From changing best practices to new content formats, every new year (or sometimes new week) holds learnings, opportunities and experiments for social teams. To prepare for 2024, we gathered key social media tips to apply to your own strategy—because you’re not riding this wave alone.

We turned to Sprout Social’s Arboretum (the Arb)—a community of social pros—to ask them about their latest and greatest social media tips and tricks. Let’s dive in.

What we learned when we asked for social media tips

When we asked the Arb members for social media tips that other social pros can use, their answers reflected the sophisticated, strategic ways social teams are thinking.

Before we get into their direct tips, here are three core themes we uncovered across the responses.

1. Social pros are looking beyond their team

There’s no question that teams beyond marketing are catching onto the power of social media—and how social might be able to help their team, too.

A common focus in many of the responses we saw in the Arb involved working with departments beyond marketing. This includes working with other teams to spark new content concepts, and to bring social insights and impact to teams outside of marketing.

It also involves sharing data beyond your team. According to The Sprout Social Index™, 76% of marketers agree that their insights inform other departments.

2. Teams are streamlining processes—within their team and beyond

The more teams and leaders understand the value of social, the more asks and collaborations naturally arise.

As social teams and strategies grow, the more complex communication and collaboration systems become. From adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to adjusting content requests, the need for streamlined processes was well reflected in the responses we received.

3. Social teams are becoming even more intentional with content and strategies

Social pros have always known that social is more than “just posting.” There’s strategy and intention behind every post.

But many marketers and teams are taking this critical eye and intentionality to a new level. A big theme we noticed orbited around the idea of doubling down on involving business goals and audience information in the content planning process to be even more thoughtful about posts.

Keep reading to get more detail about these three takeaways from our expert tips, and to learn ways to employ them in your strategy.

8 social media strategy tips from social media experts

Here are some of the new key social media tips our community came up with. Plus a few evergreen tips to store in your back pocket.

1. Extend social media’s influence beyond the social team

There’s no question that social media is becoming more cross-functional. And other teams have a lot to gain from using social media for business beyond marketing. But the social team has a lot to gain from working with other teams, too.

As Micah Mellander, Social Media Administrator at Visions Federal Credit Union put it, “I am always trying to find new departments within our organization that could benefit from social media.” To do this, he suggests setting up meetings to talk through other departments’ goals and what products or services they’re in charge of.

This helps the social team spark new ideas, too. Dasle Hong, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at DailyPay, builds on this idea. “Each week, we bring together individuals from product, design, customer support, client success, marketing and more to brainstorm on a certain topic, like a holiday, campaign, event, etc. Everyone comes to the call with an idea and/or example, and we spend the entire time ideating, collaborating and executing content for that week as a cross-functional group.”

2. Actively break down silos

Social teams must collaborate across multiple departments. And yet, it’s common for social teams to feel siloed.

“One of our main challenges as a team is collaborating with other departments and stakeholders on key initiatives or campaigns when it comes to organic social,” Kelly Bean, Social Media and Community Manager at Trustpilot, tells us. So one of the tips she has is to enhance these processes.

“What we’re aiming to do in 2024 is create a seamless internal process so that key stakeholders understand what is needed when briefing our team, how this ties into our overall business strategy and how our team operates when planning future content.”

“It’s very much in the testing phase,” she explains. “But we’re hoping that in time, these shared calendars can feed into our master calendar and make things much smoother for us as a team!”

3. Tap influencer, creator and advocate voices

A great way to target your audience on a more personal level is to partner with influencers in your niche to help you promote your products organically.

When you partner with an established influencer with an active following in your niche, you expose your brand to a new audience that might not be aware of your company.

Many brands are also turning to nanoinfluencers, who cultivate a small but passionate niche of followers. As influencer marketing becomes increasingly common, a micro- or nanoinfluencer can convey an extra level of authenticity. With an audience of loyal followers that know, like and trust them, a collaboration will let their followers know they recommend you as a brand to trust as well.

Pro tip: Discovering the right influencer can be challenging. Consider an influencer management tool to streamline all these efforts, speed up the process and enhance brand visibility and trust.

4. Use goals and pillars to guide intentional, purposeful content

Your content should always connect back to your brand’s goals. As Molly Rodin, Digital Marketing Manager in the Robotics industry explains, “My biggest piece of advice would be really know and understand what your social goals are and how they connect to the larger organization’s goals. It’s not enough to set a goal at the beginning of the year and check back in at the end of the year.”

Knowing specific goals for your team and beyond serves as a guiding light for your posts. As they explain, “For any campaign or collaboration or post, you should be able to intuitively answer: Who is the audience for this? Why do they care? What is the next step for them after this content? What is the specific measure of success for this and how does it connect to the big picture goals? And adjust your strategy based on the answers.”

Beyond helping social teams prioritize their own content, it also helps teams prioritize asks from other departments. After all, every social pro is familiar with the, “can you just post this on social?” question.

As Molly explains, “As social media managers, we get asked to do a lot. Having really clear objectives is the best way to prioritize what we’re doing, weed out low-value asks and make sure our content is set up for meaningful success.”

Having a focused message will help you create higher quality content that is on brand and resonates with your audience. When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can count on your social media posts to stay relevant to your audience.

5. Scale your team

Social media isn’t the job of one person anymore—it’s a department collaborating with many other teams. As social media and its impact grows, so too does the need for multiple people at the helm.

“My #1 tip for B2B brands in 2024 is to scale up your team as much as possible,” Katy Severance, the Digital Marketing Manager (Global Social Media Program) at Riskonnect tells us. “We are scaling up as 2024 comes around the corner so that when next year hits, we’ll be ready to hit the ground running with new concepts, campaigns and platforms we haven’t previously had the time to tackle.”

