Social media are simply communication and networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc, basically targeted at achieving interconnectedness amongst individuals, diverse audience and businesses. There are different methods businesses make use of social media marketing to build and grow their brands and convert more sales.
The use of social media for business is an underutilized but powerful strategy to generate new leads, raise awareness and drive website traffic. While many people view social media as a channel only used by consumer brands, social media can significantly benefit the growth of any business. This is possible if we understand that social media platforms are not just to doll out information and achieve connectedness. It is a dominant tool used in building customers’ relationship, driving sales through an online advertisement, increase customer satisfaction as well as increasing business revenue.
Startups and established businesses are always contending to remain important in the cyberspace space where competition is very demanding. Here are 5 strategic social media platforms which your business can thrive on within a few months:
Established in February 2004 for college students, Facebook remains the most used digital media platform with at least 1 billion daily active users with different age groups. Business can find their way of getting the right target audience on this platform because of its capability of reaching a wide user base and accommodative demographics. Facebook has come a long way since its launch, it is ranked as the most used social networking service in the world by the number of active monthly users.
Starting a business page, and tapping into the power of Facebook is much easy. Once your page is created, users ‘like’ it and your latest information and news will be posted to their ‘wall.’
The Facebook interface makes it easy for your fans to ‘like’ or share your posts and when they do, their friends will see this activity, therefore putting your brand in front of an audience you may not normally be able to access. Interestingly Facebook has additional advertising features specific to their other app, which is called Facebook Messenger.
Created in 2010 as a photo sharing site, Instagram is the new darling of social media channels. It has access to the same extensive user base and advertising platform like Facebook. It is estimated to attract around 500 million daily active users.
Posts on Instagram seems to get better engagement than on other platforms, and the Live Story feature is a really fun way to show transparency which is what consumers want these days.
Interestingly, Instagram you can grow your followers organically and grow the reach of your profile and posts, unlike Facebook where you have to pay to play.
Twitter as at the last count is estimated with over 350 million users monthly worldwide. It has been described as an SMS of the internet because posts are short, sweet and witty. Twitter is known for its quick feedback of real-time updates which is quite important for any business because it helps in strategizing and planning to better address the needs of the targeted audience.
Posts come in at 240 characters or less and post can be organized via hashtags. Twitter differs from Facebook in that users ‘follow’ each other. If someone follows you, you can follow them back. Therefore, it is easier to gain a following, but the followers are not as targeted as they are on Facebook.
Twitter is an awesome way to connect with people and other businesses participating in the same event. Following a hashtag at a concert, live performance creates a greater experience.
Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is the premier B2B social networking site. It has been considered a reliable social media platform for businesses, particularly for those that target consumers based on job titles. The platform can be a good successful space for businesses seeking to recruit new employees or better still access consultant services from experts.
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YouTube is a video-sharing social media that is owned by Google and it has attracted over 30 million daily active users. There are more than 48 hours of new video posted to the site every minute. As a business owner, using video in your online marketing strategy and the back-end keywords of your YouTube video -is just as important as your other online strategies.
There is a chance that the performance of your content on YouTube is likely to positively affect the overall visibility of your site or business on Google searches since YouTube is owned by Google.
In using these social media platforms, we advise that you choose your channels wisely: When you first launch your social media plan, it’s natural to want to dive in and build a presence on every single channel. However, it’s best to start out with just a few channels and master them first to avoid becoming overwhelmed and stretching your resources too thin. Also, ensure that content across social media channels is consistent and compelling. And be sure to be at the other end putting a human touch to the process; either for sales, brand development or top of mind publicity for your brand. You should be on your way to business boost leveraging on the exponential influence of Social media.