Marketing on Social Media, What’s best for you?
Companies all over the world spend billions of dollars every year to push their products to show on social media and to stay relevant. This is not a new practice; it’s been going on for many, many decades. What’s new, however, is the way they’re spending that money now.
Marketing Your Business On Social Media
Social media has overtaken the traditional marketing methods by a huge margin. There are many factors that can be attributed to this trend. Traditional marketing methods consist of the following:
- Print (Magazines, Newspapers, etc.)
- Telephone (Text Message Marketing, Telemarketing, etc.)
- Broadcast (TV, Radio, etc.)
- Direct Mail (Postcards, Catalogues, etc.)
- Outdoor (Billboards, Fliers, etc.)
Now, these aforementioned methods of marketing are still prevalent in today’s time as well, but not everybody uses them or wants to use them anymore.
Why? Because in comparison with social media marketing:
- There is no interaction with the customer
- There is no control over when your content is shown or how and there are no do-overs or updates
- They are extremely expensive. Only huge brands can afford to avail the benefits of these methods as new or emerging businesses don’t have the resources to afford them
- There is no surety as to how many people have actually seen your ads and decided to buy your products.
These are some of the reasons why social media marketing or digital marketing have sailed past traditional marketing.
Now that you know the depth of how incredibly useful and inexpensive social media marketing can be, here’s how you can promote your business through some of the most popular social media platforms of the world:
How to Market Your Business on Facebook
Facebook is one of the pioneers of social media marketing. Therefore, it is quite evident that if one wants to get their brand’s presence felt, they must know how to fully take advantage of the marketing landscape that Facebook has designed.
There are quite a few ways that you can do that:
Business Page
One of the simplest and easiest ways for any business to create a presence for themselves online is to create a page for their business on Facebook. Within a few simple steps, you can have your page published.
It helps you create and maintain relationships with your customers as they can always stay updated with what you’ve been doing and what you’re planning on doing in the future.
Moreover, this open, two-way communication allows you to keep your ears to the ground and to sense what your customers are liking and disliking. This will enable you to come up with products that are more attractive for them.
Brand Presence
Maintaining an active brand presence online isn’t an easy task. It’s even more difficult on Facebook as they’re notoriously known for their tricky algorithms that, possibly, won’t really show your page’s posts in your followers’ newsfeed without paying for it. That’s where their ads come in.
You can definitely choose to opt for ads for your business every now and then, but let’s be honest – how can one possibly do that every single time, for every single post? Not everybody has pockets that are deep enough to do that.
Therefore, your best bet is to make sure that you are churning out good quality content on a regular basis and keeping your page updated as people now even use the platform as a search engine anyway. Whether it’s updates about your latest sale or your business hours, or even location – these things are searched for by the customers.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups can be an incredible source for you. You can meet like-minded individuals and even people who are in the same kind of business as you. Some might be newer businesses while others might be experienced veterans who can guide you and cater to all of your queries.
You can join them through your personal profile and make sure that you don’t just keep pitching your business or products as that is an instant turn-off that could even result in banning from certain groups, depending on their rules.
Moreover, you can also create your own little community by creating a group yourself.
Stay Relevant
Treat your Facebook page as a brick-and-mortar store. If you don’t evolve, you will lose out and over time, your customers will forget about you as they move on to better, newer options. Whether it’s through livestreams, products, content, events, or any other thing – make sure that you stay relevant.
Share!
Social media thrives on shareable content. Create engaging content that is worth sharing as that will allow you to reach even more people than the followers that you have. If you have a new event or product launch coming up, don’t be afraid to ask your friends or community members to help you in spreading the word.
Learn how to comply with Facebook ads Policies
How to Market Your Business on Instagram
Instagram is the most popular social media platform these days and rightfully so. It’s easy to use, convenient, and clutter-free (to a certain extent). A lot of small-scale businesses are even wholly run just through Instagram. A lot of these businesses don’t even have a website. Yet, they’re thriving.
Here’s how you can do that too:
Create Your Business Profile on Instagram
It’s quite straightforward. Once you create your ID, upload your business picture and details and you’re done.
Follow Relevant Accounts
By following relevant brands, businesses, and influencers that match with your business’ vision, goals, and message will allow you to see how other businesses, like yours, are promoting their products and also help you differentiate between the different styles of content creation and delivery that those brands are following.
This will allow you to come up with your own style.
Content Is King!
Come up with great-looking content. Since Instagram is strictly a visual medium, come up with interesting visuals that can attract the attention of your customers. Whether it’s through pictures, videos, or even the newly launched Reels.