As far as how to accomplish a scaled-up team, you don’t necessarily need to go straight to hiring new roles—especially if you need to build your case for headcount. As Katy suggests, “See if a member of your content team can write & schedule some posts. See if you could bring in a summer Intern for a few months.” When you have tangible results from those efforts, then work them into a proposal to get a full-time hire.

6. Avoid the trap of perfectionism

Everyone working in social knows the experience of putting weeks of work into a post…only to see it outperformed by a video that took 15 seconds to make.

Not every post needs to be perfect. Social teams are already tight on time. So put the perfectionism aside and embrace the occasional scrappy, lo-fi content.

Sophie Den Ridder, Social Media Coordinator at Dealer.com, summed this up perfectly: “I find that getting hung up on making sure every post is perfect often leads to spending way too much time trying to tweak already good posts. Not every post is going to be a viral sensation or garner millions of engagements. A lot of times the posts that do are ones that are more casually created and not super refined.”

Her key takeaway for 2024 content planning? Give yourself permission to have fun on social (within reason!) and go with the flow a little more.

7. Be discerning with trends

Jumping on trending TikTok sounds or post formats is a great way to boost your brand awareness and engagement. But be wary of jumping on every new trend you see. Creating posts that don’t align with your overall messaging to appear relevant is a quick way to alienate your target audience.

This is why it’s so essential to create a focused message that you can use as a baseline to measure all of your future social media posts. Let your brand goals, messaging, audience and voice guide you. This will help you determine which trends fit your brand, and which to skip.

8. Boost your audience engagement

Social media users crave authentic interaction with the brands they follow—it’s a crucial piece of any social community management strategy. You want your social media presence to represent a two-way line of communication. Engage with people rather than just talking at them. If you notice other users having a conversation about your brand or product, don’t be afraid to chime in and add additional value—something social listening can help with.

Make sure your social media strategy includes answering questions posted on each platform and prioritizes customer care. Promptly respond to mentions, thank people who share your content and add value where you see people mentioning your brand.

You can also start conversations to proactively engage your audience. Ask questions and respond to keep the conversation going.

Act now: how to implement this social media marketing advice in 2024

Reading about social media strategy tips is just step one. Now, it’s time to put the tips into action.

Here are a few ways to apply the takeaways and tips above to your own social media marketing strategy.

Establish silo-breaking collaboration and processes

Cross-org collaboration is crucial for social teams, and for businesses to benefit from social insights. But 43% of social teams still feel siloed—especially on mid-market and enterprise teams.

Establishing smoother cross-team communication and collaboration was a core theme across our community tips. Apply this to your own strategy—identify where siloes or roadblocks occur, and identify opportunities for more communication.

For example, create a system to share relevant social insights and data with other teams. A social listening strategy can empower you to uncover valuable insights for your product, PR and partnerships teams alike. And auto-generated data visualizations and shareable reports ease the process, helping you tell a data story to multiple departments.

Knocking down silos can also mean involving other teams to bring their expertise to social content. Think: recruiting employees from other departments as video talent, leveraging them in a meet the team post series or simply working with them to ensure campaign alignment.

Take a hint from Kelly Bean’s tip above and use a master calendar for visibility. Look for features in your social media management platform that can help you—like Sprout’s built-in content calendar and workflows that streamline collaboration and approval processes.

Get more sophisticated with your data use

Social data and its uses are only getting more sophisticated and more useful across departments.

For example, key social media metrics like engagements and follower growth are still crucial and widely used. But many marketers are taking their metrics a step further, connecting them to business goals. According to the Index, 60% of marketers plan to quantify the value of social engagement in terms of potential revenue impact in 2024.

Put your social data into action and tie your social efforts to larger business impact. An easy way to start is by using UTMs in your links to track purchases and actions taken from social. You can create these on your own or, if you use Sprout, easily manage these directly in the same platform you use for content, engagement and reporting.

When in doubt, AI will help you out

According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work—especially for freeing up creativity and boosting efficiency.

With so many marketers already adopting AI into their workflows, the teams that don’t risk falling behind. Bring it into your workflow where you think it can make your team more efficient.

AI copy tools, for example, give you a starting point for post ideas and copy, customer service responses and more. Tools like Sprout’s Suggestions by AI Assist even enable you to adjust for tone, speeding up the content creation and engagement process.

Use these social media tips and tricks to refresh your 2024 strategy

No social practitioner or team is alone. Use this expert social media marketing advice to inspire and improve your strategy.

Do you have social media tips of your own? Or just want to learn more? Join our community, The Arboretum, to connect with other social pros, for exclusive live events and to stay ahead in the industry.

The post 8 social media tips from experienced marketers appeared first on Sprout Social.

With more people flocking to networks than ever before, social media and consumer behavior have evolved in lockstep, so understanding how to reach your target audience remains a necessity.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top six ways social media influences consumer behavior and what each means for your brand’s social strategy.

1. Consumers buy directly from social

Index data shows the top reason consumers follow brands on social media is to stay informed about new products/services, followed by getting access to exclusive deals and promotions.

But why is social commerce so popular? One reason is that it meets consumers where they already are. According to data from McKinsey, the majority of consumers use at least three channels for each purchase journey. For many, checking Facebook, Instagram or TikTok daily—whether they’re casually scrolling or searching for new products—has become as routine as brushing their teeth.

Networks continue to experiment with and formalize ecommerce capabilities to bring convenience to consumers and present brands with new revenue streams. For example, TikTok Shop launched in September 2023, enabling users to find and shop for items even more easily.

