How to use social media for your business

If I ask you what is social media, you might think I am out of my senses. Social media is today so popular and the usage is widespread. if we look at the world, 3.91 billion people use social media which is 51% of the world’s population. The usage is growing by double digit every year. This is huge for we marketers. If you are effective on this medium, you have a chance to reach half the world. Isn’t it interesting? In this article I will cover how to use social media for business.

If you had a look at these 7 tips, it will help you to get business from social media channels. Here are social media tips for your business. Read more such articles on my blog. Visit now!

• Start with an objective: Before starting anything, be clear of your objective. What do you really want to achieve from social media platforms. It can be increasing brand visibility, information sharing, increase product awareness, get leads or get business conversions. Have a clear objective in place.

• Who is your target audience: Decide who is your target audience and which platform they are using. Are they likely to be present on Facebook or do they use LinkedIn frequently. Its important to be present on those platforms where you target audience is present. Study the demographics of your target audience. The usage might differ as per geography, age, sex, education. Have a deep dive in to all these things. You might have different audience for different range of products. spend some time on this step. It is a key for making the whole activity effective.

• What is competition doing: Before taking a step, review what your competitors are doing. Visit their social media pages. Look at the frequency and content. Look at what response they are getting. Let’s learn and get inspired by this so that we can build better pages.

• Select the right channels: As said before, decide which channels you are going to be using for promoting your brand. Start with few. Do not jump on all channels. understand that each of these channels have their own set of audience. Facebook is more for brand promotion, LinkedIn is for employer branding, job search business discussions. Instagram is about sharing photos and videos. understand the audience and the purpose of these channels.

• Have a content calendar in place: Once you have created pages on these channels, it is good practice to have frequent and quality updates. So put a content calendar in place. Decide frequency and type of content. Plan who will create and post this content in timely manner. Also monitor how many people are viewing and answer if there are any comments. There are many tools available for social media. By using these you can create, schedule, post and monitor the channels and content. Get the data and analyze how your channels are performing. continuous improvement is the key.

• Focus on quality over quantity: What content you write is important. If that content is helpful for your audience you can grab their attention. Don’t just try to sell or promote. Give useful information.

• Build long term relationships: Focus on building long term relationship with your audience. Once they are hooked to your content, they will make it a point to visit the page. Create awareness, interest, desire and lead to action. have a gradual shift. Have patience.

Content is the key for marketing and ensuring people read your posts. Remember these points while creating posts.

Right message: This means right content or the content which your target market is interested to read. Content marketing is the most important thing. If you put the right content then you can hook your audience and they will be interested to read and spend time.

Right person: This refers to your target audience. It is important to identify your prospective customers. Those who are looking for the product or service you are selling. Once you hook them with the right content, you will have to send personalized messages and ensure their interest is intact. Then by using some promotional schemes as a catalyst you will have to convert the interest into action.

Right time: You will have to reach your customers when they are in the right frame of mind. That too using the right tools. So it is important when to use which tools. Further in the article I will focus on some of the tools.

To Conclude: Social media is a two way sword. Use it effectively and carefully. Give good content to your audience and they will be interested to read. use right tools to make the whole process fast and effective. Along with this, also focus on other marketing channels. Use the conventional and digital channels in such a way so that they compliment each other. Social media platforms are not owned by you. They are not in your control. But your website is the face of your business. nurture your website traffic using social media. Your final objective is to create fans of your website and its content.