What is the best social media channel for your business?
In order to achieve results in growing your social media presence for your business, it is better to pick one to focus on as a primary channel. The remaining channels can be less of a priority and can feature slightly different types of content.
It’s important to take the time to consider what platform best aligns with your goals. Certain platforms are likely to perform better based on your target audience and depending on your product and goals.
Set Your Goals. Measure and Grow Your Social Media Presence.
First determine which platforms are resonating with your audience, and what platforms they primarily use. For example, is part of your mission to build a community with your audience and customers? Then a private Facebook Group might be a great way to establish two-way communication and trust. Plus, if your target audience uses Facebook regularly, then that’s a perfect place to start. With 2.7 billion monthly annual users according to Socialbakers, you can “reach specific audience segments and turn leads into customers.”
One free tool we recommend is SparkToro, which provides you with market insights on topics by channel.
What platform best aligns with your goals?
We’ve provided the basics for the main social platforms below and why your company might choose to be on them.
Reach a different audience on LinkedIn
When creating a LinkedIn strategy, consider what you’re looking to accomplish on the platform – it can be a trickier one than others. Hiring, selling, connecting with customers? If your company offers online classes, it’s probably a good place to sell, but if you’re in retail it’s a better place for hiring than community engagement or driving sales.
LinkedIn offers the opportunity for unique content that doesn’t work on other platforms, such as PDF and SlideShare presentations. The LinkedIn algorithm also prioritizes videos hosted on the platform, so consider posting directly rather than on YouTube or elsewhere.
Establish two-way communication with Facebook
Facebook is the best place to build community and has seen a major surge in the use of private groups. If you’re looking to build a community with your audience and customers, a private group is a great place to start. Once your group has members, it can be a hub to have industry discussions, find customer pain points and interests, and generate content that you can repurpose. It ultimately allows you to own a space to foster direct, two-way communication between you and your customers
When setting up your Facebook business page, first ask yourself. “why should people visit this page?” Is it for industry or product updates, conversations, operating hours or FAQ? Use your business page to interact with your audience, host Q&A’s, and have up-to-date information.
Follow what’s trending – and respond – on Twitter
Twitter is a great platform to be for breaking news, political conversations, tech, and events. Because of its active and live nature, it’s less about curated content and more about responding to what’s happening now which is why monitoring it for important events and trends is key.
When writing a tweet keep it short and sweet, use gifs, images or video when possible, and use one or two hashtags per tweet. You can use analytics to see what is performing well, and if you’re using Twitter ads you can get very targeted. With every tweet, you should consider what action you want your audience to take when they see it. Make that CTA clear.
Build trust and awareness through branding on Instagram
Instagram is all about visuals so it’s a great place to create a visual representation of your brand. The platform lets you differentiate and put a face to your company by posting curated images. Your Instagram profile, posts, and stories are a great opportunity to be creative and tell stories that fit your company’s unique personality and offering.
It’s key to ensure you have high-quality images, especially if you’re planning on selling your product through the platform. If you’re looking for tips on creating appealing branded graphics, check out our blog on ‘How to Use Canva to Create Social Media Graphics & Video.’ Planning ahead is key to creating quality content and there are lots of great Instagram planning tools out there, both paid and free, to help you plan out your images and make the most of your grid.
Improve your SEO ranking with Youtube
As we mentioned, video is the best way to improve your reach and grow your social media organically. YouTube is a key player in this equation, especially when it comes to SEO as Google owns it and favors the platform in the algorithm. If your company is selling a product, YouTube is an important platform for acquiring new customers as 76% of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.
Like other platforms, it’s important to post during optimal times and regularly to gain followers. To keep your audience engaged it’s also key to keep videos under 2 minutes. Most videos on Youtube are between 31 seconds and a minute in length. Create subtitles for your videos and utilize the platform’s tagging abilities to expand your reach. Always ensure your content is optimized for mobile, as 40% of Youtube videos are viewed on mobile.
Expand reach and engage with your audience, regardless of the social media platform
No matter what platform you’re using, it’s important to stay on top of new features that can help boost your brand. For example, in the last few years, Instagram has rolled out new features like Stories, IGTV and Reels, and using them shows your social media marketing savvy. It’s also important to boost engagement by asking followers to comment, conducting polls or “this or that” questions in your stories and by holding contests. Interacting with your audience is a great way to find out what they want to see more of on your channel, and even in your product. Don’t forget to post during optimal times and use appropriate hashtags.
Looking for more resources to grow social media marketing results? Check out our blog on “Get Results with These Social Media Marketing Basics.”
If you’re looking to get started on your social media strategy or to improve on an existing plan, let’s chat! Your first 30 minute call is free.
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