US annual social commerce sales per buyer are projected to double from $628 million to $1.224 billion in 2027, based on a forecast from Insider Intelligence.

How you can use this insight

Social commerce makes it infinitely easier for brands to deliver the seamless purchase experience buyers want. You can turn a casual scroller into a new customer in a couple of clicks. For example, if you’re a retail business and a holiday is coming up, you can create a shoppable Facebook ad or offer a limited time offer using Instagram Shops for your seasonal product lines.

If you’re not already, look into what social commerce functionality is available on the channels your audience spends the most time on. From TikTok to YouTube livestream shopping, there is a growing number of ways to connect with ready-to-buy consumers.

If you’re a Sprout user, take advantage of our integrations with Shopify and Facebook Shops by connecting your product catalogs with our platform—you can quickly add product links in your outbound posts and customer replies.

2. Consumers expect two-way engagement with brands

Social media adds another dimension to the brand-customer relationship. A brand is no longer a remote, faceless entity that we only learn about in publications, press releases or Google searches. Looking at a brand’s social networks helps you gauge their values, relevant news and offerings, and how they relate to their audience.

Social lets consumers engage and interact with businesses in a multitude of ways, from liking posts and following their accounts to sharing brand-related content, shouting out brand love or asking product questions. And of course, social shopping makes conversions faster.

Don’t be too shy to engage with your audience, jump on relevant trends, ask questions or run polls and Q&As. And don’t forget to respond to direct messages, comments and @-mentions.

The Index found 51% of consumers said the most memorable brands on social respond to customers. Across all age groups, consumers want to know they’re being heard.

Brand authenticity will drive a customer to choose you over a competitor—and stick with you. This means upholding your organization’s claimed values, listening to your audience, discussing what matters to them, anticipating their needs and delivering on the promises you make.

How you can use this insight

Engagement happens perpetually across multiple channels and formats. With a tool like Sprout’s Smart Inbox, you can set up rules to automatically tag and categorize inbound messages so you never miss an opportunity to engage.

Analyze trends and patterns across these conversations to gain a deeper understanding of your customers. What’s delightful and what’s frustrating them? What are they praising, and what are they criticizing? What are they sharing about your brand and your competitors with their own audiences?

Of course, brands should address complaints and negative inbound messages, but tools like Sprout can help brands get the answers to these questions so they can proactively engage versus reactively. For example, with social listening, you can uncover opportunities to surprise and delight your customers.

Elicit and listen to feedback and share it with your organization. Channel this feedback to your colleagues across the business from sales and marketing to product and operations to deliver more tailored customer experiences in the future.

3. Consumers turn to social media for customer service

The evolution of social media and consumer behavior has transformed customer service interactions. Before social, consumers could expect to interact with a brand by calling, emailing or visiting locations in person—complete with the infamous wait times to talk to a representative. Today, social is consumers’ preferred choice for sharing feedback and reaching out with a customer support issue or question.

The days of long telephone hold times punctuated by elevator music are dwindling. Consumers with a product question or order issue are much more inclined to reach out via a brand’s Facebook page, X (formerly known as Twitter) @-mention or Instagram direct message. But social media moves fast, which means customers expect faster answers.

Index data shows customer service isn’t just about responding quickly either. Although 76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs, 70% expect a company to provide personalized responses to customer service needs.

Regardless of whether it’s a busy season, customer service teams may already be spread thin or lack resources, which can result in missed messages, slower responses and suboptimal replies. Prevent frustration, reduce delays and improve communication by evolving your approach to social customer service.

Social customer care starts even before a customer reaches out to you. It means getting a clear understanding of what your customer wants from you, reducing room for error and building long-term relationships with your audience.

How you can use this insight

How can you create and maintain a social customer care strategy? Start by making it easy for customers to find you. Include relevant contact info on your organization’s social media profiles and bios. Make sure you’re monitoring Meta Messenger and direct messages on X, Instagram or TikTok (or consider recruiting a chatbot’s help) if that’s the communication channel your customers flock to most.

If your business has dedicated teams for social media and customer care, collaboration across departments is a must. Implementing a social customer relationship management (CRM) tool gives you a single source of truth to provide customer service while getting a more holistic view of customer behavior.

Another critical step is proactive message management. If a customer feels like they’re being ignored, they’ll move on to a more attentive competitor. Do you have ways to centralize inbound support messages across different social networks? Can your social customer care agents easily access important client information via CRM or help desk integrations? Do you have an efficient process for approving replies to customer questions on social?

If you answered “no” to any of these, don’t be afraid to turn to tools like Sprout to help your team work smarter and build stronger customer relationships.

4. Consumers demand authenticity in the age of AI

Index data shows authentic, non-promotional posts are ranked as the number one content type consumers don’t see enough of from brands on social. However, with limited bandwidth and resources, it can be difficult to consistently produce authentic, creative content at scale. Enter: artificial intelligence (AI).

And although 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work, consumers aren’t as eager to jump onto this technology wave. Over a third (42%) of consumers say they are slightly or very apprehensive about the use of AI in social media interactions.

How you can use this insight

So how does this impact your brand’s content strategy? Consider pulling back on trendjacking and prioritizing original content that’s true to your brand.

Shaping genuine connections and building community can’t be replicated by machines alone, but adding that golden human touch requires time. Leverage AI to handle manual, time-consuming tasks like social media reporting. If you use AI to create spreadsheets and reports, marketers can focus their energy and efforts into developing more impactful content and engagement strategies. Research and identify where to incorporate AI across your teams’ tasks and workflows.