Create engaging, shareable content that can resonate with your target segment.
Testimonials
This is one of the most important things that you should follow on any and all social media platforms. Your customers’ experience with you and your products is powerful enough to either attract new customers or scare away even the existing ones (only if it’s bad enough).
Use those good testimonials and share it with your customers so that you can start gaining their trust.
Don’t Confuse Your Followers
It’s quite easy to follow the trend and start doing what everyone else is doing. That, however, is a recipe for disaster. When you stop focusing on who you are, as a brand, and try becoming too many different things at the same time, you will confuse your customers and yourself.
Stick to what you’re doing and evolve within that same bracket. There’s nothing wrong with expanding, but there’s a lot that’s wrong with not knowing when, how, or where to expand.
Relevancy
Stay relevant. You can do so much with your brand while staying relevant with current topics and trends. Get inspired by others but don’t copy them. Your customers know better.
Ads
Ads are a mainstay of most social media platforms. Instagram does the same with their Stories ads, Photo ads, Video ads, Carousel ads, Collection ads, and ads in Explore, etc. You can choose to go this way or even incorporate some influencers to promote your brand and products.
Whatever fits your branding.
How to Market Your Business on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform amongst professionals for its ability to help them connect with other professionals. It allows them to network and initiate conversations with people that they perhaps wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
It’s also a great avenue for businesses to create brand awareness and to grow their business. Here’s how:
LinkedIn Page
Just like with Facebook, you can create a page for your business on LinkedIn as well. On the homepage, you’ll see the ‘Work’ button on the top right corner of the screen. That will allow you to ‘Create a company page’ which will further give you choices for your business type – small business, medium to large business, showcase page, educational institution.
Thereafter you have to fill out all the information that is asked of you and within a few simple steps, you’re done.
Targeted Customers
LinkedIn is the perfect place to target your potential customers. For example, you’re a new startup that has come up with a new shoe design technology. Your best bet of finding the relevant people in the exact industry and company that you want, is to zero in on them through LinkedIn.
Find out the key people in those companies and approach them. Someone will definitely reply.
Leads
Once you have a good enough connection base, keep posting information about your business and how it can positively impact professionals. Tell them the benefits of your product and how it should be something that they all buy. Whether it’s through a blog post, a short video, or even a pictorial ad.
This will allow you to generate quality leads whose conversion rates are going to be better than, perhaps, a lot of other social media platforms.
Go for Sponsored Updates
With sponsored updates, you can customize your ads by targeting people through their organization, job title, job function, skills, schools, and groups, etc. You can also target specific industries and make sure that your ad is seen by the people that you want it to be seen by.
Top-Notch Content
As is the case with all other platforms, content is the key to success. The better your content, the better your conversions.
How to Market Your Business on TikTok
Every few years, there comes a social media platform that generates a lot of buzz but within no time, fades away into oblivion. TikTok, is clearly not one of them. It’s a highly popular social media platform that is still growing and evolving. Moreover, it’s increasingly becoming an important segment of social media marketing.
Here’s how you can take advantage of it as well:
Know What the Platform Is All About
In the United States, TikTok is hugely popular amongst users aged between 10-19. 32.5%, to be precise. The second biggest user base is between the ages of 20-29, which accounts for 29.5% of its user base, according to Statista.
That tells us that this platform is primarily used by young people. The platform is full of fun, playful, and even silly videos. It’s not a serious platform. Therefore, in order to promote your business, you need to come up with content that fits within the ethos of this app or else it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.
Content & Networking
As is the case with all social media platforms, this platform also demands an excellent and endless supply of content. As mentioned above, the content needs to fit into the brand of the app. Come up with fun and creative content that can grab the attention of its mainly young userbase.
It’s an inexpensive way of generating buzz and interacting with your customers. All you need is a good smartphone camera and the expertise to execute a great idea. Sure, you can do a lot more if you have the resources, but even this can give you good results.
Hashtags
Hashtags have become so normalized now that it’s been incorporated into almost all social media platforms and otherwise. One of the ways that you can use that to your advantage on TikTok is by coming up with a creative hashtag challenge where customers can create or recreate content while adding your branded hashtag to it.
TikTok Influencers
Influencers have amassed popularity and swaying power that once only movie stars and rockstars had. Collaborate with them and come up with attractive content that fans of both, the influencer and your brand, can enjoy.
How to Market Your Business on Snapchat
If you want to cater to a younger demographic, have an increased interaction with of your brand with them, and showcase a playful side of your brand, then Snapchat is the place to be in order to market your business.
