Social media can be a bit like Marmite – you probably either love it or hate it. And yet there’s no denying that it’s absolutely everywhere!
Recent research suggests there are 45m ACTIVE social media users in the UK – 67% of the population! So you can see why having a social media strategy, not just a presence, is a critical part of your marketing mix.
Let’s have a look at the top 5 ways your business can access the power of social media.
Blogging
Ok so blogging isn’t a social media channel. But writing about what you do, why you do it, who you do it for – and then sharing on your social media channels, is a great way to showcase the talents and abilities of your company. Publishing an article on your website gives you not only credibility, it also provides links back to your website from your social media posts. Blogging can help your site be found more organically by Google and other search engines. Search engines are looking for websites with new content being added on a regular basis. People love reading good quality content online – and they are happy to share it with their friends and colleagues, so be sure to have some sharing buttons at the bottom of your articles.
If you only sell mostly to other businesses, then with 27m registered users, LinkedIn is THE place to be. The key to using LinkedIn successfully is to be an active participant & to add value to your audience. Share useful, engaging content regularly via your personal profile. It’s a waste of time putting a company page on LinkedIn and expecting any interaction unless you are a big brand with a massive presence – so concentrate on your personal profile. It also helps if you actively comment on other people’s posts in a positive way. And don’t tag people in your posts just to try and get their attention! On the other hand, if you’ve had a great meeting or have been to a networking event where you met up, a tag can be a great way to build rapport. The more you engage on LinkedIn, the better. You can generate a stream of high quality leads by consistently sharing useful relevant content & engaging with others – so stop lurking and start posting!
Facebook is THE biggest social media network in the world, bar none. If Facebook was a country, the combined number of users globally would make it the 2nd largest country in the world, just behind China. It’s huge!! According to the We Are Social report, advertisers on Facebook can reach 40 million adult users (people over the age of 13) in the UK. That’s quite some reach!
You can target adverts very accurately – specifying the geographical location, age, what their hobbies might be for example (great for businesses who sell pet, DIY, gardening, outdoor clothing, etc). If your business sells products that are mainly aimed at consumers – think cars, houses, kitchens, bathrooms, fashion, lifestyle products – then it absolutely makes sense to have an active presence on Facebook.
Twitter is a microblogging social site. When it first started, you were limited to 140 characters – the original length of a text message (wow, remember those days?!). Now it’s doubled to 280.
Twitter as a whole, has a good reputation and is popular with journalists who often use it as a source of information. It’s very much on the ball and is often the first place people turn to share something – when LinkedIn carried out an update in January 2020 which meant that users couldn’t comment on each others’ posts, people were quick to turn to Twitter to vent their irritation and the hashtag #LinkedInDown soon trended! And that’s another great thing about Twitter – hashtags. Hashtags are often used by users to find fresh new content, so making sure that you use good quality, relevant hashtags makes it more likely that people are able to find and follow you, and engage with your tweets.
Instagram is now a well-established social media platform and has become the preferred platform for people to share and express their passions in life. Instagram is very much an of-the-moment platform and is very, very sociable. Your content should reflect that – if it’s too heavy in its tone, new people won’t want to follow your account or engage with your content, no matter how informative it is! Lifestyle based businesses do well on Instagram – food, hotels, gyms, hobbies (cooking, gardening, DIY), interior design, pets, clothing, and so on. Niche markets also do well – think eco/ vegan/vegetarian brands, problem solving brands, plastic alternative brands, organic food brands, skincare brands and so on.
Summary
So to sum up, from a business point of view, having a social media presence and active strategy is a key part of your marketing mix. Producing high quality, fresh content is so important. Video is the content type that is most engaged with – as well as YouTube there is TikTok and SnapChat, relatively new channels which are starting to open up to advertisers and businesses.
Choosing the right platform is important – and don’t be afraid to only focus on one platform. Better to do one platform really well than 5 really badly!
If you need guidance on how to use social media effectively or help to create and share engaging content, give Clever Jellyfish a call on 01244 569800.
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