Being in the social game is a
must for any brand — that is, if you want to have a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. With that said, having an online presence is not enough if you don’t do social media
right. That means understanding your target audience, producing content that reaches your goals and doing so with a small budget.
But before we dive in, you need to
carefully consider which platforms will work the best for your brand. If you don’t, you can misuse valuable time trying to create brand awareness on a platform where your potential customers don’t even hang out.
Essentially, you will be missing your goals and wasting resources to create content for the
wrong platform.
So, are you ready to take your digital marketing game to the next level?
Here are five of the most popular social media platforms and how to use them:
Facebook
A Facebook Business account is a great option for small organisations —
especially if you don't have a web page. This is because it provides an air of credibility to your brand. All people have to do is search for you on the Internet and your profile will pop up.
On top of that, Facebook’s Ads Manager is an on-platform tool for creating and running targeted ads. This means that you can not only do content marketing but also have digital ads that will attract new customers. If you have an Instagram account as well, these ads will also be showcased as Facebook and Instagram are sister platforms.
Furthermore, Facebook is the ideal platform to bring brand storytelling to social media. This is because brands can post videos, pictures and updates about company milestones. Brands can also share posts about fun office days or any bits of company culture. Users
love to hear about what happens behind the scenes and the inner workings of brands.
This platform is also a great place to take care of the consumer journey, as it allows you to answer and respond to any comments on your page. You can also encourage your audience to leave reviews — it never hurts to have your consumers raving publicly about your product or service
Instagram
This platform carries a
lot of influence. It’s estimated that
30% of all people who have Internet access use Instagram, and 48% of businesses can be found here.Instagram is an
excellent platform for virtual word of mouth. It facilitates that by allowing your audience to tag your brand on their posts and show off your products.
It also enables them to tag friends who they know will be interested in your offerings. This creates a
lot more
personal engagement between the user and brand. Users can also send you direct messages, use the email option or click on your website for more details.
Be sure your link is in the bio of your business Instagram account.
To top it all off, the platform is designed to be
aesthetically pleasing to users. This allows you to showcase your products in various ways — you can post photos and videos on your feed, or you can post reels and reach new customers.
However, if you are
not a visual brand, Instagram
might not be for you — so no need to dwell. Rather invest your time and resources into other platforms that will help you reach your customers.
LinkedIn
Due to LinkedIn being business-orientated, it is an
excellent platform for establishing your brand as it gives you that much-needed credibility. Although the platform might not be ideal for advertising your products, it still has many benefits to offer.
Because LinkedIn showcases your brand’s identity and characteristics, it allows your followers to get to know you a whole lot better.
With this platform, you can:
- share job openings
- showcase pages
- share content, such as polls, documents and other posts with your audience
- promote product launches through brand storytelling, and
- create networking opportunities for your [sales] team.
Essentially, the key to using this platform is to share insights about the industry you work in. This is a great platform to use for businesses that are just starting up, and for those who have been around for a long time. The whole idea of LinkedIn is to network, and just about any industry can be found on this platform.
Twitter
Twitter’s strength is customer service. It helps brands by being a channel with real-time, quick responses with zero hold-times. What’s more, the public nature of the questions users ask means that you can show off your customer service skills.
Moreover, Twitter’s informal nature helps to showcase a brand’s personality — especially in how it interacts with users, and in the content that it shares. The platform is
made for quick interaction and fun conversations, which is why it’s best to maintain a casual tone in your posts.
With that said, there
is a character limit on the tweets, so make sure that they’re
short and snappy. Another thing to take note of is that reaching the most users and getting maximum interaction on Twitter is
time-sensitive. This means that an important tweet can easily be missed out on if sent at the incorrect time or by using the wrong hashtags.
To guide you on this, remember to look at the trending hashtags on the platform, and see if there are any that you can use in your post. However,
proceed with caution. You don’t want to use something controversial and end up in a PR crisis.
YouTube
As a marketing tool, YouTube is a
great way to promote products in video format as you can show their features, dimensions and uses. It’s almost like those
Verimark ads you use to see on Sunday morning TV.
The visual nature of the platform helps your brand to bring your service offerings to life. This is done through the graphics, the editing style, the audio, as well as the people who might be in front of the camera.
Giving a voice or face to your brand is a great promotional tool in itself, as people love to see the human side of your business. Having someone to represent your brand and to give quick insights is a sure-fire way to get engagement, as “
the average person [is] estimated to spend 100 minutes every day watching online videos.”
The types of videos through which this can be done include:
- explainer videos
- instructional videos
- customer testimonials, and
- webinars.
An added bonus to having a YouTube channel for your business is that it's easily integrated with other social platforms. The videos can be shared across all your pages and you can even embed your content onto your websites.
Have you found the right combination of social media platforms for your brand? Let us know in the comments below.
Now that you know more about each platform and how it can benefit your business, here’s some tips on Growing your social media: South African edition.
*Image courtesy of Canva