Social Media: Making It Happen

MAKING IT HAPPEN

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM FOR YOU

1.2 Billion users Ages 18-34 Building Rela�onships Conversa�on

Lead Genera�on Retail, Food, Entertainment Beauty, Businesses

Images and Video only

Limited Interac�ons Resource intensive 689 Million users Ages 18-24 Building Rela�onships Conversa�on

Building Brand Loyalty &Community

DEMOGRAPHICS

1.2 Billion users Ages 18-34 Building Rela�onships Conversa�on Lead Genera�on Retail, Food, Entertainment Beauty, Businesses Images and Video only

Limited Interac�ons Resource intensive

We need to be aware of these nuances when deciding to invest 689 Million users in social media marketing. As Ages 18-24 an entrepreneur, I’ve been using Building these platforms for a little while Rela�onships Conversa�on and here are some tips to help you to choose which may be best Building Brand Loyalty for you and your business. &Community

Since the pandemic, I have noticed that more and more people want to create their own business, to become more independent. Currently, social media is among the 353 Million users most effective marketing tools that any Ages 30-49 business has at its disposal. However, News& ar�cles each platform has a unique category of Conversa�on users with their own challenges as to how they interact with content. Public Rela�ons

280 Characters or less 442 Million users Ages 30-49 78% Female “Scrap booking” Lead Genera�on; Clothing,Art& Food Businesses Image & Video only; Narrow Demographic

Video only Specific Demographic

Video only Specific Demographic

353 Million users Ages 30-49 News& ar�cles Conversa�on

Public Rela�ons

280 Characters or less 442 Million users Ages 30-49 78% Female

“Scrap booking”

Lead Genera�on; Clothing,Art& Food Businesses

Image & Video only; Narrow Demographic

1. The Nature Of Your Business

For business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, Facebook and Instagram help gain visibility by visually engaging and interacting with customers. For business-to-business (B2B) companies, LinkedIn helps target current and potential clients and builds a personal connection. Another great platform is YouTube as it offers a wide space for businesses to share content.

2. Be Where Your potential Customer Is

When choosing a social platform, it’s less about your business and more about where your potential customer spends their time. For example, if you’re B2B, go to LinkedIn; if you’re e-commerce, go to Instagram. You want to be visible, so once you’ve identified where your customer is, you can be consistent and valuable to truly master your chosen social platform.

3. Let Your Product Or Service Guide You

When a small business is starting out, it’s important to be functionally lean, to engage in the activities that will generate the highest profit. When deciding which content platform to focus on, let your product or service guide you. For instance, if you’re building a consumer-facing small brand, start with Instagram. If you’re focused on generating quality leads, post value-add content on LinkedIn.

4. Research Your Competitors

Research all your top competitors. Check each of their social media pages and see what content they are posting, how often they are doing so, and how many users are engaging with that content. Once you conclude which social media platform is yielding the greatest results, choose that one. However, before you start you should set goals and KPIs that correlate with those goals.

5. Focus On your Website

Your website is the backbone to your digital footprint and communications. Websites are on emails, business cards and search engines. Make it awesome, add great content and make it aesthetically pleasing. With time add blogs and social media links that you can direct your customers to. 6. Where is your Audience?

A common mistake that small businesses make is to be on every available platform and stretch themselves too thin. Just because your company could have an Instagram page doesn’t necessarily mean it should. Check your company’s goals and determine the right target audience. Then research social media platform demographics and create an account where your content will have the biggest impact. Remember, quality not quantity.

7. Develop a Consistent Strategy

How can you reach them, for small businesses, maximizing reach for minimal effort is key. Thus, more important than focusing on a specific social media site is creating a consistent social content strategy that is sustainable, which will then enable you to push that content along your main platforms. There are many free scheduling tools available that make it easy to schedule one or two posts per week pushed out to multiple places, such as Miro or Mural.

8. What are your Social Goals

Choosing a platform to focus on is dependent on understanding your goals for social. Brands in the travel and hospitality industries may consider Instagram to showcase their offerings and properties in a visually compelling way. Aligning platform benefits with business goals is key.

9. Participate In Forum Discussions

Make sure to put down your self-promotional hat, understand your audience, choose a catchy heading and participate in discussions regularly.

10. Start With Email Software

Email marketing works for almost any industry or demographic. If someone has a social media account, they have an email address. Not only is email marketing an effective tool for communicating with your customers, but it’s also a great way to find prospects! Email addresses are gold. If you can collect them, they’re yours for life, unlike social media followers, who could disappear at any time! Collate a platform demographic and create an account where your content will have the biggest impact.

BY ROSE VALENTINl