5. Consumers want more transparency and less performative activism

A few years ago, consumers wanted brands to take a stand on important causes. The latest Index shows only 25% of consumers think brands must speak out on causes and news relevant to their values to be memorable on social.

Consumers want brands to share more about their business values and practices, and how their products are made/sourced—but they aren’t necessarily looking for them to “take a stand” on larger issues. Due to the rise of performative activism, some efforts read as disingenuous and inauthentic. In other words, consumers don’t just want brands to talk about their values, they must walk the walk too.

How you can use this insight

This slight shift in consumer behavior is an opportunity for social teams to collaborate with colleagues beyond marketing. Work to develop messaging around your company’s supply chain, operations, labor practices and culture that will resonate on social. Consider featuring more employees in your social content such as a behind-the-scenes series, or connect with C-suite executives to refine their social presence and thought leadership on platforms like LinkedIn. And to amplify those efforts even more, implement employee advocacy into your content strategy.

6. Consumers are heavily influenced by social media reviews

Social media is a living document for social proof—which is increasingly a make-or-break factor for buying decisions.

Data from the Yale Center for Customer Insights shows almost 90% of`consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. And half of consumers 18-54 look for online reviews before deciding to visit a local business.

Even the most dazzling, high-budget television ads can’t always deliver what social media offers for free: authenticity. Consumers take to channels like X and review hubs like Yelp and Google Reviews to praise, champion and criticize different products and businesses. Buyers are more likely to trust this unfiltered peer feedback from people who have already tried a product or engaged with a brand.

From a brand perspective, reviews are key for audience growth and reputation management. Every review post, comment and @-mention is either an opportunity to reflect on ways your business can improve—or a glowing testimonial worth sharing more broadly with your audience.

How you can use this insight

Online review management is tricky, but it’s a must for maintaining a positive reputation. It’s hard to distill review data from disparate sources into a quantifiable metric. With a social listening tool like Sprout’s, you can easily analyze the sentiment of messages that mention your brand so you can dig into positive, neutral and negative feedback.

Sprout’s review management capabilities ensure you never miss a message (or a chance to engage) by centralizing reviews from Facebook, Glassdoor, Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Play Store and Apple App Store in one place.

You can also conduct sentiment analysis in Sprout’s Smart Inbox and Reviews feed. Sprout will automatically assign sentiment to messages in your Smart Inbox and Reviews, but you can dig in further by adding filters and custom views.

Social media and consumer behavior: An ongoing transformation

Social media leveled the playing field between buyers and brands. Consumers can learn about and engage with brands more easily, and vice versa. Brands can listen to what matters to their audience at the most individual level and help solve problems faster.

Thanks to social, consumers expect much more from the businesses they support. With the right tools, organizations of any size can rise to the challenge.

Looking to learn more about social media and consumer behavior and the right next steps? Learn more data insights in The Sprout Social Index™.

The post 6 ways social media impacts consumer behavior appeared first on Sprout Social.

From the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend to devoted subcultures like #BookTok, brands are finding creative and authentic ways to position and sell their products or services directly to TikTok audiences. You can too, by making engaging and helpful short videos that speak directly to your audience’s interests.

But where do you begin? In this article, we break down the top 15 strategies for how to make money on TikTok, updated to include changes to the creator fund announced in November 2023.

Table of Contents

• Join the TikTok Creativity Program/ Creator Fund
• Run TikTok ads
• Collect tips or donations
• Collaborate with a creator
• Try affiliate marketing
• Grow and sell TikTok accounts
• Publish sponsored posts
• Create a Patreon account
• Sell your products and merchandise
• Set up a TikTok shop
• Offer exclusive content on TikTok
• Provide virtual gifts
• Host live events or workshops
• Offer personalized shoutouts
• Sell digital products

1. Join the TikTok Creativity Program/ Creator Fund

Since 2020 TikTok has offered its most popular creators a program to monetize content. In November 2023 TikTok announced some changes to how this works, depending on where you are located in the world. TikTok are shutting down the Creator Fund for users in the US, UK, Germany and France and replacing it with the Creativity Program starting December 16th.

TikTok says the new fund will enable creators in these countries to make more money for video uploads over a minute. To join, users must have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days. Earnings will also be based on views and other TikTok engagement metrics.

Are you a creator in Italy and Spain? Users in these countries can still monetize their profiles through the TikTok Creator Fund. Creators need to hit some prerequisites to join the program and begin receiving money from the platform. Creator Fund members earn money based on the number of engagements they get on their content.

2. Run TikTok ads

About 67% of 18-19 year olds and 56% of 20-29 year olds are on TikTok. This makes TikTok marketing a strong advertising choice for brands wanting to market their products to Gen Z. TikTok ads come with simple, powerful tools to help you advertise to millions of users. Ad formats vary by region, but all let you personalize your targeting by age, location, interest and other factors. You can select one or a few formats that work best for your brand.

The most popular types of TikTok ads include:

In-feed video: Appear on the For You Page of TikTok users who meet your targeting parameters.

Brand takeover: This lets your ad expand to the width of the whole screen for a few seconds. Then it becomes an in-feed video ad.

Hashtag challenges: Create appealing challenges that encourage user-generated content. These challenges appear in the Discovery section on TikTok. This option is only available to managed brands that work in collaboration with TikTok sales representatives.

There are several more types of TikTok ads you can experiment with, but note that some are only available to certain types of accounts.

3. Collect tips or donations

TikTok has introduced a tipping feature that allows select creators to earn money from tips and donations. Fans can use this feature to show gratitude to the creators they love.

Video gifts let viewers send creators virtual gifts and coins. Some creators can collect gifts during a live stream. Gifts can be redeemed for Diamonds—TikTok’s digital currency.

