Chances are, your business is already utilizing some type of social media to promote your products or services and share ideas. Social media is also a great way to engage your customers by giving them a chance to have conversations with you, provide feedback on your services and contact you on their own time. While most social media platforms are pretty easy to use, we’d like to offer some tips on how to maximize your reach and make the most of your time.
Using more than one Platform Expands Your Reach
Not everyone uses the same social media platforms. Different platforms attract audiences with different demographic and socioeconomic status. Know your audience and research the platforms to determine which are best for you. Because most social media platforms are free, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be using more than one to share the information that makes your business valuable. Here are some of the most-used platforms:
- Facebook – As one of the most well-known platforms, Facebook makes it easy to use with a design that is the same across each profile. With more than 2 billion users, Facebook is the social media giant. If your target customer is over the age of 25, you should strongly consider this platform. Facebook enables you to create a page just for your business and share posts with anyone that “likes” or “follows” your page. Another perk: Facebook’s advertising system enables you to simply develop and share ads and promoted content that you can strategically target to your audience.
- LinkedIn – LinkedIn is ideal for making business connections. When users are on LinkedIn, they have a different mindset than other social media platforms. They are there to do or learn something about business. Oftentimes, LinkedIn is the first resource used to learn more about a businesses’ qualifications. Networking is also important in growing a business and LinkedIn makes it easy to do just that right from your office. If your business focuses on marketing to other businesses, be sure to invest some time into learning more about LinkedIn.
- Twitter – Sometimes you won’t have much to say or just want to share a quick link back to your website. Twitter is ideal for this as the characters are limited. For those on the go that just want a brief glimpse of what you have been up to, this platform is the best. Twitter is also a great platform to engage with other brands and potential partners.
- Instagram – There are times when words alone won’t do. For brands that regularly have images of products, services or their people available, Instagram’s layout prioritizes photos and videos over content. Instagram allows your customers to SEE what your business is doing and learn more about you through the media you share.
- Pinterest – Pinterest is the place to get ideas for everything. From blogging to home decorating to what to read next, this platform holds all of your ideas on a giant online corkboard. When someone needs a new idea but, they are stumped where to look next, Pinterest is where they head to. Creating “pins” for your followers allows them to save it to their board and access your content with a direct link. A great feature of Pinterest is when a profile is created, the platform has you automatically follow random people based on your interests. Oftentimes, as with any platform, as soon as you follow someone, they follow you back creating a list of new followers for your business.
Learn One Platform Well
If you have multiple target audiences or if there are several platforms that are a good fit for your business, start with one, learn it well and implement a strong program. Then start adding the others so you can maximize your reach. For instance -suppose you started with Facebook – create a weekly schedule for posting content. You can also utilize polls, giveaways, or general inquiries to gain feedback. Additionally, Facebook offers its users the ability to customize and target other users through paid advertising. This is particularly useful when you want to customize your reach by age, gender, geographic location or interest. Once you have learned the ins-and-outs of one platform, it is easier to add on another because you already have an idea of how your social media program is being received and what interests your customers.
Customization Makes a Difference
You can streamline your efforts by using the same content and customizing it for each platform. For example, when using Instagram you must use a photo, but you don’t need to with Twitter. For Pinterest you can use the same or a different picture and change up the content to be more specific to your audience and how they’re likely using that platform.
An easy way to post content to many platforms with a click of the mouse is utilizing a program like Hootsuite that helps manage all social media in one place.
Whatever your approach to social media, we are confident that these tips will help you to maximize your social media benefits with minimal effort creating a lasting impact on your business.
Want to learn more about our social media program?