Do you own or work for a small business? Would you like to learn more about the benefits of Social Media and how you can use Social networks to your advantage? Here’s everything you need to know about each Social Media platform in one quick and easy blog!
Which Network Is Right For You?
As a small business, your main priority should be brand awareness. Therefore, it makes sense to join Facebook, the largest social network in terms of active accounts. With billions of active daily users (and still growing), Facebook is a great platform to generate an audience. As Facebook is the main starting point for many small businesses, more and more brands are joining daily. While this is great for Facebook, some businesses may find it hard to compete. This means that a business should take advantage of Facebooks many features, such as sponsored content and advertising campaigns. Again, another highly used platform in many marketing strategies, Facebook ads manager allows your business to display your advertisement in front of the right people at the right time. It’s highly intricate targeting system gives your brand the opportunity to narrow down your audience and specifically target users at the most likely time that they are going to convert. When using organic and paid Facebook, it’s always important to set your goals. Every marketing strategy that you’ll read will advise you to pick a main goal and run with it. However, while being specific and knowing what you want is great, as a business, you need to be realistic. Results are never set in stone, planning to receive a certain level of new followers of posts likes can’t be guaranteed, and anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t being fully transparent. Therefore, the best practice would be to collect data, use Facebooks analysis tools and think realistically moving forward.
Some small businesses fear Twitter due to the nature of the platform and how time-consuming and competitive it can be. Over the years, Twitter has amassed an active user base from public figures, businesses and personal users. While you may be competing with hundreds of other businesses within your industry, the high level of active users can be used to your advantage. The upside of having more users means that you can potentially reach more people. Twitter also has a highly effective advertising platform. The high level of active users means that there is a wide range of people to target and that you are able to specifically narrow down and reach your audience.
Instagram, the most visual social platform. Instagram is one of the fastest growing networks for individual users and business. Its image-focused nature allows businesses to showcase their personality and brand through high-quality, attractive visuals. As Instagram’s nature is visual, e-commerce brands thrive on this platform. They are able to showcase their products and gain an engaged audience through tagging influencers, creating branded hashtags and sharing content on a regular basis. However, many businesses struggle to understand Instagram advertising options and data-driven demographics. Advertising on Instagram is very similar to Facebook. A business can target a pool of audience members by their age, gender, location and interests. However, Instagram doesn’t have the same detailed information on its users that Facebook has. Nevertheless, this isn’t a problem because Instagram and Facebook are run by the same company. Therefore, it’s possible to gain information on Instagram by associating users with their Facebook account. Moreover, despite your industry, business or goals, realism is vital. Again, both organic and paid social media takes time. It takes time to generate a substantial amount of data to make informed decisions and untimely become an irreplaceable part of your marketing strategy.
Linkedin is used by thousands of businesses across the world. Predominantly known for its professional nature, 380 million tech-savvy business owners and employees regularly spend their time on LinkedIn. If you’re a business that provides a B2B service, then LinkedIn is the platform for you! In regards to LinkedIn’s advertising platform, it differs to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. One of the main reasons why it is different is that the targeting is broader, it’s not as specific. When targeting on LinkedIn, job titles and seniority take centre stage. Moreover, if your business wants to target B2B, LinkedIn is the way to go.
What’s Next?
Now that you know about the main four social media platforms, you might be wondering, how can I implement social media into my businesses marketing strategy? The next step is to contact the professionals. The best way to know if something is going to work is to try it first hand. To find out more about how social media can aid your business and achieve your goals by visiting our Social Media Management page and giving us a call today!