When you save up enough Diamonds, you can trade them for real cash.

Creators can also use tipping platforms to earn money. Tipeee, Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee can be connected to your TikTok account to function as a tip jar.

4. Collaborate with a creator

The latest Sprout Social Index™ shows that 33% of Gen Z and 28% of Millennials value brand/creator content collaborations. TikTok’s thriving community of content creators makes it an excellent channel for collaborating with influential people with highly engaged communities.

The key is to collaborate with the right creators who can authentically position your brand to their audience, as creator-made branded content has 83% higher engagement rates.

TikTok’s Creator Marketplace is where you can connect with content creators on the network. In a few steps, you can find influencers and run campaigns with them. Locate creators based on business goals, budget and industry, and find comprehensive performance and audience metrics for data-driven decision-making.

TikTok has some eligibility requirements for the Creator Marketplace, so only select creators can join. This assures marketers that creators they partner with are some of TikTok’s top influencers.

5. Try affiliate marketing

Through affiliate marketing programs, creators and other businesses can promote and sell another company’s products or services for a commission.

To be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to generate sales online. Focus on promoting products that best align with your target audience. Create engaging videos that present affiliate products, showcasing the value and why you recommend purchasing them. Try promoting brands you like and trust, sharing affiliate links or codes to track purchases influenced by your account.

If a follower makes a purchase through the link or code provided, then you will receive a commission from the brand for that sale. TikTok doesn’t allow personal accounts to place clickable links within video descriptions. But you can ask followers to copy and paste links into their browsers, or enter special codes at checkout. Sites like Beacons allow you to create a free webpage containing affiliate links and details for products being promoted. If you have a business account, you can add a link in your bio.

If you’re an in-house marketer, create an affiliate marketing program with clear guidelines and instructions on how to participate. Invite TikTokers who align with your brand values and target audience to participate. Encourage affiliates to promote the products or services that best align with your goals and shared audience. And most importantly, implement a tracking system so you can monitor affiliate performance and commission payments.

6. Grow and sell TikTok accounts

Organically growing a TikTok account could take months. However, you can buy an established account to get an instant boost of followers.

To successfully make money selling TikTok accounts, creators should focus on niche topics that can be sustained by the buyer. This will make it easier for the buyer to continue posting similar content and maintain follower engagement.

Brands considering buying an established account should perform due diligence. An account with a lot of followers but low engagement may not provide the return you’re looking for. Also, ensure the account serves an audience you target and the content aligns with your brand and goals.

Brands can purchase an account with active followers from platforms like 123accs, Accfarm and Fameswap.

7. Publish sponsored posts

For smaller activations, brands can sponsor posts that live directly on creators’ profiles. Similar to creator collaborations, these campaigns allow brands to pay content creators to promote their products in organic posts. Sponsor single posts or create a series. If it starts trending, you can boost the post to expand its reach even further.

8. Create a Patreon account

A Patreon account lets creators generate revenue from fans through memberships that allow exclusive access to content. Use TikTok to promote membership sign-ups.

Try to keep your subscription costs low to encourage subscribers and consider rewarding new subscribers. For example, giving away merchandise or exclusive content access to your most loyal followers. Add the link to your Patreon page in your videos or add it to your bio to make it easy for followers to subscribe whenever they are ready.

9. Sell your products and merchandise

Merchandise, merchandise, merchandise. This tried-and-true strategy applies to TikTok as well. Turn original artwork, quotes or your brand’s logo into merch and promote it on TikTok. Feature your existing products in tutorials or showcase your product alongside a trend.

Listen to your audience if you are unsure what to sell. Create polls or ask them directly to learn what they might buy.

If you have a personal account, create an ecommerce website to process sales transactions and promote it on your TikTok account. Add the store to your videos, and encourage your followers to check out your products.

If you have a TikTok Business account, you can connect platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Square Online and Ecwid store to your account.

10. Set up a TikTok shop

TikTok partnered with Shopify to launch the TikTok Shopping feature. Brands and creators can become official TikTok merchants and sell directly in the app.

By creating a TikTok Shop, you can showcase products on in-feed videos, lives and product showcase tabs. If eligible for this feature, you can signup to become a seller in the TikTok Seller Center, where you can manage inventory, orders, creator partnerships, promotions and more. However, the seller center is only available in select regions.

11. Offer exclusive content on TikTok

TikTok just launched a new monetization feature in June of 2023 called TikTok Series. This new feature is a way to create exclusive content that lives behind a paywall.

Interested creators can apply to get access to this new feature, but there are other criteria they need to meet as well:

• Creators must be 18+
• Their account must be at least 30 days old
• They must have at least 10,000 followers
• They must have posted 3+ public videos in the last 30 days
• They must have at least 1,000 views in the last 30 days

Creators who have less than 10,000 followers may still be eligible if they can provide a link to premium content they’ve successfully sold on other platforms.

Your Series can include up to 80 videos total, each up to 20 minutes long. This can be a great way to provide valuable educational content to your audience for a one-time fee. You can set the price for each TikTok Series you create, with payment options ranging from $0.99 to $189.99.

12. Provide virtual gifts

Another monetization feature is virtual gifts on your videos. People who really enjoy your content can send you virtual gifts as a token of their appreciation—which can then be converted into actual money.

Turn on the gift option to have a small gift box icon appear next to the comment box. Users interested in leaving a gift can tap it to visit this interface:

Coin packages can be bought in the following increments:

• 20 coins: $0.29
• 65 coins: $0.99
• 330 coins: $4.99
• 660 coins: $9.99
• 1,321 coins: $19.99
• 3,303 coins: $49.99
• 6,607 coins: $99.99
• 16,500 coins: $249.99

These coins can then be used to buy and send virtual gifts to a user’s favorite creators, with gifts ranging from 5 to 3,000 coins. Turn on virtual gifts to offer this option to your viewers.

