5 Social Media Platforms Every Small Business Should Consider In Their Digital Marketing Strategy
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., are some of the most powerful tools for marketing today. They allow businesses to connect with their customers and prospects directly.
Facebook has over 2.2 billion daily active users worldwide. More than half of them log into the site at least once per day. The social network also boasts a robust advertising system that allows marketers to target specific audiences.
If you’re running all parts of your business, serving as the single marketer, or part of a smaller marketing team, you know how difficult it is to juggle everything at once. When this is the case, social media may seem like a non-essential element of your marketing plan. When things get busy, it’s easy to push them off. But don’t write it off too quickly.
People are spending more time using their smartphones and social media applications. If you want to engage them, you have to be on their platform.
Here are five reasons why every small business should consider using social media platforms.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website with more than one billion active users every month. It’s a huge social media platform with billions of hours’ worth of content viewed each day. It is second for searches and traffic only to Google. Because of these reasons alone, you need to use it. Video is also an excellent means of engaging with your audience.
You need to make certain to optimize your videos to be able to rank well, so they reach those who are searching for content. You can use Google Ads to run your campaign and reach your target audience because YouTube is owned by Google. Consider posting “how-to” videos as it is among the top-four most searched content categories on YouTube.
Furthermore, people who use YouTube are three times as likely to view videos on how to use products than read descriptions of how to use them. You can even reuse content from your site to improve its rankings. Keep the videos at around two minutes to maximize views.
Post as often as your team can produce high-quality content. After you’ve used the platform regularly for some time (say, after a few months), check your referrals from YouTube. This will let you know if you’re on the right track.
To increase your engagement rate, make sure to optimize your video for SEO, use good title tags, use keywords, and tag appropriately. Remember to include call-to-actions (CTAs) or links to get that new traffic back to your site!
Instagram is a visual social media platform that can help your business grow. You can post permanent content or create temporary content. Therefore, you have creative ideas for your Instagram presence while still concentrating on your business goals.
Posting content depends on the medium you choose. Keep your posts short and to the point. They should be videos or images that embody who you are and what you do. Sprinkle them with some promotions.
Stories go live for one day. You can drive engagement by asking questions or by using polls. You can choose to create a mood through music or promote an announcement. Instagram is a great tool for tagging people and locations. Stories give you an opportunity to share stories from inside your business.
Create high-quality content and share it consistently, and you will get followers. Remember, it’s all about the visuals.
Twitter is more like a conversational platform than an image-based one. It’s an extremely fast-paced social media platform that sees more than 5 billion tweets daily and 3.2 billion active monthly users. It relies heavily on news and international users.
You only have 280 characters, so keep it short. You have the opportunity to post about contests, funny ideas or thoughts, promotions, sales, industry data, and findings. Your goal is to engage with your audience and build relationships.
If you want to expand your Twitter following, try tweeting about other businesses. If someone mentions you in their tweet, reply with something interesting. Also, retweet others’ tweets when they mention you.
Because of the number of tweets, posting multiple times a day is the best way to get seen.
One of the oldest social media platforms, LinkedIn has over 250 million active users every month. It is best for B2B or business-to-business marketing. With that in mind…keep your content more industry-specific and provide business ideas instead of content targeted at individual clients. It’s an ideal platform for video content too. Look to post about twice a week.
With so many companies jumping onto Facebook’s platform, there isn’t anything new to be said that you don’ t already know. You could pay for advertising placement with this OG of social media platforms. It is a conversional platform, but the content must still be useful.
The key to success here is to find out how to target your audience. Post regularly and interact with your customers. You can also use Facebook Live to stream events and Q&A sessions.
Remember to mix it up with videos, images, and text. Also, Facebook business pages offer tons of ways to maximize and determine ROI on posts. You will get instant ideas of what is working and what isn’t.
Conclusion
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., are some of the most powerful tools for marketing today. They allow businesses to interact with their customers and prospects.
Using these social media platforms will help you achieve better results from your digital marketing efforts. Focus your efforts on whichever platform is most likely to be used by your target audience. After that, expand to ensure you’ve covered all of the platforms.