Here’s how you can do it:
Create a Snapchat Business account
A snapchat business account lets you do so much more than just a regular account. Whether its advertising your products or business through its Ads Manager, reaching your target customers through their demographic marketing, or location-targeting – you can rest assured that your custom creations are reaching the right audience.
Here’s a detailed, step-by-step guide for how you can create your business account.
Snapchat Insights
Snapchat Insights is Snapchat’s built-in analytics tool that will help you analyze who’s viewing your content, what content of yours is performing well and what isn’t, how many people it’s reaching, where the most amount of interaction is happening geographically, and what age bracket is engaging with you the most, etc.
This will help you design your marketing strategy better.
Use Snapchat’s Features to Your advantage
Every social media has its own features that you can take full advantage of if you know how to use them. Snapchat’s features include:
- Drawing over snaps
- Writing captions over snaps
- Collecting multiple snaps and binding them together to form a narrative
- Adding information like time, date, and location
- Adding background music
- Adding one or more filters
- Using Snapchat lens, etc.
How to Market Your Business on Pinterest
Pinterest is much more than just a social media platform. It’s an endless stream of pictures that is used by hundreds of millions of people all over the world, monthly. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it a visual search engine or even a productivity tool.
Not sure how it can be used to market your business? Let me help:
Create a Business Account
You can create your very own business account on Pinterest here. Fill out the required information and set up your account right away.
Content & Media
Some social media platforms can share the same kind of content while others can’t. Pinterest falls into the latter category. As it works on ‘Pins’, your best bet of capturing the attention of other people is through creating content that they can easily interact with and understand.
For example, Instructographics. They are DIY, how-to pictures that try to explain certain ideas and concepts easily. It’s the second most popular category on the site.
SEO
In order to create maximum impact, usage of some SEO tools will benefit you immensely. For example, relevant keywords. Keywords are an integral component of effective SEO. Using those practices here will definitely give you a huge boost.
Engagement
Customers will engage with you but only to a certain extent. That number can blow up exponentially, however, if you do the same with them. Interact with them, engage with them by commenting on their pins, replying to their comments, interacting with popular boards and following them, and inviting other people to pin on your boards, etc.
How to Market Your Business on Twitter
Twitter is a social media platform that might dwarf in comparison to some of its other peers in terms of user numbers but it reigns supreme in terms of relevance. All the who’s who of the world use this platform to put their message across.
It’s not just politicians or celebrities, brands do that, too.
Here’s how you can do it as well:
Complete Your Social Profile
Nobody trusts a business that does a lazy job at completing their profile. The brand credibility can be adversely affected, straight away. Make sure your profile picture, header, username, URL, website, and description are complete.
Stay True to Your Brand
No matter what, always stay true to your brand. If you’re a Wendy’s and you start posting dark and serious tweets, it’ll absolutely contrary to your brand image and this confusion will either shoo away your loyal customers or enrage them… or both.
Lists
Lists on Twitter can help you tune into relevant topics and discussions that you want to stay up-to-date with. There are millions of tweets being sent on the platform every day and it is impossible to keep a check on everything.
Lists can help you stay updated with your competitors accounts, thought leaders from your industry, politicians, celebrities that endorse your product, and influencers you are associated with, etc.
Use Twitter’s tools
Whether it’s gifs, videos, pictures, fleets, polls, hashtags etc. Use them all to engage with your customers. There’s a reason why they exist.
Focus on Being Concise
There’s a reason why a tweet has only 280 characters. Short, simple, and relevant tweets can do a much better job at engaging with your customers than a long, unneeded paragraph spread over a thread.
Ad campaigns on Twitter social media
You can also use advertising on Twitter as they can help you reach a wider audience. Whether it’s for a new product or a campaign, a promoted tweet will always help you get heard by more people.
Lastly, all social media platforms are different. They all require some level of understanding in order to reap the greatest number of benefits from them. Social media marketing is an extremely integral part of marketing today and to comprehend it, you need to at least have a basic understanding how it works. This article was designed to do just that.
Finally, Which Social Media should you choose for your business?
The answer to that is where your customers are, if you are advertising for teens, then tiktok and snapchat is the way to go. If you are targeting B2B customers, LinkedIn will be enough along with a proper website in place and SEO work. If you are massproducing, then Facebook, Instagram can be a good fit for your product. Twitter can work in some countries in case of B2B as well like GCC countries. While Facebook might work better in Egypt but not as much in the GCC. Read our full marketing guide for your startup business.
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