13. Host live events or workshops

TikTok Live is another great way to make money. Similar to virtual video gifts, users can also send live gifts. The little gift box icon will appear at the bottom of a live video for users to tap and buy different gifts. The ranges on these are even bigger, with some being just a single coin and others going up to 10s of thousands of coins.

Several TikTok creators have shared how live streaming can be used to make money. One creator makes between $20-$300 every time they go live and another brought in $34,000 within a single month—just from live streaming.

Make sure your live videos are entertaining and valuable so that users keep wanting to tune in. The more consistent viewers you get, the more likely they are to stick around and send you virtual gifts.

14. Offer personalized shoutouts

If you have a large following, TikTokers who want to grow their accounts may be willing to pay for personalized shoutouts. Pick a price point and sell shoutouts as yet another way to make money. Your price may be a bit of trial and error. If you’re getting no bites, you may want to lower it. But on the other hand, if you’re getting a ton of interest, you might be able to increase your price.

You can then shout these people out during a live video or during a feed video. You might even choose to offer two different price points (with feed videos costing more) so that users can choose where they’d like to be shouted out.

15. Sell digital products

Finally, consider selling digital products. You can create a shop with TikTok and link to your digital products from there, making it easy to make a sale. Promote your products within your videos and include your shop’s URL in your profile so users can easily find it.

Learn more about TikTok for business

These strategies can elevate your TikTok game and put you on a clear path to making money on the app. Learn how to get more TikTok followers so you can increase your earning potential even more.

The post How to make money on TikTok: 15 strategies to use in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Your Speakers:

The post Begin, Budget & Build Your Influencer Strategy with Andrea Casanova appeared first on Sprout Social.

From influencer marketing growth stats to data surrounding the top three influencer marketing platforms, learn more about the state of this marketing strategy and how to get started.

Jump to an influencer marketing stat category:

• Influencer marketing growth statistics
• Influencer marketing advertising statistics
• Influencer marketing budget statistics
• Influencer marketing statistics for TikTok
• Influencer marketing statistics for Instagram
• Influencer marketing statistics for YouTube

Influencer marketing growth statistics

Influencer marketing has been steadily growing over the years and is showing no sign of stopping. Learn more about the industry and its projections for the future.

1. The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $21.2 billion worldwide in 2023

The influencer marketing industry was worth just $1.7 billion back in 2016. It hit $16.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase by another $5 billion this year. This exponential growth demonstrates the health of this industry.

2. Instagram is the top influencer marketing platform worldwide

89% of marketers agreed that Instagram was the number one influencer marketing platform. YouTube came in second at 70% and Facebook in third at 45%. Interestingly enough, TikTok was excluded from this survey, though we do know that TikTok influencer marketing is also a big deal.

3. The global influencer marketing platform industry is expected to hit $22.2 billion by 2025

Influencer marketing platforms have also been popping up regularly to assist in a number of related tasks: finding influencers, partnering them with brands, creating contracts, planning campaigns and more. So there’s no surprise that the platform market size is also growing. It hit $15.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $22.2 billion by 2025.

Influencer marketing advertising statistics

Social media advertising is also a big part of influencer marketing. Promoting your influencer content can help improve the overall reach of your campaigns. Let’s dig into some stats surrounding influencer marketing advertising.

4. Influencer marketing ad spend worldwide is projected to reach $30.81 billion in 2023

Brands are expected to spend $30.81 billion on influencer marketing advertising throughout 2023. This spending is expected to increase to $47.80 billion by 2027.

5. The average ad spend per user in the influencer marketing industry is $5.78

Influencer marketing ad spend evens out to around $5.78 per internet user. This is expected to increase over the coming years.

6. The most influencer marketing ad spend is in China

China is the country with the largest influencer marketing ad spend at $16.76 billion.

Influencer marketing budget statistics

How much are brands spending on influencer marketing? As the industry increases, more and more marketing and social media budgets are allotted to influencer marketing.

7. 39% of brands worldwide have worked with only 10 influencers or less

39% of brands have worked with 10 influencers or less. 21% of brands have worked with 10-50 influencers, 16% with 50-100 influencers, 11% with 100-1,000 and 12% with a whopping 1,000+ influencers.

8. 25% of brands worldwide put 10-20% of their marketing budget towards influencer marketing

20% of brands put less than 10% of their marketing budget towards working with influencers, 25% of brands put 10-20% towards influencers, 18% of brands dedicate 20-30% of their budget to influencer marketing, 13% give 30-40% of their budget and 23% of brands focus 40% or more of their marketing budget on their influencer marketing efforts.

9. Brands are expected to spend $7.14 billion on influencer marketing domestically in 2024

Increasing from $2.42 billion in 2019, brands are now expecting to spend a total of $7.14 billion on influencer marketing in 2024.

TikTok influencer marketing statistics

TikTok and the short-form videos it boasts are a popular format for influencer marketing. Learn more about TikTok influencers and why this is such a powerful platform.

10. There are over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the U.S.

As of June 2023, there were over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the United States, with follower counts ranging from 5,000 all the way to 1,000,000+.

11. The majority of U.S. TikTok influencers have 50,000-100,000 followers

Nearly 2,000 TikTok influencers have 5,000-10,000 followers, 25,000 have 10,000-50,000, 42,000 have 50,000-100,000 followers, 35,000 have 100,000-250,000, 23,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 9,000 have over 1 million followers.

