When you begin implementing a social media strategy for your business, one of the first questions you'll ask yourself will be ‘should my business be on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn?’
Social media began as a method of consumer communication, but today we know that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are fantastic places for building communities dedicated to your brand, pushing traffic to websites and driving revenue through conversions.
Social networks offer opportunities to build brand awareness, connect with customers, boost your SEO, grow your mailing list and drive more revenue.
The right content and the right strategy can rapidly build your sales.
But different platforms are also incredibly different in terms of purpose, so let’s take a look at which platform best suits your business or brand.
The big three ...
Facebook is a tool that’s right for just about any business. With nearly 2.5 billion monthly users, it’s the largest social media site in the world.
Having a presence here means you can build a loyal, active following and boost website traffic and brand awareness.
Your Facebook 'likes' can be a great starting point to gather sales leads, and you can use giveaways and competitions to colate email addresses to build useful marketing lists.
Facebook advertising allows you to target particular demographics based on age, gender, location and interests.
Facebook allows you to gain insights into your audience and drill down to find out how specific posts are performing, as well as allowing two-way communication between businesses and customers.
Instagram is a great place to be if your audience is younger and typically scrolling and shopping on mobile devices.
With Instagram, you can create an interactive community, and it’s the platform where users are more likely to engage.
People go to Instagram to post their "highlight reel" and expect to see influencers and follow brands they like.
The platform has a ‘checkout’ feature which means it’s fully set up for Ecommerce, meaning your clients can look at product images and easily buy what they like directly from their Instagram account.
Some people may use Twitter to connect with friends and family, but its primary purpose is to connect to the wider world and discover what's happening around you.
With only 280 characters to convey your brand's message, you might think of Twitter as your business's ‘elevator pitch’ to get messages across to your audience quickly and succinctly.
Twitter is primarily meant for sharing information and concise snippets, but it really can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness and connecting directly with your customers.
… and LinkedIn
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter often get most of the attention from businesses, and with all that background noise, it’s easy to ignore LinkedIn. It’s an outlet that many small businesses neglect.
LinkedIn is, of course, a B2B platform, and as a channel is a brilliant way to target other businesses and increase brand awareness within your target audience.
Because of the high authority of the LinkedIn brand, if you have a LinkedIn company page, it’s likely to be a first-page result on Google.
If a potential client or customer takes a look, your LinkedIn page can instantly establish credibility. Frequent posting and strong, unique content will help you do that.
LinkedIn’s platform is not short-form by nature, so you can actually write thoughtful things, compared to the short-term immediacy of other platforms.
With more than 65 million active users, it’s perfect for promoting business-related content on your personal page.
Choose your focus
It’s best to focus on two or three social media platforms and do them well.
There’s no point in spreading yourself thinly across other platforms such as Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube and Reddit etc and failing to reach or convert your audience on any of them.
Research which platforms your competitors use to identify how best to reach your target demographic.
And go where your audience is! There’s absolutely no point setting up a Snapchat account if you want to target 50-year-old executives and professionals.
At its core, social media marketing is about posting relevant and engaging content on the right platforms in order to build your online presence and create a bond between brand and consumer.
Fresh, targeted content delivered on the right platform really can drive your leads and sales.
Bitten by the social bug?
Get in touch with the Ascensor team and discover how we can help your business grow with social media marketing.