While social media algorithms and trends are always changing, one thing still holds true: content is king. This means that brands must constantly revisit and update their content strategies to remain relevant in the online conversation. Even the smallest adjustments can keep consumers interested, bring in new followers and take advantage of the platforms’ ever changing algorithms.

Below are five ways to make sure your brand’s content is king.

The uphill climb that is obtaining genuine engagement on social media can quickly become tiresome for even the most seasoned marketing professionals. As social media platforms continuously make reaching customers organically more and more difficult, marketers must think on their feet a bit in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Gone are the days when each and every post put up by a business page was shown to all of the page’s followers. Gone are the days when businesses had no trouble gaining traction on social media, thanks to all of the tools available to improve the interactions between businesses and consumers.

While no one can say with certainty what lies ahead for marketers in 2021, a glimpse at historical data may help answer some questions. An analysis of more than 22 million posts from over 56,000 business sites identified some revealing industry benchmarks on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The study was conducted over the course of more than a year and a half by SocialInsider between January 2019 and October 2020. Because the study began way before the pandemic and ran through nearly nine months of it, SocialInsider broke down some of its findings.

As much as a genius as physicist Isaac Newton was, he couldn’t have been farther off the mark had he been talking about web searches today when he said, “No great discovery was made without a bold guess.”

Brands depend on consumers finding them easily and successfully without having to guess. Content or SEO gap analysis arms marketers with information that will help them “fill the gap” to discovery.

The pandemic has made some notable structural changes in the global economy, with many businesses looking towards e-commerce as the best way to move forward. With everyone staying in their homes, this market was primed for exponential growth, precisely what happened this year.

As consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the economy, businesses and marketers are constantly looking for opportunities to sell highly popular products. One of the quickest and most effective ways to do this is via pay-per-click advertising.

The digital marketing leaders are constantly monitoring their companies’ digital performance over time, and have benchmarks in place to see if the strategies are working, and with those benchmarks, they’re also able to compare their strategies with the best industry brands.

This is how digital marketers can keep track of the overall brand image and prioritize digital investments according to the company’s biggest digital marketing opportunities – whether they are in already established or newly emerging digital channels.

Today’s reliance on social media platforms to search and shop by all generations continues to shine a light on every social media marketing phase. Somewhat forgotten, however, is the collective impact that’s resulted and which requires a team effort to achieve success.

Why is this important? Unifying the process eliminates some of the chaos caused by having to follow up with others in the chain, tracking “to-dos” and checking approvals. There will be less second=guessing and less tracking. Add to that the decreased likelihood of such things as misinformation, mistimed promotions, broken links, and off-brand Tweets or posts.

Crises come and go, and many, like the pandemic, can’t even be foreseen. Nonetheless, those that seriously affect the brand, its employees, operations, and leadership can have devastating and long-lasting effects. The acceleration of social media has added to the challenges of crisis communications, an impact that a Pentland Analytics study says has doubled the impact on shareholder value.

The study also found that those companies that responded well saw an average increase in the value of 20% while those that didn’t experience a 30% decrease. In a world where today’s COVID-19 crisis is much bigger than the brand but can have a tremendous effect on its business and operations, it’s highly advisable and not too late to craft and employ a social media crisis management strategy.