How to make social media work for my business?
It is a daunting question for many small and medium-sized business owners, startups and entrepreneurs. At times, using social media to promote your brand or business can even be a frightening task for large companies that fail to craft effective social media strategies.
As difficult as the question may be, when you turn around, you also see many businesses successfully using social media to grow their business.
How are they doing it? Do they use something you don’t?
The answer is a straight yes!
You may already have used your personal Facebook account, LinkedIn account, and Twitter to promote your business, but all your effort may have gone in vain. Frequently posting your business updates from your personal social accounts does not equip you with the experience you need to use social media for business.
In this post we are going to explore the effective tools you can use in planning social media.
As an entrepreneur, you already know the role of social media in reaching out to your niche in a more targeted, efficient and cost-effective way. Whenever your potential customers are in need of a product or service, they normally log into their social media accounts to check what businesses have to offer.
Customers not only visit the social pages of your business, but also those of your competitors. Customers have become savvier, they not only look for the required product or service, but also what interesting content you are posting and what other people are saying about your business or brand.
Meanwhile, the number of businesses planning social media as part of their overall marketing campaign is growing at a speed never witnessed before. At the same time, many businesses are finding their social media plan and strategies ineffective.
No matter what type of business you are in, a judiciously crafted social media plan can be an effective tool in increasing your visibility, growth, and sales.
Expanding your social media use does not means that you choose whatever social media platform is trending at the moment or use tools that worked for other brands. Your business is different and so are your potential customers. It means you have to choose those platforms and practices that are in tune with your fundamental business strategy.
What worked for another company does not guarantee that it would work for you as well. The key is to first find which social media platforms your customers use, and then go ahead to establish your social media existence on those targeted platforms.
Here are some facts about social media platforms to help you find the one your customers are using:
With 20 million active users, Pinterest offer the largest number of opportunities to business owners. Millions of entrepreneurs are already using it to the advantage of their businesses. This social network is all about discovery. Most Pinterest users use the site to find solution to their needs, mostly pertaining to:
- Décor
- Crafts and DIY
- Cooking and recipes
- Fashion
- Health and fitness
This opens many windows of opportunities for you. If your business is providing product or services that relate to any of these areas, you can tap into the huge number of opportunities Pinterest has to offer.
When it comes to the type of Pinterest users, here are the findings:
- Females make up a majority (83 percent) of Pinterest users
- Male population on Pinterest is in minority (17 percent)
This means that if your business is catering to the needs of women, a whole market exists out there on Pinterest for you to grow your business. You can even reach out to the male population if you are targeting a particular niche of the male market.
Twitter is a micro blogging platform having 241 million active users. Below are more specific facts about Twitter:
- It has the largest penetration in the US
- The number of Twitter users is increasing slowly and steadily
- It has a limit on the number of characters you can post; each of your post must not exceed 140 characters
- 5,700 tweets happen every second
These findings suggest that Twitter is among the best tools for your business if you are targeting US based customers. There are chances that you can find your niche among the huge number of active Twitter users. You can reach out to your potential audience through active and targeted tweeting and establishing rapport with them. If you’re then wanting to increase the actual number of your followers instead of potential reach, you then might be interested in browsing through a page such as https://tweeteev.com/get-started or similar, that can offer follower increasing services for social media accounts.
Businesses across the world are using Twitter to create awareness, generate leads and stay connected with customers. The best things you can do is:
- Creating a separate Twitter account for your brand or business
- Using your bio, images and Tweets to reach out to your target audience and let them know who you are
- Use Twitter’s # hash tag feature to your advantage
- Write and post Tweets that trigger exchange with your brand’s followers and encourage them to Retweet your posts
- Keep your followers engaged
With more than 1 billion users across the world, Facebook has grown to become a social media giant. It is a social sharing platform that offers you immense opportunities.
Let’s get down to the facts:
- Facebook lets you communicate with your target market in a non-obtrusive way.
- Facebook users share 1 million links every 20-minute.
With such a huge number of users and sharing, Facebook provides you a great opportunity. In fact, among the more than one billion users, you have your niche and target audience.
However, this does not mean that you have to use your personal Facebook account to reach out to your target customers. Facebook has introduced pages for businesses.
You can create a page for your business within your personal Facebook account, but a page is completely different from your personal account. It has pre-installed functions that would enable you to effectively reach your target audience.
