How To Use Social Media For Business

Different people use social media channels for different purposes. It is important to identify which platforms work best for you and why your target audience is on them.

This is a mistake that can lead to wasted effort and a scream into the void.

Marketing is about reaching the right people at the right moment with the right message. If you choose the wrong platform, you could end up reaching the wrong people at the wrong times. Spend some time reviewing your buyer personas, if they exist, and finding out the most popular social media channels that they are likely to use.

Next, determine why they are there.

For example, if you offer executive coaching, your clients might use Facebook to stay in touch with their families, Twitter to keep track of breaking news, and LinkedIn to connect with potential clients and business partners.

Understanding why people use different social media channels will allow you to better tailor your content and increase engagement for your brand. This will help you generate tangible results from the time you spend on social media.

Learn About What Skills Do I Need to Be a Social Media Manager?

Here are a few social media channels you should consider:

Facebook

Facebook is the most prominent social media channel, with more than 2.6 billion active monthly users.

Facebook is a great place to share more engagement-based content, as well as soft sells. Videos and photos work well. You can also show behind-the scenes updates and the faces and names of real people behind your brand.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is a sub-section of Facebook. However, it deserves its own mention because of its unique use cases.

It can be used to power AI-based, automated bots that answer customer questions and possibly even generate sales for you while your team is asleep.

Instagram

Instagram, a photo-based social network site, is another great place for your business to grow. It allows you to engage with others and increase brand awareness.

You can make the most out of the network by tapping into all it has to offer, including live videos and Instagram Stories.

Interacting with other users can help you raise your profile and tap into the influencer marketing phenomenon.

If you want to improve your photos, check out our top photo-editing apps on Instagram.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the most popular business social network site in the world, is the ideal place to be more salesy and still provide high-quality content.

This platform is ideal for lead generation methods such as hosting webinars and offering free whitepapers and ebooks. LinkedIn's advertising tools let you target people based on their job title, seniority, and other factors.

Pinterest

People who use Pinterest are mostly female. This is especially popular among arts and crafts communities as well as wedding planners and fashion designers. If your brand falls within any of these categories, then it could be a great idea to market to Pinterest users.

Twitter

Twitter can be described as a mixture of Instagram and Facebook with LinkedIn added for good measure.

It is a great place for sharing and commenting on breaking news. You can also use it to live-tweet events or provide customer service.

YouTube

YouTube is one of most challenging social networks for brands to succeed on. It tends to be built around people and communities.

Working with influencers to promote videos is one of the best ways for brand awareness and to get results from a YouTube Marketing Strategy.

How to Use Social Media for Business

1. Collaborate with Influencers

Influencers are everywhere, no matter if you're a B2C brand that designs clothes or a B2B company that makes bespoke widgets for farmyard machines.

It is important to identify these influencers and establish relationships with them.

It is a good idea to comment on their posts and like them, so that you become more familiar with their names.

Engage builds relationships. These relationships are crucial if you want influencers to help build your brand and social media accounts.

2. Affiliate Partners

Affiliate programs come in many forms. It's up you to choose one that works for you.

You might want to turn your audience into an affiliate team that sells your products. Or you could use referral codes to reward your followers for encouraging their followers to buy your products.

This can also be done the other way around.

If your company is a web developer, for example, you might team up with film-makers, writers, and other providers to cross-promote each others on social media and offer finders fees to any new customers.

3. Run Competitions

While competitions can be a great way to get more engagement on social media, you should wait until you have established your brand before you start one.

This will ensure that you have a lot of followers so you can get the ball rolling quickly and spread the word about the competition.

This will ensure that your brand appears legitimate and not a scam.

To add some fuel to the fire, you could run competitions using tools like Rafflecopter to encourage participation and social sharing. Make sure you promote the competition on social media using popular hashtags such as #win or #competition

You should also research your competition since you will be in competition mode anyways.

4. Go Live

Live streaming is possible on all social networks. These include YouTube, Instagram, YouTube, and specialist platforms like Twitch.

It is important to find out where your audience spends their time and make that platform work for them. Keep in mind that not all people are interested in live content.

You can host Q&A sessions, live performances, webinars or other educational virtual events.

Try out different content types and approaches to discover what works best for you and what gets the most engagement.

5. Use Stories

The reason Instagram and Facebook embraced the idea of self destructing Snapchat stories is that people use them.

In other words, you are ignoring one the most powerful features social networks offer: Stories.

The content you share on Instagram will remain there for everyone to see forever. If you post too many updates within a short time, it can look spammy.

Stories are a good alternative and can help you reach your target audience more often without overwhelming them.

6. Run Ads To Your Ideal Audience

Social networks have so much information about their users that it is possible to create super targeted ads that target a specific audience.

You'll need to budget a bit, but it is 100% worth it.

This is how you should think about it:

You've already spent time and money creating content for social media. Why not invest a little more to make sure people actually see it?

Even if you have limited funds, it is important to spend at least 10% on advertising.

7. Analytics: Learn from Your Analytics

Nearly all social networks offer some type of analytics data that brands can access and learn from.

You can use that information to refine your social media marketing strategy.

Analytics allow you to track many different data points. These include engagement rates, growth in followers, reach, and whether your target audience are turning into paying customers. Or if they're simply checking out your content with no intention to buy.

Keep an eye on the changes in your analytics over time as a result of your marketing campaigns.

8. Social media is an essential part of your business

It takes more than just running some marketing campaigns to make social media successful. If used well, social media can be a key part of your business. It can impact everything, from customer service to recruitment.

The same trend is occurring in our professional lives as social networks have become more integral to our daily lives.

It's essential to incorporate social networking into every aspect of your business to gain an advantage over your competitors and be able to protect your brand from the changes that are coming.

9. Use the Gig Economy

The new gig economy refers to the way people work. They are turning to freelancing websites to make a living and often live on the road.

This is great news for your brand because you can hire skilled copywriters, graphic artists, film-makers, and other creatives to create high-quality content and a social media presence for your brand.

This is usually more cost-effective and efficient than hiring salaried workers to do nothing.

10. Always experiment and evolve

Your brand must remember that it cannot afford to be static. It is essential to continue to innovate.

It's a good rule of thumb to spend between 10-20% of your time trying out new approaches.

To see the impact of your experiments, keep an eye on your metrics. Be sure to focus more on what works and less on what doesn't. It all comes down to a steady but slow rate of evolution.

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Summarizing

You now have all the information you need about creating and deploying a social marketing strategy. Now it is up to you to put your knowledge into practice.

Reexamine your marketing strategy and ensure that you are making the most of your social media presence.

You can always consult with social media manager if you have trouble implementing a social media marketing strategy. The gig economy offers a great opportunity to hire specialist content creators like film-makers and graphic designers for one-off jobs, rather than adding them to your permanent payroll.

What are your social media strategies for your business? Have you seen a return of investment in your social media strategy. Leave a comment to tell us what you think.

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