But whatever you do, don’t buy shares (or likes, comments, or followers). At best, you’ll hear crickets. At worst, you’ll earn a platform suspension or a permanent ban.
To-do list:
- Get really clear on who you’re making content for and what they care about.
- Investigate your top-shared posts using a tool like Hootsuite Analytics. What made them so successful? How can you repeat those wins?
- Before you post new content, run it through a shareability test like Karten’s. If your target audience isn’t likely to share your post, what can you adjust to hook them?
- Start paying attention to shares in your regular marketing reports.
6. Telegram might become the next super app
You already know the group chat is the new Facebook status (see trend #4), which is why messaging apps like Telegram are in such a sweet position to skyrocket this year. The privacy-focused chat platform has over 800 million monthly active users and gets around 2.5 million new sign-ups per day. (Seeing the dollar signs yet?)
Although Telegram has been around since 2013, it didn’t become the full-fledged social media network it is today until much more recently. That’s thanks in part to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has consistently used the app to communicate during the war with Russia.
What was once an app for sending secure messages to friends now has many enticing social features. And the platform continues to add more, which is why we think it’s in a strong position to become one of the next super apps.
Some current Telegram features include:
- Group chats (up to 1,000 users), secret chats, and video chats
- Support for media, links, files, music, and voice in chats
- Stories that let you share photos and videos for a limited duration
- Broadcast channels for sending out messages to large audiences
- Payment bots to send money between buyers and sellers
- Telegram Passport for secure personal identification verification
- Sponsored messaging via the Telegram Ad Platform
The app added an advertising platform in 2021, which allows brands to send sponsored messages to channels with 1,000+ subscribers. Marketers might want to consider integrating Telegram into their paid strategies and striking while the iron is hot on this platform.
To-do list:
- Government agencies, in particular, might consider following Zelensky’s lead and creating broadcast channels on the app to keep citizens informed with less risk.
- Cross-promote your broadcast channel (with links) to your audience on your other social media networks.
- Sign up for the Telegram Ad Platform and experiment with sponsored messaging.