Social media is one of the most important factors of any business’ marketing and content strategies. Properly utilizing social media platforms that your potential customers are already engaging with is a surefire way to garner attention from a large market that can help you grow your business and create brand recognition.
What platforms can you use?
Though you may have a well-made website that converts leads into customers, people still need to be able to find out about you in ways other than direct Google searches. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the three main social media platforms that can get your business name out there. When you’re creating content that people want to see on their social media feeds, you’re able to sell yourself in a way that email marketing or Google search ads just can’t compete with.
Different platforms have different objectives
Deciding which platform works best for your marketing or brand awareness strategies is the one of the first steps in tackling your social media presence. One important factor of social media engagement is each platforms specific demographics that can help you understand where your time is best spent. Outside of that, each platform has different benefits and drawbacks:
- Pros: Largest number of users meaning the most reach. Posts can be short and simple or lengthy. Easily post articles, photos, or videos that can draw people to your website or Facebook page and therefore turn them into customers.
- Cons: A lot of competing noise that may make it difficult to grab a user’s attention. Posting too much can turn people off to your brand and signal them to block your posts in the future.
- Business case: As the most popular social media platform, using Facebook is generally a “must” for any brand. Whether it’s just utilizing a Facebook page or actively creating content and ads, every brand should have a Facebook account that people can “like” and subscribe to in order to keep your business top of mind.
- Pros: With predictions that Instagram will take over Facebook as having the highest number of users by the end of 2020, Instagram is certainly a social media platform to contend with. Visual posts include photos and videos, and can easily create brand recognition through the display of your logo or brand colors.
- Cons: Another platform with a lot of content that may drown out your voice. Posts can have lengthy text but most users are only looking to read a short caption, maybe watch a video, and then move on. Posts that are not paid advertisements do not convert well as links are hard to reproduce and distribute in Instagram.
- Business case: With the uprising of Instagram, it’s important for businesses to have a voice present on this platform. Especially those looking to reach a younger demographic, Instagram will surely lend a large contribution to your brand awareness. Be careful relying fully on this platform, however, as directing traffic to your website may prove difficult.
- Pros: Short posts can easily capture the attention of users who are just looking to read a small blurb or watch a short video regarding a brand or product. Article links, photos, or videos can all be quickly shared to an audience looking for small, consumable marketing.
- Cons: Generating the most content of the three platforms, posts can be skipped over or pushed to the bottom of a user’s feed quickly. Content needs to be updated daily rather than every couple of days or even weekly with Facebook and Instagram.
- Business case: Though this platform certainly takes the most time to be pumping out new content for, there’s a case for utilizing it’s quick and powerful messages that can easily redirect users to your website or landing page.
Though each of these platforms has their pros and cons, make sure you’re utilizing the ones that make the most sense for your business and your time. Constantly creating refreshing content for all three can become cumbersome and time-consuming, and utilizing one platform to push down to others can be a great timesaver. For instance, a post on Instagram can be pushed out to Facebook and Twitter, meaning you’re quickly creating content for all three platforms.
How to use your social media
Now that you’ve decided which platforms are going to reach your target market, as well as where you’d like to be creating your social media presence, it’s time to start focusing on the ways in which you can utilize the platforms. Creating strategic posts can help in a number of ways, including:
Creating a brand presence and voice
When people continuously see the content you’re creating, they become familiar with your brand and voice. Make sure you’re using the same tone across all of your posts in order to create a consistent image that you would like your company to be viewed as.
Build relationships with both people and other brands
Social media can be a powerful way to communicate directly with your customers or prospects. Answering questions on social media creates that relationship with consumers, while cross-posting with other brands or interacting on social media can provide an added benefit for both companies.
Attract potential customers or clients
One of the main focuses of social media engagement is to create new business. Make your posts or ads short, engaging, and interesting, and people will be more likely to interact.
Control the narrative
Remember that when you have full control over what a consumer sees of your brand, you control how they view you. You don’t have control over the news or information that others provide about you, but you do have control over your social media presence and branding.
Repurpose your content
If you have older content you’ve created that is still relevant (blogs, articles, etc.), social media is one way to repurpose and share that information. Don’t let blogs that are still important to your consumer go unnoticed, and instead create a post around them to reengage the consumer.
If your social media presence has taken a backseat to other marketing efforts, let BWS Technologies help. We create, manage, and support your online presence so that you can see a positive impact in your sales and brand recognition. To find out more about how we can help, contact us today.
