Mumbai: The influence of social media is wide-ranging. Everyone uses it everywhere to shape culture, politics, education, careers, business, innovation, and more, whether it is your teenage neighbor who is trying to make Instagram reels, your startup's founder striving to create a voice on LinkedIn, or your 80-year-old tech-savvy grandmother using Facebook to track-down her childhood friends.

Marketers have left no stone unturned to leverage these platforms to increase brand awareness, engage with the audience, and attract followers and buyers. Today, with total social media users equating to over half of the world's population – 4.7 billion worldwide, brands are cashing in on this enormous market to avoid missing out on prospective customers. What was once a source to connect with your friends and family has now become a necessity and a vehicle for disinformation and negative issues.

Discovering the Cause of Stagnation

Beyond promotions, information overload, image building, and swift communication, boredom, content replication, and stagnation have emerged. Log into any of these platforms – from Instagram and Facebook to Twitter – and we know what we will get. Maybe a travel influencer or consumer brand will seldom post something out of the ordinary, but the content is analogous and predictable.

This results from the ever-changing social media trends, increased competition among influencers, and complex algorithms. It is no wonder that most accounts of individual personalities and businesses fail to perform as well as they used to, with a visible downfall in engagement, follower count, and overall return on investment. If you are dealing with such a scenario, it is a sign that your social media strategy has hit a plateau and requires a deliberate revised approach, especially to shatter the grip of the status quo!

Revival for Reversing Social Media Stagnation

Stagnancy on social media is inevitable and bound to occur now and then. Fortunately, it is possible to bounce back from this momentary roadblock. The first step to this journey begins with assessing each platform's success by looking at relevant analytics. Is Instagram underperforming? Is LinkedIn showing slow growth? Has the engagement rate dropped on Facebook? Is there an underlying cause for this, and how can the effect of it be mitigated?

With each platform evaluated, you will have a comprehensive view of where your efforts could be improved or concentrated. An exhaustive examination of existing strategies can reveal such disparities, allowing you to re-distribute your efforts equally and effectively.

Part of the plan to revive your social media strategy also involves taking a fresh approach to your existing channels and exploring new platforms. While 2022 allowed platforms Instagram and TikTok to shine, 2023 shifted the focus to LinkedIn, Twitter, and the newly-launched Instagram Threads. The latter is still nascent; however, individual users and brands are not shying away from experimenting on the platform.

Another important part of the revival strategy entails changing your approach to content creation. Gone are the days of producing a high volume of new content every two to three hours, with little to no relevance to your audience and their evolving interests. Instead of persisting in this futile approach, revisit your existing content and give it a makeover. This could mean fixing outdated information, crediting influencers, adding better-edited videos, adding new insights, and upgrading content.

Lastly, do not undermine the importance of visual content. This year, it is all about visual content, as it has been shown to generate more engagement than any other form. When integrating visuals into your strategy, stick to your brand's imagery and colors to facilitate recognition among users. Utilize GIFs, especially on fast-paced social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Create long and short videos like Reels and TikToks, which considerably boost engagement and attract leads.  

Dare to Zig When Others Zag

It is common for both brands and individual users to hit a social media plateau. But by innovating your existing strategies and experimenting with new channels that entice your target audience, you can revitalize your stagnant business pages and yield positive results for every social media campaign.   

The author of this article is Spicetree Design Agency founder Shiraz Khan