What social media platform is best for my business?
When working on your own business, it can be tricky to know how to direct your marketing and social media efforts in the most impactful way. Rather than spreading yourself too thin, we believe it is more effective to follow the lead of your target market and determine where they spend their time.
By establishing a marketing strategy, you’re more likely to encourage strong engagement with your tribe. Without being clever, you may find yourself blindly assuming social media will result in immediate revenue.
I should be on every platform, yeah?
For the vast majority of businesses, no. While you might find time to post on multiple social media platforms, it’s unlikely you’ll ALSO have time to monitor these audiences.
Maintaining a community on one (or a couple) of platforms is more beneficial than ignoring a large amount of accounts. Liking comments, answering questions and adding value to conversations are all ingredients that help create an engaged and passionate community. Before deciding on your platform of choice, determine what goals you’re wanting to optimise your social media presence for. Knowing what outcome you’re looking to achieve helps you choose the social community that will provide the most benefit to your business.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most popular social media platforms:
Most businesses will choose Facebook as part of their marketing strategy due to its wide-reaching usership and diverse types of content.
Great for:
Most businesses in a B2C (Business to consumer) model will see benefits from using Facebook. It encourages conversations with your community and allows you to easily interact and educate your audience.
Pro Tip:
Posts with images and videos result in the best audience response and engagement on Facebook. Use the opportunity to showcase part of your brand identity through well-considered graphics to build recognisability.
As the most visual social media platform, Instagram suits businesses with heavy photographic content or strong branding identities. While commonly associated with perfectly curated feeds, Instagram also provides an excellent opportunity to share user-generated content and testimonials.
Great for:
Businesses with access to beautifully branded photography and/or products. It’s also a fantastic platform for individuals who are looking to build an influencer-style community.
Pro Tip:
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with constructing the perfect Instagram grid, try utilising the “Stories” function to get started. It gives a face to your brand and provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your business to garner your audience’s interest.
LinkedIn’s model of social networking for business means that content relating to working life is received best here. While originally used for individual networking, LinkedIn has become a reputable platform for sharing new developments in your business.
Great for:
Businesses in B2B (Business to Business) industries looking to build a reputation as a market leader.
Pro Tip:
Spend time crafting out summary and service descriptions with keywords in mind. It helps establish your brand with authority and drives people to learn about your core values and offerings.
Across all these platforms, it is recommended that you post a minimum of three times per week. This provides your audience with fresh content with the added benefit of showing each platform that you’re active and showcase-worthy. Social media is a great way to connect with your customer though it’s important to recognise it’s role in a marketing strategy. While it establishes your business’s personality, time spent on social media is unlikely to springboard an increase in revenue. It’s not a stand-alone marketing tool but rather brings credibility and drives customers to conversion-areas such as a website.
To maximise your business’ impact on social media, get us involved.