Social media is a free, fun, and easy tool for small businesses to connect with their target customers. However, you need to have a social media strategy to maximize its benefits.
Your lack of social media presence will affect your business not only in the present but in the future as well. Here are some tips on how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to promote your business.
Facebook has 2.7 billion+ monthly active users, making it the largest social network in the world. If someone decides to like your FB page, it’s possible that they want to receive updates such as future promotions and sales, upcoming events, and new products. You should connect with your followers and provide the right kind of content for them. Share various kinds of content and see what gets the most shares, impressions, and engagements. Keep sharing updates and content that resonate with them.
You don’t want to dominate the feeds of your followers, so avoid posting too much. Posting too little is not advised either. Consider the amount of content you need to promote and post accordingly. The optimal posting frequency for most businesses is one update every day. Your posts should be casual, but they should still provide value to your audience.
Twitter allows brands and individuals to interact with each other in a fast-paced environment. The platform has 320+ million active users per month. More than 500 million tweets are sent every day, making Twitter one of the most trusted social channels where you can get the latest news or events around the world. It has a large international user base as well.
Businesses usually tweet about data insights, new releases, product promotions, sales, and online contests. Over 5000 tweets are sent every second, so posting multiple times daily will allow your tweets to be noticed by your followers. They will also have more chances to engage with your business. Your tweets should offer value, but you can be a bit playful to attract attention and boost engagement.
YouTube
YouTube has 2 billion active users every month. It’s the 2nd most trafficked website and the 2nd biggest search platform. Creating and uploading videos can improve your brand’s credibility and engagement. “How to” videos are popular. People are three times more likely to watch YouTube videos to learn how to use products compared to reading text. You can turn existing content from your site into a two-minute video to produce content that will drive engagement for your brand.
Be consistent when it comes to uploading high-quality videos. Optimize videos for SEO by using keywords and catchy titles. You should also tag your videos properly. Use annotations or cards with CTAs and links to drive more traffic to your website. Take a look at your competitors, your audience, and their comments to see which videos resonate well with them.
Instagram has 500 million active users monthly and is hailed as the most prevalent social media platform today. Instagram offers various posting formats, permanent posts, and short-lived stories, allowing you to establish your presence on the site and upload posts that meet your goals and the need of your clients. Paid ads from your Instagram account are created within Facebook, so you don’t need to set up ads on another platform.
Your posts should be short videos, photos, or images that represent your brand. Examples of content that you should post include your company story, promotional items, the expertise you can provide, and brand values. You can do this through your Instagram captions or by creating an image with the content you want to express as text.
Instagram Stories allow you to share content in a more casual manner. You can also use this feature to show some behind-the-scenes photos or videos about your company. Stories are available for 24 hours. You can start a countdown, tag a location or person, take casual videos or photos, or upload songs to instil emotions. Asking open-ended questions or conducting a poll is a good way to drive engagement on your Instagram Stories.
Be consistent with your posts. If you post daily and then suddenly disappear, your followers might lose interest and stop following your updates. How often you should post will depend on what works best for your business. You can post Instagram Stories frequently or daily provided that you have moments and content you would like to share with your audience.
People follow you on Instagram because they want to get a visual expression of your business. That is why you should post high-quality videos or photos of your products and images that show the value and expertise you can offer to your audience. Use these posts together to improve your brand’s social media engagement. Always insert a caption in your posts. You can also add popular hashtags and locations to make posts more discoverable.
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and had 250+ million monthly active users. The social media channel allows people to network and connect with business professionals online. If someone followed your LinkedIn page, they are likely interested in business-related updates and the insights and information you can give them.
LinkedIn is a great way to post videos about your products or insights. Your engagement rate will increase if you can make and post an insight or product-focused video on LinkedIn. Post on the social media channel every week. Your employees can also become your brand supporters on LinkedIn. Use their network to share your content and reach more people without oversharing your content.
Your posts should be valuable and relevant. People should learn something from your posts and get insights that they won’t obtain elsewhere. Include an image in your post or link. The conversion rate of posts with images is two times higher than posts without photos.
Conclusion
You can focus on one social media website or use all of them as long as you do it right. Tracking your progress is also important. How you measure your progress depends on your goals and industry. You should also determine the social media metrics that you should monitor before you start posting. There are a lot of social media tools that can help monitor engagement, manage your accounts, and promote your brand on social media websites.