Businesses may have gotten away with avoiding social media in the past, preferring other advertising methods, but that’s not realistic anymore. Potential customers are on social media whether you come to the party or not. Talk about FOMO (fear of missing out)... Your company could be missing out in a big way if you do not take advantage of these free platforms.
Social media is one of the last free ways to engage with consumers, spotlight your brand, and direct people to your website. Learn more about how to make the most of your business social media so you can build up your consumer base and bring success to your company.
Top Social Media Platforms for Businesses
If you are ready to dip your toes into the social media pond, where do you start? You don’t necessarily need to sign up for every single social media network out there. You need to use your time and energy wisely. So which platforms are right for you? Should you hop on the Gram or Tweet your way to success? Should you Pin it, post it on Facebook, or share articles on LinkedIn?
You will need to do your research carefully because each business is different, and some will benefit more from certain platforms than others. For instance, Pinterest and Instagram are great places for visual businesses, such as flower shops, creators, or even graphic designers. But LinkedIn might be a better option for businesses that work in the jobs industry or marketing.
Here is a list of some of the top social media platforms you should look into:
- YouTube
- TikTok
Keep in mind that the internet is constantly changing, and what is popular today could drop off in a year or two. We already waved goodbye to Google , MySpace, Friendster, and others. You need to be able to adapt and keep up with changes in how people use social media.
What Should You Post?
Maybe you have decided which platforms are right for your business, but what are you supposed to post? The type of content you post will vary depending on your business’s services or products. What is most important when posting on social media channels is that the content is high quality and extremely useful to your target audience.
People will naturally engage with content that helps them somehow in their lives. For example, how-tos, blogs, guides, or tips and tricks are great things to post on social media.
Let’s say you are a handyman with a goal of brand building on the socials. You can share DIY guides and how-tos for simple tasks around the house. Potential clients can try out your tips for small projects, and when things go well, they will remember your brand. They may even bookmark that handy blog post for later use. Then when they have a larger task they don’t feel confident tackling on their own, they will look up that handyman who helped them out.
No matter what you share or post, it needs to be relevant to your business and practical for your audience. People are more likely to share, like, or engage with posts that they think will help them or someone they care about.
How Often Should You Share on Social Media?
There is no firm rule for how frequently you should share on social media, but there is a general guideline—often. Consumers have short attention spans, and they could forget about your company easily if you aren’t regularly posting content that is engaging, relevant, and meaningful to their lives. At least once a week is recommended for social media engagement, but once a month should be the absolute minimum. Many companies with successful social media followings post several times a day.
One of the easiest ways to ensure you are posting regularly is to set up a calendar. This can keep you organized, keep you sharing social media content on a frequent basis, and help you reach a wider audience. Posting regularly keeps your brand on consumers’ brains and is an effective strategy for advertising your goods or services to potential customers.
There are also many tools out there that can help you keep up a daily, weekly, or monthly posting schedule, such as:
- Hootsuite
- SproutSocial
- SocialPilot
- Sendible
- CoSchedule
Tips for Boosting Engagement
Giveaways, free new products you can have consumers test for you, a sneak peak offer, sales, funny videos or media, and customer stories are just some of the ways you can get more people to engage online.
People love a good sale, and they almost never pass up something for free. Want to get the word out about a new product or service? Offer it free to a limited number of customers. Get that buzz going, and you will see your social media engagement grow.
When you have something to offer people, they will engage without all that much effort on your part. Make sure you have something people want, and then get the word out on social media. A few more ways to boost engagement on social platforms:
- Contests and giveaways
- Free products or services
- High-quality content that is a product or service unto itself
- Stories with an emotional impact on consumers
- Content that makes people feel good (think holiday content)
Once you build a following, it gets easier to grow your social media and your business from there.
Tracking Social Media Effectiveness
Finally, how can you be sure your social media strategies are working for you? Maybe you set up an entire social media marketing plan, a social posts schedule, and you are sharing content that seems to be connecting with real people. What are some of the ways you can be sure your efforts on social networking sites are improving brand awareness, bringing you more customers, and benefiting your business’s marketing goals as a whole?
Through tracking, of course.
With the right tools, you can track just about anything online these days. You can track mentions, impressions, clicks, engagements, friends, followers, likes, shares, retweets, leads, and so much more. Some tools even track the demographics of your audience members so you can see who is loving your social media activities. This information can help you focus your posts on particular target audiences.
Many of the scheduling tools shared earlier also provide tools for tracking engagement. For instance, HootSuite provides scheduling services and tracking.
Here are a few more examples of tools for social media tracking:
- Google Analytics
- Buffer
- Keyhole
- TweetDeck
- Agorapulse
- Hubspot
- Trackur
Get Help With Your Social Media Marketing from Social Media Management Experts
Social media is limitless when it comes to how it can help your company thrive, but you may need to get creative to reach the most people. We hope these social media marketing tips will help your company reach new audiences on social media networks. The benefits of social media for businesses are numerous.
But if you aren’t sure that you can take on social media on your own, you could be looking for some help. Social media agencies like Digital Division are here to help businesses succeed in the digital marketing world. A social media campaign can be a challenge for some businesses, but that’s where a social media marketing team can help.
We make sure you don’t neglect the social networking you need to reach customers. We handle your social media goals while you can focus on other tasks needed to build your business. Call us today!