Just like there are many ways to promote your business online, there are as many resources to implement it. Social media platforms are fantastic resources for business promotion. Although the networks are free to use, options for paid advertising are also offered specifically for brands that want to reach even more new audiences.
To create a successful social strategy, you need to ask yourself a few questions. We’ve compiled some crucial ones to make it smoother for you to decide upon your kind of social media platforms where your business is most likely to flourish. Read on:
What are your social media objectives?
Your objectives should clearly work as a pathway in defining the right platform for you. If you can’t explain why or how a particular channel will work towards achieving your stated goals, it’s more than likely that you shouldn’t adopt it. Your chosen social media channels should support the achievement of your strategic goals.
If your goal is to increase brand awareness
Consider selecting well-established platforms with a large following while avoiding anything new. One of the most effective methods in increasing reach is through paid promotion. Advertising platform of Facebook, for example, has a great reputation for generating impressive ROI.
If your goal is to enhance lead generation
LinkedIn has proven to be a coming of age social media channel capable of getting maximum lead gen, whether it’s through joining groups, participating in discussions, or searching with advanced filters. Facebook and Twitter come second in being highly effective, often enjoying a lower cost per click (CPC) than an AdWords campaign!
Where does your target audience hang out?
Once you align your goals with your social channel selection, you need to analyze where your audience is interacting online.When choosing relevant social media channels, back up your decisions with demographic data instead of being led by current trends. Like, did you know that 41% of LinkedIn users earn a salary over $75,000? All this will help you choose the right social media channel where your audience interact the most.
Where do your competitors hang out?
What types of content do your competitors post and at what intervals? How many likes or shares are they able to garner? Checking your competitors’ behavior on social media, as well as how well their followers engage with what they post, will provide you with valuable insights. Such insights can then be replicated to guarantee success for your own strategy.
What are you good at?
Ultimately, it all comes to where you excel. If you think you suck at taking decent and innovative photos, then better stay away from Instagram. Similarly, if videos are your forte, then YouTube might work wonders for your business and help you achieve good fan following.
Thus, your social media channel should not only complement your audience and your industry, but also you.
What do you want to create?
Certain content formats will be more suited to particular social channels than others.
To share industry-related updates, choose more traditional industry-related professional platforms like LinkedIn and SlideShare.
To share video-related content, consider Instagram, Vine, Snapchat or Periscope for short videos and Facebook, YouTube or Twitter for longer videos.
To share image-based content, choose Pinterest if you’re a B2C brand. Other ideal channels are Instagram and Tumblr.
To share editorial content, using LinkedIn’s publishing platform can expose your brand to over 300million users. “Medium” is another highly popular publishing platform.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve got a clearer idea on which social media platforms will suit your business better, you can start with choosing one for you. Or, you can leave it all on a social media agency excelling at simplifying your social media puzzle to help you get immediate brand recognition and awareness in the social media world.
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