12. Shein, Target and Netflix are the three most-mentioned brands on TikTok worldwide

Shein has been mentioned by 13,400 TikTok influencers, Target by 11,200 influencers and Netflix by 8,500 influencers.

Instagram influencer marketing statistics

Instagram influencer marketing is a must-use strategy for many brands, especially considering most marketers agree it’s the top influencer marketing platform. Learn more about the state of influencers on this social network.

13. There are over 500,000 influencers on Instagram

With over 500,000 active influencers operating on Instagram, it’s no wonder this is the number one influencer marketing platform. There are so many influencers in various niches, giving brands of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to partner up.

14. 65.39% of Instagram influencers worldwide have less than 10,000 followers

The vast majority of Instagram influencers are nano-influencers, with less than 10,000 followers. 27.73% of Instagram influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, 6.38% have 50,000 to 500,000, just 0.28% have between 500,000 to 1,000,000 and only 0.23% have more than 1 million followers.

15. 14.32% of all Instagram influencers are lifestyle influencers

The biggest category of Instagram influencers is lifestyle influencers. Next, we see music influencers (8.5%), beauty influencers (7.63%) and family influencers (5.74%).

16. Instagram influencers worldwide charge anywhere from $20-7,000+ per post

Nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) tend to charge $20-100 per post, micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) charge between $35-450, mid-influencers (50k-500k followers) charge between $150-2,500, macro-influencers (500k-1m followers) charge between $250-7,000) and mega or celebrity influencers (1m+ followers) charge $1,200 and up.

17. Instagram, Zara and Shein are the three most-mentioned brands on Instagram worldwide

Instagram has been mentioned by 85,500 Instagram influencers, Zara by 66,400 influencers and Shein by 57,200 influencers.

18. Instagram influencers worldwide with less than 10,000 followers have the highest engagement rates

Nano-influencers, or influencers with less than 10,000 followers, have the highest engagement rate at 2.53%. Micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 1.06%, mid-influencers come in at 0.91%, macro-influencers at 0.86% and mega-influencers at 0.92%. The average engagement rate of Instagram influencers is 1.9%.

YouTube influencer marketing stats

Finally, let’s cover YouTube influencer marketing stats and what the state of this long-form video platform and its affiliate with influencers looks like.

19. There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the U.S.

There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the United States. We don’t have global data, but we can assume there are even more potential influencers to partner with on YouTube globally.

20. The majority of U.S. YouTube influencers have 10,000-50,000 subscribers

Nearly 70,000 YouTube influencers have 5,000-10,000 subscribers, over 300,000 have 10,000-50,000, nearly 30,000 have 50,000-100,000 subscribers, 27,000 have 100,000-250,000, 20,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 8,000 have over 1 million followers.

21. The top three YouTube influencer categories globally are people and blogs, entertainment and music

The largest category of YouTube influencers (20.6% of influencers) focuses on content surrounding people and blogs. This is followed by entertainment influencers (16.8%), music influencers (13.7%) and video game influencers (12.1%).

22. Steam, AliExpress and Flipkart are the three most-mentioned brands on YouTube worldwide

Steam has been mentioned on YouTube 76,060 times, AliExpress has been mentioned 53,060 times and Flipkart has been mentioned 49,040 times.

Keep these influencer marketing statistics in mind

Want to ramp up your influencer marketing strategy? Knowing these statistics can help. But so can the right influencer marketing tools. Find the best tools for your team so you can start partnering with influencers in your niche.

The post 22 influencer marketing statistics to guide your brand’s strategy in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Maintaining relevance in this new attention economy means rethinking the role of social, and not just within a marketing department—across an entire business. Cementing social’s influence throughout your organization today can future-proof your brand for tomorrow.

Use this resource to identify the biggest ways your brand can capitalize on the power of social media in the coming year.

Download The CMO’s Social Marketing Agenda for 2024

The post The CMO’s social media marketing agenda for 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Though the idea might seem infeasible for many social marketers, the L.L.Bean team went “off the grid” for the second year in a row this May in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month.

This initiative was prompted by the desire to embody their brand values, and look out for the well-being of their employees. To quote the company founder, Leon L. Bean, “Being outside brings out the best in us.” So, the social team stepped back from the brand accounts to spend more time hiking, fishing, surfing and finding other ways to spend quality time with loved ones outdoors.

At a time when many social professionals are battling social media burnout, this approach was simultaneously shocking and refreshing. Some skeptics wondered if it was an authentic gesture, or just a way to generate positive PR. But overall it was met with a lot of enthusiasm and support that translated to heightened awareness of the brand’s values and positive performance results.

I asked Hillary Sparks, Senior Manager of Social Media and External Communications at L.L.Bean, for more details about the month-long hiatus, and how she believes other social marketing teams can prioritize their own mental health.

For always-on social marketers, it’s hard to imagine taking an entire month-long “break” from social. Did your team really unplug from L.L.Bean’s presence completely?

Yes. We recognized there would be some risk associated with stepping away from social media for a month, as our brand—like most—uses social media to engage with our customers. However, our customers have been overwhelmingly supportive of this effort over the past two years (many take a social break themselves), and we hear how they appreciate seeing a business commit to its values. And we do keep customer service representatives available to help address any concerns or needs via email throughout the month of May.

How did you spend the break? What did other team members do?

Personally, I treated the brand’s social media pause as a rest period that allowed me the space to prioritize my well-being. Other team members did the same, and the time away from social allowed us more time to step outside. It’s always fun when we return to social at the beginning of June and we’re able to share what our L.L.Bean team has been up to, and see how our fans and followers spent their time outside during the month.

