In today’s day and age, there is an indisputable need for businesses to go online through social media. Much of business is conducted over social media, including marketing, customer service, and sales. With many companies going remote, social media can stand in the gap for face-to-face interactions by making sure you are staying in front of your current customers and building on your customer base.
Having an account on major social media platforms allows for specific and unique forms of communicating your brand identity, operations, and company culture (among many other things) both internally and to your stakeholders, and therefore foster a holistic approach to your online marketing strategy. Here are the top 5 platforms available and how they can help your business gain the extra edge it needs.
One of the biggest platforms on our planet – there is no question about the significance, presence, and reach Facebook has across societies. It can help any and every kind of business target their most niche audience profiles!
Facebook allows for diverse content and because you have so many options as to what you can post on Facebook, you can be extremely precise about your content. The ability to diversify your content on Facebook can also give you the flexibility to adapt quickly to what your audience is interested in. Over the years Facebook has really expanded its video features because that’s what people want to see! Taking advantage of video features on Facebook can open up an entire world of advertising that cannot be missed out on.
Not only can Facebook help your customers learn about your brand and company culture, but insights can also help you learn about your audience, which then allows you to specify the content you share on Facebook for your target audience as well as find out how to better serve your real-world clients and customers.
Facebook is also a wonderful tool to build a community around your business or brand. With the ability to invite direct feedback from your audience in the form of comments, messages, video call rooms, and discussion posts, your presence on Facebook is a two-way street, meaning you can get to know your audience as they are getting to know you!
Instagram is the perfect platform to build your brand’s voice! As a highly visual medium, Instagram helps businesses reach the next generation of consumers easily. Instagram boasts a hefty 800 million monthly users around the globe and because Instagram has a unique format and large user base, having a presence on Instagram can multiply your audience purely by the fact that you are now available to millions of people you would not have been available to before. Add onto that the hashtag feature, and you have the potential to put your content right in front of the people you want to see it.
You can use Instagram to effectively communicate your brand’s persona and its values with photos and videos to send out communications, run contests, post updates, etc. Because Instagram is geared toward visual content, posting on Instagram automatically gives your business a boost in terms of potential audience because images and videos are the most engaging content on the web. Instagram provides businesses the unique opportunity to pull back the curtain on day-to-day operations and the real people behind your brand image. While other social media platforms have also implemented story and streaming features, Instagram’s visual focus gives it an edge in this realm.
In many cases, your social media account might be the very first thing that a potential customer sees. You can take advantage of this visibility by appealing to the emotional side of your customers. As Maya Angelou famously said, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Think of your Instagram account as a visual journal that you are sharing with those who are important to you, which might look like live stories, behind-the-scenes shots, employee introductions, and customer feedback, all packaged into compelling imagery. Giving your audience a view behind the curtain will make it feel as if they are spending time with you! Just like real-life relationships, letting people get to know who you are can solidify a sense of trust that will benefit both you and your stakeholders in the long run.
As with all social media platforms, being on Twitter expands your brand visibility. Twitter’s strength, however, is the newsfeed format. Twitter’s newsfeed format makes it an instantaneous and viral platform – the fast and responsive nature of this platform can help make your business go viral!
Twitter has a character limit of 280 characters, meaning your messaging on Twitter needs to really count. Many brands take advantage of the newsfeed format by utilizing the platform specifically for news updates that are happening in real-time. While Facebook or Instagram posts have the opportunity of long shelf lives, the short length of Twitter posts means more tweets being sent out, necessitating more tweets to be created, which ultimately means your content needs to be relevant for right now. Twitter is a powerful tool to keep your audience updated immediately on day-to-day events and things that pertain to your business. In fact, many companies use Twitter as a customer service platform and gear their content toward quickly assisting, informing, and gathering feedback from customers. Internet users are far more likely to find your profile on social media to contact you than to find your website and send you an email, which makes Twitter a great place to have a current dialogue with your customers. This also allows for a lot of transparency. Your Twitter followers can follow along and share tweets between you and other customers, which can give an organic picture of how you manage customer service and build your reputation for those who know you and those who don’t.
The first platform for most B2B businesses – LinkedIn is the most efficient and reliable way to find useful connections for your business needs. Be it investors, partners, agencies, or even clients – a LinkedIn account gives your business a platform to expand your professional network and get to know those in your field who you may not rub shoulders with otherwise. LinkedIn is the most popular way for B2B companies to acquire new clients and has the largest network of professionals online. Since LinkedIn is a primarily B2B platform, running a digital marketing campaign on LinkedIn can help add a more professional aspect to your branding. You can communicate your brand’s thoughts on industries, business practices, and other PR points that may be too formal for the likes of other platforms.
In addition, leveraging LinkedIn’s massive user base is crucial to implementing SEO. Filling your profile out completely can bump your page in Google search results, opening up even more opportunities for growth and visibility. Another handy thing about LinkedIn is that it helps you find new talent. LinkedIn’s job search feature is an integral part of the network and can make your life easier by connecting you with potential employees. LinkedIn profiles give you the ability to learn a lot about a potential job candidate right off the bat so you don’t waste your time on applicants that won’t fit.
Tik-Tok
Whether you like it or hate it – there’s no doubt that Tik-Tok has captured the millennial and gen Z generation’s attention. As mentioned before, videos are in! Tik-Tok’s video format is so popular, Instagram has incorporated similar video features into its app. Brands such as Unilever, Audi, Apple, Cadbury, etc. have used this rising trend to create paid partnerships with popular influencers – creating engaging and organic TVCs for brands. Tik-Tok campaigns can also help businesses increase their marketing reach in a non-aggressive and ‘in-your-face’ way – leaving a positive and a lasting impression on your targeted audiences.
In addition to the major platforms for marketing your business, there are lots of tools for internal communication with your staff and personnel such as Slack, Zoom, Pronto, and Monday, (among others) that you should be utilizing if you don’t already.
Overall, with a hefty social media presence, your business can gain the extra push it needs to achieve multiple marketing and business goals. From increasing brand awareness to lead-generation – social media can help you reach your target audience as well as provide you insights about new potential ones! Don’t make the mistake of neglecting a social media presence and take advantage of all the opportunities social media can bring to your business, it’s worth it!
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