It’s no secret that social media has incredible power to reach your business’ target audience. But how do you harness that power effectively? With so many of your potential customers engaging daily on various social media sites, you might be tempted to create business accounts for every platform available.
Before investing all that time and effort, take a moment to evaluate what types of users actively engage on each social media platform, then focus your strategy where it’s the best fit for your business.
Facebook is a behemoth in the social media landscape, boasting roughly 1.5 billion users. With its large reach, it’s likely that your target audience is interacting with Facebook in one way or another. Facebook’s versatility makes it an excellent option for all types of businesses. You can create posts of any length, include photos and videos, and easily interact with your followers and respond to customer reviews. As a business, you can customize your page to include:
- Address
- Phone number
- Username
- Business category
- Website URL
- Contact email
- About
- & More
Facebook profiles are often among the first page of search results when a user searches for a company. The more active you are on social media, the higher likelihood that your Facebook page will be displayed in front of your potential customer.
Instagram is an excellent option for companies wanting to share beautiful images of products or other services. As an image-driven platform, Instagram can increase your brand’s reach and give you an opportunity to show those stunning photos of all the great things your business offers. The majority of Instagram’s users are younger and typically fall in the 18-29 age bracket. Instagram is famous for its hashtags, which allows for similar content to be bundled together on a specific page. When you use hashtags, you are putting your content in multiple places – not just on your company’s page.
On your Instagram profile, you can include information such as:
- Name
- Business category
- Short blurb about your company’s purpose
- Website URL
(Read this intriguing article to learn more about how to effectively use Instagram for your business.)
LinkedIn is designed to connect professionals to each other and to other companies. The majority of its users are college educated and value networking and building professional relationships. While you may not see as high of volume of interaction on this platform, the contacts you do create can be valuable and help your business thrive.
With approximately 100 million monthly users, you can connect with other like-minded individuals and establish your company as a leader in your industry. We encourage you to produce resourceful content, add professional images, and engage with other profiles.
Twitter boasts roughly 330 million monthly users and an impressive 500 million tweets are sent out every single day. This platform allows users to share their thoughts with a maximum of 280 characters – which is roughly the number of characters in these two sentences. This social platform gives you the opportunity to interact with customers in an informal, yet professional, way. Twitter features include:
- Sharing up to 4 images
- Pin a tweet
- Download tweets
- Send & receive tweets
- Share a tweet
- & more
YouTube
YouTube is the king of videos, boasting roughly 2 billion monthly users. This is the second most popular social media platform, following Facebook. It’s safe to say that any industry can benefit from uploading YouTube videos. People crave entertainment and want to be satisfied both visually and verbally. Consider these video categories to help you get started:
- Meet the team
- Q&A
- Product or service spotlight
- Testimonials
- Company overview
- Ad commercials
- Corporate training videos
Implement a Social Media Strategy
Whether you choose to focus on one or several social media platforms, it’s imperative that you implement a social media strategy. If you do not have a strategy in place, it’s unlikely that you will reap the full benefits that social media can offer your company. Before publishing on any social media platform, create a social media strategy to guide your posts. Open a blank document and answer a few questions:
- Who is my target audience? Dive deeper into specifics:
- Age
- Education
- Family makeup
- Gender
- Geography
- Income
- What is my brand voice? Consider these examples:
- Funny
- Professional
- Relational
- Relaxed
- Serious
- What imagery should I use? Your imagery will depend on your industry. Consider these examples:
- Beautiful pools
- Nature
- Parents & kids
- People at doctor’s office
- Real estate
- What are several categories I can use to guide my posts? (After determining which categories you will use, create several posts for each to start off strong.) Consider these category examples:
- Did you know?
- Frequently asked questions
- Holiday observances
- Industry-related articles
- Local events
- Meet the team
- Service/product spotlight
Take your time creating this strategy, as it can become the foundation of all your social media posts. With that being said, don’t be afraid to change up your strategy when needed! Your social media strategy should be fluid, changing with the times but staying true to your brand voice.
Ensure Social Media Success Through a PPC Campaign
You’ve put so much work into creating your social media strategy, drafting and scheduling posts, and finding the perfect imagery. Now, let’s get your hard work in front of your target audience! You have competition that is working just as hard to reach potential clients. By implementing a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign, you can push your posts in front of your target audience and increase the chance of your potential client interacting with your post.
So, what is a social PPC campaign and how does it work?
A social PPC campaign is a form of paid digital advertising. This advertising method places your ad on your chosen social media platform. You can customize your campaign to reach your target audience in detail (demographics, topic interests, psychographic information, and more). When the viewer clicks on your ad, you will get charged. PPC campaigns are a great way to push your way through the static of online competitors and take a seat in front of your potential customer.
How M&R Marketing Can Help
There are only a certain number of hours in the day, and we understand that you need to dedicate every minute of your time to what you do best. Allow us to help you succeed by tapping into our services! We have extensive experience creating social strategies, setting up social pages, drafting and scheduling posts, interacting with your customers on your social platforms, and more. M&R Marketing can guide you through the process and grow your social media following to reach your target audience! We would love to partner with you. Send us an email at hey@mandr-group.com and we’ll get this conversation started!