It’s hard to believe it will be 2022 in just a matter of a few weeks. There have been so many things happening in the world, including significant shifts to more online experiences. From the advent of online communication tools like Zoom, Google Chat, and Slack, to Instagram shifting its focus from photography to video, primarily Reels — the world is getting content in more ways and faster. 

Keeping up with the ever-changing trends and tools can be quite exhausting. Changes are constantly happening, in business, tech, and life in general. 

We are here to help you weed through the info and focus on preparing you and your business for 2022.

Jump to a section:

Surviving social media changes

Your website must flow

Planning ahead

Instagram

For businesses, it seems bizarre the “once-famous photo app”, Instagram, no longer really caters to just images. So now you need to find other ways to interact or be seen online. 

Instagram stories seem like a simple interaction point but with the rise of Reels and the development of IGTV, its longer-form video tool, shorter video-centric content is ruling Instagram.

So how does a business survive platform changes like this? Making a video does help, but if it is not a strong suit, what do you do? Focus on your audience! What do you want them to get out of the experience? Always come back to that when making decisions about how and when to engage through social media.

Some great topics for using video to attract customers can include behind-the-scenes type experiences, before and afters, and customer reactions. These sneak peeks can really humanize your business and brand, which is the point of the influencer economy. But remember, unless you are an educator, your audience is your customer, not other photographers, the behind the scenes angle will differ based on who your audience is. So, make sure your content is relevant to your target audience.

Interested in learning more about video? Check out our video marketing guide.

Instagram big takeaways:

• Focus on ecommerce

• Reels are a big deal

• Engagement, meaning comments and interaction are important, not just posting and ghosting

Facebook (Meta)

Beyond Instagram, Facebook's changes seem similar. There is still a focus on native video content, Live video gains quick exposure and is better in long-form. The goal is to keep you on the platform as long as possible and to curate content that you are the most likely to interact with. As referenced in an article in the Washington Post, Facebook has changed and the content you see. It might not be content you like, it might be negative actually, but they are aware of those decisions.

When you are on Facebook, scrolling and interacting with content, you are kind of feeding it. It learns from your behaviors and curates content that seems to become more niched over time. Sure you might see a fun post here or there, but it’s focused heavily on groups, pages, and interaction now. You can find great groups there, kind of like the forums of the early internet, but now all within Facebook’s walls and tools connect to it.

Knowing your audience is important to Facebook. They are trying to push for younger audiences on that platform, for obvious reasons, which is part of why Meta was introduced, to appeal to those demographics. But currently, Facebook is catering to all but older demographic groups.

Facebook big takeaways:

• Displaying curated content based on what you interact with

• Pages and groups are good places for connecting with others

• Heavily ad focused

• Trying to change to reach different demographics

TikTok

The social media dark horse, TikTok continues to influence Meta’s products. TikTok is fast-paced, and there is a homemade aesthetic that seems like anyone can be a part of it with success, if you know how to use the system. It provides a place for creative storytelling, dance, and humor, offers a fast way to share quick bits of information, and the content can be shared rapidly across many channels.

These social interactions can be used for education for photographers or to showcase your process. Problem-solving or making things relatable to the audience seems to be what TikTok users are interested in.

It continues to chase the growing trend of video content. You don’t have to be highly skilled for TikTok, which is part of the charm of the platform. It is about giving out content in a fast way, but it can have a huge reach and content can spread quickly if people find it useful.

TikTok big takeaways:

• Big reach ... if people discover you

• The more homemade feel posts have, the more effective they are

• Problem solving or humor is what people like about the platform

• Short shareable content

All social media platforms are adapting and trying out new features. Twitter has Spaces as its answer to Clubhouse, YouTube has Shorts as its answer to TikTok, and so on. These platforms haven’t had as dramatic of changes as Facebook and Instagram, but continue to be places where you can still interact with your audiences, if you know the right one for your business.

Showcasing your skills or selling online is part of the goal of a website. The content on the website must also have a great flow to help your visitors smoothly navigate and take action (sign up or make a purchase!).