Professionally, my team took our weekly meetings off the calendar for the first two weeks of May to create intentional focus time. We used the pause as an opportunity to get a jump on planning for our June return and beyond. We’re always looking back to plan ahead, and May presented an opportunity to do that without the pressure of publishing content.

Why did you originally pitch the idea for spending #MentalHealthMonth off the grid? How did you get leadership and stakeholder buy-in?

Our founder Leon L. Bean believed that nature is the most powerful antidote to the stresses of life, taking to his camp and the outdoors as often as he could. His conviction has always been part of our brand ethos, and we’ve spent the past few years exploring the benefits of experiencing “awe” outdoors, in partnership with the University of California, Irvine’s Dr. Paul Piff and through our partnership with Mental Health America.

The initial idea to go “off the grid” came just weeks before May 1, 2022. It was like an “aha” moment, and once it was spoken aloud, we knew we had to work to put all of the pieces into place. Of course, leadership and internal stakeholders had some initial concerns about not engaging on social channels for a month, but the risks were outweighed by our collective commitment to L.L.Bean’s purpose. It was clear that leading by example and honoring Mental Health Awareness Month with an authentic gesture was the only way to do it.

In addition to going off the grid in May, L.L.Bean offers other year-long employee programs to ensure team members have paid time off to explore the outdoors. We also employ a manager of wellness operations who oversees the implementation of programs and resources designed specifically for the well-being of our employees every month of the year—not just in May.

Were you worried about how it would impact your future social performance?

Of course! It’s a risk shuttering channels any time, and being offline during May meant we could miss engaging with customers who were planning for a summer season of adventures. It all came down to risk versus reward. We explored the implications of being perceived as unresponsive from a customer service perspective, losing followers due to inactivity and forgoing a month of community engagement, growth and sales potential. But it quickly became clear that the opportunity outweighed the threats, and the risk paid off.

Customers have been overwhelmingly supportive, celebrating our brand for living up to our purpose. The social performance and growth from 2023’s time spent off the grid further solidified our commitment to make this a recurring, growing effort.

It’s reassuring that your YoY impressions were actually up 95% during May. Do you credit the social media pause for your success?

Our YoY impressions being up indicates that L.L.Bean’s customers value our commitment to our purpose and to their well-being. Our customers have seen us commit to this break for multiple years and have continued to engage with our brand. It’s important to note that our decision to pause organic social media was largely driven by our desire to help our customers get outside to prioritize their mental health. We want to encourage them to get outside more often and experience the benefits of nature.

What do you think the overall impact on your business was?

Our Mental Health Month initiatives further established us as a purpose-led company. We have spent the past 111 years helping people get outside, with the understanding that spending time outdoors is good for our bodies and our minds. Through our Off the Grid campaign, we were able to reach new customers who weren’t yet familiar with our brand’s values. From these new fans to legacy customers, we enjoyed engaging with our community and boosting awareness of what we stand for.

What surprised you most during the month-long break?

What surprised us the most was that our customers were as engaged as ever. Our sales were solid, and our customers’ offline engagement with the brand was strong. We were still able to connect with our customers through our partnerships with Strava and Mental Health America, providing them with resources to make the most of their time spent outside.

What advice would you give to other social marketers who want to advocate for mental health? Do you think it’s only achievable for teams in the outdoor industry?

We live in a world with constant distractions and stressors, which has made us more acutely aware of the importance of prioritizing our mental health. At L.L.Bean, we do that by spending time outside. But more broadly, the topic of mental well-being is relevant to any brand. We would encourage companies to find their voice in the conversation in ways that are authentic to their values and community.

How do you think other social marketers can take care of their mental health?

I‘m encouraged by efforts to make social media a more positive, uplifting space. And I’m sure any marketer will tell you that part of the excitement of the work comes from the ever-evolving social landscape. But it’s all about balance. So, I encourage everyone to step away when you can, even if it’s just 10 minutes spent outside.

To learn more about protecting your mental health in your social media career, read our guide to finding a healthy balance with social media.

The post L.L.Bean’s social team went off the grid: Here’s how you can do it, too appeared first on Sprout Social.

As social media teams across the world figure out strategies to not only incorporate Threads  but also excel at it, this webinar will examine what we’ve learnt so far and explore thoughts on what we think is in store. 

Hear insights from social media consultant and industry analyst, Matt Navarra, and Senior Social Media Manager from financial favourite and industry disrupter, Monzo.

You will learn:

• The current state of Threads and how early adopter brands leverage its capabilities
• How businesses can use Threads for community building, customer care and more
• Key distinctions and differentiations between Threads strategy vs. other social channels
• Predictions for 2024 and beyond

Your speakers:

The post The Rise and Fall Of New Platforms: What Threads Has Taught Us About Emerging Social Media appeared first on Sprout Social.

But if you work in a highly regulated, “serious”, or niche industry, it might seem like you don’t belong on the trend-setting platform. That’s an understandable feeling. When lists of brands to watch and the majority of viral posts feature B2C brands, it’s easy to feel like your brand has nothing to say—but that couldn’t be further from the truth. No matter your industry, you can make waves on TikTok.

Check out our panel discussion with brands from unexpected brands and industries that are leveraging creative tactics to make the most out of their TikTok presence.

We’ll discuss:

• Challenges that “serious” or regulated brands face on TikTok and how brands can overcome these obstacles 
• Examples of TikToks from the nonprofit, SaaS, and technology sectors that made waves on the platform and what you can learn from them
• Top tips for how unexpected industries can leverage TikTok to build their brand and community

Your Speakers:

The post TikTok for “Serious” Industries & Brands appeared first on Sprout Social.