a lot of attention, helping you expand your reach.
- Because of this, it’s important to prioritize posting events far enough in advance so there’s time for interest to build.
- Create events to generate interest and RSVPs for classes, limited-time sales, and in-store events.
- Facebook Groups can work for you.
- Avoid additional fees.
- If you’re paying the 30% Apple iOS fees, you’re using a good chunk of your budget to generate zero results. If you’re not comfortable using Meta Business Manager, make 2025 the year you partner with an experienced marketing partner that can help stretch your dollars further.
- Take advantage of available advertising capabilities.
- Use features of Meta advertising to generate sales and loyalty. Even if Offers isn’t yet available to you, there are several capabilities within Meta’s ad platform to help you successfully and cost-effectively reach your target audience and measure the impact of the ads on your bottom line.
An experienced partner like Stitchcraft Marketing can help with your Facebook marketing strategies.
Instagram Updates
- Algorithm changes: Instagram is constantly evolving how its algorithm works. Right now, original content (vs. re-shared posts) and views (vs. likes and comments) are prioritized. Instagram will continue to show people content that is generating engagement and that aligns with their interests based on what they’ve previously engaged with.
- Broadcast channels: Broadcast channel popularity increased this year as more creators and brands used them to communicate with their loyal fans. It’s a great, free way to engage those who want to hear from your brand with timely updates, reminders, and engaging polls.
- Reels & Stories: In an effort to compete with other trending social media platforms, Facebook continues to prioritize Reels and Stories.
- Reels can be a great way to give users behind-the-scenes access to your brand, visually showcase products, and highlight projects.
- Stories can help amplify the content you’re creating and engage your audience.
- Shops: In April 2024, Meta executed updates to Shops on Facebook and Instagram, giving brands new in-app shopping features including enhanced storefronts and improved tagging for product posts, and customers an easier in-app purchasing experience.
How to apply these updates to your 2025 marketing strategy:
- Quality is more important than quantity.
- Invest in creating original content that helps increase views. Good post types to leverage are Reels, Carousels, and Stories.
- The more relevant and engaging your content, the more likely Instagram will deliver your posts in users’ feeds.
- Use the collaboration capability to co-publish original content with other profiles to help expand reach and engagement. This could be a collaborative post with a content creator, designer. or brand.
- Invest in creating original content that helps increase views. Good post types to leverage are Reels, Carousels, and Stories.
- Consider launching a Broadcast Channel.
- If you’re not already leveraging a broadcast channel, consider adding it to your marketing strategy for next year. Individuals have to opt-in to participate, indicating they’re a loyal fan. You can use this channel to:
- Keep fans connected to your business
- Share information about sales, promotions, and loyalty programs
- Alert people if your store hours are updated (holidays, operational changes)
- Engage fans with polls, which could be for fun or impact the business
- Types of classes they’d like to attend, favorite crafting project, etc.
- Encourage fans to share user-generated content tagging your account and using specific hashtags
- If you’re not already leveraging a broadcast channel, consider adding it to your marketing strategy for next year. Individuals have to opt-in to participate, indicating they’re a loyal fan. You can use this channel to:
- Create content favored by the algorithm.
- If you’re investing in video creation, try to get as much out of it as you can. Long-form videos are great for YouTube, short-form videos are great for Reels, Shorts, and TikTok, and video screen grabs are a great way to amp up your photo library if the quality is high enough.
- Amplify what you’re posting and create engagement-focused experiences in Stories.
- Generate more revenue with Meta Shops.
- If you haven’t yet integrated your online store with Facebook and Instagram Shops, you could be missing out on a valuable e-commerce channel.
- Use your Shop to highlight products and encourage purchases from new and existing customers.
Looking for help with your Instagram strategy and execution? We’d love to help! Contact Stitchcraft Marketing today.
Pinterest Updates
- Pinterest Performace+ Suite: Pinterest introduced Pinterest Performance+ Suite. Using AI and automation features, advertisers can quickly optimize targeting, budgeting, and bids while driving lower-funnel performance in this suite.
- Pinterest integrates with Google Ads: Now, advertisers can run ads on Pinterest through their Google Ads Manager.
How to apply these updates to your 2025 marketing strategy:
- Take advantage of advertising features.
- Efficiently generate results by streamlining your Pinterest advertising with the Google Ads integration and advertising automation features.
- Consistently review results and optimize accordingly so your dollars generate the best results.
If you’re looking for help with your Pinterest strategy, reach out!
YouTube Updates
- Shorts get longer: In October 2024, creators could start uploading Shorts that were up to 3 minutes in length. This update helps compete with TikTok’s 10-minute video length. This update gives creators and brands more time to tell stories.
- Monetize Shorts: YouTube announced new monetization options for Shorts. There are a couple of different monetization options with specific eligibility requirements, including subscriber and watch time minimums.
How to apply these updates to your 2025 marketing strategy:
- Optimize your short-form content to increase brand awareness.
- Use short-form video placements like Shorts to help expand the reach of your content and attract new customers to your brand.
- Sharing videos that tell stories, such as behind-the-scenes access to your team, introducing a new product(s), or showcasing projects or classes.
- Take advantage of monetization opportunities if you qualify.
- If you meet the requirements for monetizing your Shorts, take advantage of this additional money stream. There is also the opportunity to generate income through YouTube Shopping, if all eligibility criteria are met.
- If you don’t meet the requirements but are interested in monetizing your YouTube channel (in addition to attracting new people to your brand), prioritize YouTube in your marketing mix.
Ready to take your YouTube channel to the next level? We’re here to help.
We know that staying on top of trends and platform updates can be daunting. Rest assured when you partner with us, we’re constantly tracking these changes and optimizing marketing plans accordingly! Ready to explore a partnership with experienced craft marketers? Contact Stitchcraft Marketing today!
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