When organizing the content on your website, think of yourself as the movie director. What do you want people to see first, what do you want them to see next? Everything from the navigation menu to your page layout can influence your website visitors. The information and imagery on your website should help tell your narrative of what your business does, how to reach you, and how to pay you. 

Your website’s navigation should be clear and simple. If possible you should have less than eight options in the main menu. This should include your core pages, including your home, about, and contact page, clearly visible. Then you can incorporate other pages to fill out the full story and experience. And don’t forget the footer content! 

As you look at the content for each page on your website, think of how it flows into the action you want people to take. When someone visits your homepage, where do you want them to go? Can they learn more about you, or see your work? From your gallery page, are you offering options to learn about how to work together, pricing, and booking? Your pages should drive people to take action and connect the dots for your sales funnel.

The objective of your homepage is to:

• Tell your story visually

• Describe where you’re located and who you serve

• Showcase your best work to engage your audience

• Be a hub to connect customers to deeper pages to explore

What your homepage isn’t supposed to be:

• A single page with everything on it, from pricing to testimonials

• Completely empty without descriptions

• Over explaining your business and purpose (that’s what the other pages are for)

• An SEO directory of meta keywords

You should analyze your website’s pages and see if they have the following:

• Call-to-actions (CTAs) to other pages on your site

• A way to connect to you, either directly on that page or a link to the contact page

• Your location details (best photography in the X area and X state)

• Options to return or navigate to other pages on the site that act as a visual menu, or secondary navigation

Other ways to improve your websites page flow:

Use S shape design when it comes to the layout of the pages

This shape helps guide users through a page. It's about how their eyes flow across the screen, like reading a book, without the page feeling stagnant.

Use dividers or color to break up information on the page

Having too large of a block of text or images without a stop can start to cause the webpage to feel long or disorganized. Dividers and color blocks can help emphasize areas on the page and can help break up the information by calling out important information for users to respond to.

These are a few simple ways to push your leads into the areas of your site you want them to go, whether that is to book services or buy your products or contact you. You always have to think about the overall experience for your customers, and that includes expecting questions and providing answers directly on your website.

If you were your own customer, would you find your website easy to use, informative, and engaging? If even one of those is a no, then you may need to update your website.

If you need help updating your website, contact the Zibster support or Pro Service team, we’ll be happy to assist you.

As you make plans for 2022, remember to consider your online marketing strategy.  We are not just talking about social media or digital marketing. This should also include your website and how it can help guide customers to where you want them to go and how you can make the purchase process more effective. 

Coupon codes and sales. Think ahead about coupons you can offer your customers. By making a plan for the entire year instead of just the next month or so, you can get ahead and be more efficient with the promotions of your special offers.

Promo banners and pop-ups. In the Marketing section of your account, you can set up the pop-up and promo banners to advertise specials, encourage people to sign up for an email list or event, and much more. As you map out your promotional plans for the year, you can set up promo banners and pop-ups in advance so that they can trigger on specific start and end dates. Set it and forget it! 

Email marketing. You should also plan out email campaigns. Consider: how you want to segment your contact list, if you want to send emails to promote your special offers, new products or services, or seasonal events. And explore setting up or updating automated email reminders for Scheduler events or invoices. Pre-planning your email calendar and trigger points for automated emails can save you time and worry, and hopefully prevent a little rushing to have something ready.

Carving out time to get your marketing plans ready for the new year is a great way to start 2022 with less stress, and it can help you be flexible when you need to.

As we approach the new year, we hope you will take some time to plan and prepare for the future (we know we are). As technology and marketing strategies change, know that you can lean on us to help you understand the changes, and execute your business plan so you can achieve your goals.

If you need more help or assistance, remember you can always call our support team at 844.353.3412 or log into your account to start a live chat. And if you want us to help take a project off your to-do list, consider working with our award-winning Pro Services team. 

We are looking forward to ringing in 2022 and we can’t wait to see how you grow your business. Cheers!