These days, companies are prevalent on social media, and not just through advertising. Large corporations, fast food chains, and clothing brands all have their own accounts, usually on a number of different sites.
But how many different social media outlets does your business need, and what’s the best way to use them? With so many choices out there, you can exhaust yourself spending far too much time keeping up with posts for too little return. It’s important to focus your energy appropriately to make sure you’re leveraging all of your accounts in the best way possible.
Choosing Your Sites
Despite seeing places like Walmart and Burger King everywhere on social media, your business doesn’t actually need to have an account everywhere. You should pick sites based on what your product is and where your strengths lie. In addition, you’ll need to determine where your target customer spends their time to maximize your return.
Each site has its own focus in the social media world, so consider this when picking:
● Twitter is focused on short, catchy statements that can be expressed in a limited number of characters. Posts use hashtags that define the topics of the tweet to allow others to find and read it.
● Instagram is an image-based platform (which also allows short videos), focusing on artwork and photography, and it also uses hashtagged keywords to spread posts.
● Facebook uses a combination of text and images, and while hashtags can be used, most posts are shared with other users by its complex algorithms that look at users’ information and interests.
● Pinterest is somewhat unique, as it allows users to collect a series of images (some of which are links to additional material, but the images are central to the app) in different folders that relate to different topics.
● YouTube focuses on videos, which can be expressed in a channel belonging to your business.
● LinkedIn is a site targeted at working professionals, focusing on networking between current, former, and prospective employees.
● In addition, a number of chat-based programs like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Messenger are also being used more and more frequently by companies looking to personalize customer service.
Evaluate these platforms and see how they align with your business and its product. For example, if your business sells cupcakes that photograph well, you may want to focus on image-based sites like Instagram, Pinterest, or even YouTube first. If your output is in writing, Twitter, a blog, or even LinkedIn might be the best places to start. As your online image grows and evolves, you’ll probably end up spreading to new platforms, but this allows you to focus somewhere initially for best effect.
Choosing Your Tools
There are a number of social media management tools that can help you use these sites more effectively. Professional tools like HootSuite, Buffer, MeetEdgar, or Hubspot allow you to assimilate social media accounts in a central place. Some of these tools let you post onto multiple platforms simultaneously, which saves valuable time. More importantly, the best tools provide analytical data that will help you figure out what works and what doesn’t on each platform.
These analytical tools can track everything from views, interactions, and shares to which posts have led to the most sales. By tracking and analyzing the success of a variety of posts, hashtags, and content, you’ll be able to learn how to make your posts even more effective, which will help you tailor an approach to social media that gives you the most value for your time.
Choosing Your Approach
It’s well-known that the best way to stay relevant on social media of any kind is to post high-quality posts that are unique with frequency.
● Frequency means regular posting — not spamming. While a quantity of posts might get attention initially, if the posts aren’t worthwhile, you won’t get returning viewers. However, social media accounts that don’t post frequently enough to entertain viewers are often unfollowed.
● Quality means that posts don’t just have to be professionally developed, but they need to interact with the chosen audience in a way they find positive. Posts should be interesting and engaging.
● Uniqueness means you can’t just post something other people have talked about before; your business needs to provide their own new angle, take, or opinion on things. If you can’t differentiate yourself from other competitors, you’ll fade into the background.
The best way to determine how to balance all three of these things is to use your analytic information to determine your target market, and then build a strategy around this target. Look at age, gender, geographic location, and other demographics to figure out what your audience is looking for.
For example, users on LinkedIn are probably looking for career-related information, while views on Instagram are most likely users who are relaxing (or bored) and looking for entertainment. Additionally, younger users will appreciate more frequent, more entertaining updates, while older users are probably looking for longer, more informational content.
By using a strategic approach, carefully choosing social media management tools, and allowing your content to evolve to better suit your target viewers, you can make the best of your time spent keeping up with social media and get the best results for your business.
No Time to Post?
Even with these and other useful tips, social media posting can take quite a lot of time. Planning a content calendar and generating that content can take even longer. It might make sense to hand your social media tasks off to a team of experts.
That’s where we come in. We are SEO, content, and social media gurus who can study your brand, learn your business goals, and develop a strategy that will get you there. Want to learn more about how we can take your social media efforts to the next level? Contact Wordsmyth Creative Content Marketing today.