Social media is no longer separate from daily life. And modern businesses must adapt to the market by meeting customers where they are (social media) to thrive. Whether it’s an Instagram post to share images of new dishes your restaurant is adding to its menu or a Facebook post sharing a new blog about car accidents, social media provides an outlet for connecting your website and business to current and potential customers.
Social media usage is only on the incline, with 79% of people using some sort of social media in 2019, up from just 21% a decade ago. Having an active social media presence can help your business in many ways, but it can seem daunting. There are so many different platforms, it can be hard to keep up. So, what’s the best way to go about it?
Content Strategy
Developing a content strategy for your business can take your social media marketing skills to the next level. First, you have to think about what content types there are (images, videos, and blogs), and how they’re going to help your business. After deciding which content types you’ll use and how you’ll use them, you’ll want to think about how each of your ideas fits onto different social media sites.
For example, Twitter is best for short-form text and sharing links to blogs and videos. Instagram is best for images, and TikTok can be used to show short snip-its of bigger videos you may have on YouTube or on your website. FaceBook is flexible, as you can pretty much share any content you’d like there, including videos, photos, links, and text posts. LinkedIn is more business-oriented and is a good place to post content that helps to promote your business as a whole, rather than individual services.
When developing your content strategy, there are four components you’ll want to keep in mind, audience, competitive analysis, goals, and plans. First, you’ll want to do extensive research about your audience, what they’re looking for, what they engage most in, and what their demographics are. Different platforms will have different analytics. Your Twitter users may interact more with polls and pictures while your FaceBook users may interact more with links and blog posts. It’s about tailoring each site to its demographic.
It’s important to set goals for yourself and have a plan on how you’re going to accomplish them. Figure out what works and doesn’t work for your business, and keep working toward your overall goals.
Social Media Marketing Practice
Having a plan for how you’re going to post your content is incredibly helpful in gaining followers who engage with your content. You should post content regularly and on a schedule. If your content is sporadic, you may not build a following. Your schedule should be consistent, whether it’s every day, twice a week, or once a week. Having a schedule can not only help you gain a better following but will keep you on track. In a study performed by CoSchedule, they found that companies that were organized and had schedules were 397% more successful than companies that were unorganized.
If you’re unable to log on and post every single day, you should set up a system to publish your content for you. There are many different types of software that can help you accomplish this, such as HootSuite and Buffer.
You should also make sure that your content is consistent in tone and ethos. Once you develop your brand, you’ll want to stay consistent across all platforms with what’s important to you and your company. Your tone may shift across platforms, Twitter is more playful than LinkedIn for example, but the core message you’re trying to send should stay the same.
Engagement
Engaging with your followers is an incredibly important practice. If you think about popular Twitter accounts like Wendy’s or other fast-food chains, they often get a lot of responses just by having fun with their followers. Of course, that’s their brand, so the way that you interact with your followers is up to you. However, answering questions in the comments or even going live to talk about a new product or service can be helpful in gaining new and maintaining current followers.
It’s also important to follow people and join groups to further tap into a greater network of people that you may not have found otherwise. Joining groups can help people find your business even if they didn’t know they were looking. You may also find it helpful to join groups with other like-minded business owners. This type of networking can help you grow your own business while helping other business owners grow theirs as well.
Also, don’t be afraid to share the content from your business profile to your personal profile, and encourage your employees to do the same. This can help spread the word on a certain post, extending the reach of the post.
Advertising
Paying for advertising isn’t always necessary, but it can help with short term growth or exposure on a specific post. If you’re sharing a new important update or service, using paid advertising tools can be helpful. However, when you’re setting up advertising on social media, make sure you do your research, pay attention to your demographics (like gender, age, location, and interests), and set a budget and stick to it.
If you’re just starting out, using social media as a marketing platform can be daunting, but there’s a lot of free education out there to help you learn how to be more successful. If you’re looking for further help on how to set up your social media accounts and how to market more successfully, contact Site Social SEO to see how we can help you with your marketing needs.
Feature Image by Merakist
What To Expect When You Contact Site Social SEO
Site Social SEO is a privately-owned small business operated out of Orlando, Florida. We have a small team of 6 people who are each managed by our two owners/lead strategists. We do not require contracts, make wild guarantees, or imply SEO is magic. It’s not; I can explain to you how everything we do will help your website and business. Contact us below for a free website evaluation or to learn more about our services. We look forward to helping you to grow your business so you can focus on the things that are important to you.
