Debunking a popular myth
A common mistake people make when they decide it’s time to create social media accounts for their business is that they need an account on every major social network. Let’s go ahead and discredit that sentiment right away. While there may be some truth in thinking you can reach more people if you have accounts on every platform, that does not mean it is a good plan of attack. There is much more to social media than just pure numbers. Some businesses may have thousands of followers but be less successful than a business with only a couple hundred followers. Social media for businesses is not a popularity contest, it’s about turning followers into customers.
The name of the game
While having a lot of followers may look good, it does not measure success. It is much better to have 100 active and engaged followers than 1000 uninterested, disengaged and inactive followers. At the end of the day, you want to turn your followers into customers so you can make money. You should be trying to attract people within your target demographic who will have an interest in your content and more importantly, your product. Obviously, you need to have high quality, engaging content to attract and maintain the right users. Aside from the content itself, the delivery method is also very important. If your target audience is not plentiful on a certain platform, there is no need to waste time and resources to create content for said platform. Instead, when selecting which sites to use, consider the following:
- Where is my target audience?
- Which site best matches my brand identity?
- Which site supports the type of content I intend to post?
- How frequently am I going to be posting?
- What is my desired outcome from using social media?
Which social platform will work for me?
Facebook is the largest social network platform in the world with 1.74 billion users. We would recommend that all businesses should have a Facebook page. Facebook allows you to create a business page that can really showcase what your business has to offer. There is an area to advertise your services, customers to leave reviews and promote special offers and events. It offers a merchant shop where you can sell your products and services right on Facebook. Facebook also has excellent paid promotion through the site if you’re looking to invest in advertising. You can even post job openings if you’re hiring. It is not a website where you must be posting everyday, so it is not high effort to maintain. 3 posts per week will suffice. Facebook is an excellent way to educate customers on your business and there is no reason not to have it.
Owned by Facebook, Instagram is a more artistic, less business oriented social media site. That does not mean however, that it is not good for businesses. Instagrams main purpose is for sharing photos, but not just any photos, high quality photos. Instagram offers a lot of photo editing capabilities to help you post amazing photos for your followers. It is a great website to showcase creativity and post incredible content that will make your business standout. Instagram is excellent for establishing or reinforcing your brand identity. It is a must have for restaurants, as you can post mouthwatering pictures of your food and tag the location to lead hungry customers right to your door. It is also an excellent website for those within the fashion and arts industry. The platform offers the option to create a business page, which allows you to showcase your website, contact info and business industry all on your profile. It also allows you to learn about your audience, how your posts are performing, your recent activity and offers reminders that let you know it’s time to post. We would suggest 3-5 posts per week MINIMUM. Best practice is posting everyday, even multiple times per day. The more content you produce, the more you increase your chance of reaching a new audience. It also offers paid promotion which is not as detailed as Facebook, but still effective for reaching your target audience.
Instagram has also rolled out a ton of new features, most notably “Reels”. Reels are very similar to TikTok videos (more below). Short 5 to 60 second videos that can be edited to display text, overlay audio, share photos, and include music. All of these edits can be made on the app. We have had great success using this new feature, with one of our accounts gaining literally millions of views. The best part is, the account only had about 2,000 followers at the time. It has since grown at a rate of 150+ followers a day because of sharing at least one Reel per day.
Another very popular social network, Twitter is a fast paced, constantly changing, semi-chaotic social network. Designed to be an ongoing social conversation, it is a very in the moment platform. Posts should be to the point, engaging and include hashtags, picture or video, a link, as well as up to date information. You should also post often, with a recommended daily post accompanied by a healthy amount of relevant retweets. Joining into conversations on trending topics is a popular way of getting your business noticed. Twitter is well suited for journalists, bloggers, news outlets and other fast paced, high volume businesses. Be prepared to have a lot of content, often designed on short notice to ensure the content is relevant. Businesses should use Twitter as a tool to drive traffic to a more stable environment such as websites, Facebook pages, articles and blogs. Paid promotion is available to promote tweets and ads, but these tweets are easily passed over and often lost in a sea of tweets.
LinkedIn is a social platform designed for networking amongst business professionals. Its most common purpose from a business perspective is hiring and recruitment. It is a valuable tool for businesses who are looking to grow and find the right employees. While personal profiles are basically a digital resume, business pages are kind of a resume for your business. Business pages allow for people to learn about your core values and principles, as well as work life and job openings. You can also post recent articles and blogs, as well as advertise events and new products/services.
Pinterest is a smaller network, but can still be an effective tool for certain businesses. Its audience is mostly female, with most being age 24-54. It is very popular with moms. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is about sharing and viewing cool photos, and creating a beautiful artistic profile to showcase your creativity. Each photo can be accompanied by a description and a link, so it can be an effective method of driving traffic to your website. This is especially true for those into fashion, art, travel, healthy living, and food, as these are some of the most popular categories on the site. Keeping the page active is simple, as you just have to save posts that would look good on your profile to your profile. You should post your own content as well though, as this is the most effective way of driving traffic to your site.
TikTok
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to post short videos with quick and easy edits. A lot of the videos are created for comedic purposes and there is a lot of dancing. It is meant to be a fun app, and is very popular with a younger audience. For a lot of businesses, investing in TikTok marketing is a waste of time and resources. However, if you are a “fun” company looking to target a younger demographic, TikTok might be right for you!
Thanks for Reading!
We hope this helped to shed some light on what social platforms may be right for your business. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to visit our blog page to read more!
If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team. You can send us a message or give us a call by visiting our contact page, where you can receive a free 15 minute consultation to further discuss what sites may be right for you.