To start with,
- Create a page for your business or brand
- Identify your target market or niche
- Find your target audience
- Come up with compelling content
- Do frequent posting
- Share content, especially visuals, that relate to the lives of your target customers
- Use Facebook’s advertisement option to gain more targeted followers for a small amount
- Stay connected and engaged with your audience
Instagram is all about sharing pictures and 15-second-long videos. Here are some facts about this social sharing app:
- Instagram has 200 million active users
- Brands are participating through the use of # hash tags
- Brands are also posting images users can relate to
- National Geographic has the largest number of followers on Instagram
We are living in an age of visuals and Instagram just works on that. People have great love for visuals and this brings you the opportunity. Remember, a picture speaks more than a thousand words.
Among Instagram’s 200 million active users, you may find your target audience. What the best thing businesses can do is to come up with images that can relate to the users. You also get the option of making and posting 15-second-long videos relating to your business and lives of your target market on Instagram.
Here are some tips to get your business started on Instagram:
- Create an Instagram account for your business or brand
- Read the Instagram business blog to get acquainted with how to use the network for your business
- Post images that are related to your business, but have some fun element in them
- Create a following by connecting Instagram with your Facebook account, using hash tags and engaging with other people
- Use Instagram’s video option to feature your brand with some fun element in your videos
- Follow back when someone follows you
Google+
Google+ is a social network site built by Google. Not only does being active help with SEO from our experience as the best SEO company Toronto has ever seen, with 540 million active users, chances are you will find your target market among them.
Here are some facts about Google+
- Google+ allows brands and users to build circles
- Not many brands are active on Google+, but the ones that tend to be active have great following.
- Age of active users range between 25 and 35 years.
If your target market is aged between 25 and 35 years, Google+ is your domain. If you stay active and engaged with your niches, you may be able to grow and promote your business.
Here is how to get started on Google+:
- Create a Google+ page for your business or brand
- Complete your profile, verify your page and get your vanity URL
- Connect your Google+ account with your YouTube channel
- Start sharing and grow your audience
- Keep your audient engaged through creative and fun content
- Use visuals
LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals and business-oriented individuals. It provides space for professionals and businesspersons to network and find new opportunities, be it employment or professional growth or finding new leads for your business.
Here are some facts about LinkedIn that would help you in deciding if it is the right social networking platform to use for your business:
- Majority of the brands participating on LinkedIn are corporate brands
- Brands and companies are using LinkedIn to stay connected with professionals
- Businesses are using LinkedIn to hire talent
- LinkedIn accounts for powering 50 percent of the world’s hires
- It has 300 million active users
LinkedIn is for your business if you are in someway catering to the needs of professionals and helping to grow and groom them professionally. If you are in the B2B business, LinkedIn has the potential to help grow your business. And if you are planning to hire talent for your business, you can find them on LinkedIn.
Here are some tips to get started on LinkedIn:
- Create a LinkedIn account
- Complete your profile with relevant information
- Create a LinkedIn page for your business or brand
- Build connections and stay on the radar of others
- Connect with relevant people in your industry
- Connect with people who work in your target industry
Conclusion
To sum it up, the key to success of using social media for business is finding social media platforms your target audience uses and then establishing your presence on those platforms. Once you find the right social media platform, you should craft a content plan that should list and describe the content you would be sharing and posting.
Never forget to take a systematic approach to your content strategy because it will let you stay organized and consistent when sharing across your social platforms. Your content plan should answer questions like how recurrently you will post, how will you compute and analyze the results and impacts of your content, and how will you make sure to reach out to maximum audience with your selected social networks.
You should also make it certain that you post articles, blogs, images and videos that are interesting, engaging and compelling enough to be shared. If you are posting updates like “check out our new offers,” you should stop it right away because your audiences will quickly un-follow your page with such updates.
Put some effort into content development and try to come up with posts that are interesting, fun-laden and relevant to your product or service at the same time. For example, if you are managing a clothing line, you could come up with a video showing the design and manufacture processes of a trending fashion item. It would be interesting and compelling enough for your audience to share, ultimately bringing you sales.
How would you know if your social media presence is working and bringing you leads? The best thing you can do is track your social media impact and check how many leads were generated form the platforms you are using. You should answer questions like:
- How many people are following my business or brand on each platform?
- What are those people saying about my brand or business?
- What are the expectations of my brand’s followers?
- What is the customer conversion rate form my overall social media presence?
- How is my business’s social media presence impacting my revenue and profit?
The takeaway: Selecting the right social networks and practices, making your objectives clear, generating and sharing interesting and relevant content frequently and measuring your social media performance are the keys to a guaranteed social media success.
About The Author
