You have probably heard time and again that you need to be active on social media. However, while interacting and engaging with customers via social media is one of the best and most effective ways to grow your brand presence online, setting up and maintaining the right social media sites out there can be time-consuming, especially if your business doesn’t have an in-house social media expert.
Whether your business has just started out, or has been up and running for awhile, and you need to choose a few social media sites to promote it on, here is a guide to choosing the best platforms and how you can make the most of them:
1) Facebook
Facebook is ideal for businesses ranging from small local companies to huge corporations. Luckily, starting a page for your business on Facebook is quite easy. After creating your Facebook page, have users ‘like’ it and your updates will appear on their ‘wall’. While you can buy targeted Facebook ads to promote yourself, it can prove expensive. Instead, you should encourage your users to like and share your content. The average user has 338 friends! This will allow their friends to see your activity, putting your business in front of audiences that otherwise you wouldn’t have access to.
2) Twitter
If someone follows you on your Twitter profile, you can easily follow them back. This makes it substantially easier to build a following. These followers, though, aren’t as targeted as the ones on Facebook. Despite that, Twitter proves ideal for businesses who want to research and connect with their target audience. The more you engage on Twitter, the greater the likelihood that users will notice and follow, increasing your following as well as exposure!
3) LinkedIn
LinkedIn, the world’s largest business-oriented social networking service, has more than 400 million active users. LinkedIn has grown to become a robust professional social networking site! Yes, this isn’t a platform where you will post pictures of your pet or recipes on. Instead, post about openings at your company, publish articles and advertise events, just to name a few. If you are smart about your posts, you can effectively market your business, create awareness, and ultimately increase sales.
4) Pinterest
If the products you sell are visually appealing, Pinterest is the perfect social media site for your business. Using the ‘Pin It’ button, populate your boards with striking images of your products. By choosing the right images to pin to Pinterest, you can show your potential customers what you offer. This increases your chances of getting more visitors, likes as well as comments. If you manage to develop interest in your ‘pinned’ content, users may also decide to follow your brand and ‘re-pin’ your pinned items.
5) Google+
Google’s alternative to Facebook, Google+ (also sometimes written as Google Plus) has more than 418 million active users. What makes it ideal for businesses is the fact it’s connected to YouTube and Google searches. So, people who are searching for products and services similar to what you offer are likely to stumble across your profile. Not to mention, regularly posting the right kind of content can make a big splash on Google’s search engine and social media as well.
6) YouTube
YouTube should be included in your video marketing strategy. By creating high quality videos, you can present your business to a multitude of potential customers. If your video appeals to the visitors, it is likely to gain more traction and views, exposing your brand to a wide audience! Since YouTube videos are watched all over the world, by producing unique video content that highlights the important selling points of your brand, you can also gain a huge boost in web traffic to your site. This in turn increases the overall number of leads and conversions, hence resulting in significant ROI.
7) Instagram
Brands deal in visuals on Instagram. Like Pinterest, this is a platform where you have to share images to gain traction. The key is taking pictures of the workplace, your products, your portfolio, your employees, company events, and other milestones and posting it on the site. Use relevant hashtags to make it easier for your target audience to find you. The best way to promote your business on Instagram is running a contest. Define the rules and offer a cool reward and soon you will find people sharing their images describing their experience with your products.
8) VK
VK is the best social media platform for businesses targeting Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, in particular, among other European countries. The social media platform has 5 times as many users from these countries as Facebook. Setting up an account is easy. If these countries are part of your target market, you can launch a targeted campaign, as VK offers more search filters than even Facebook. You can also boost your visibility through ads, which also helps with retargeting.
9) Flickr
Flickr may be a surprise entry on this list, but that doesn’t mean it’s not effective. To use Flickr for your business, simply
- Make Flickr a part of your overall web footprint. Integrate every social media account and even your website with Flickr
- Don’t share promotional images or ads on Flickr. Keep it simple and non-promotional to generate traction
- Find relevant groups and communities on Flickr and become an active member
All these tips will help you attract a targeted group from Flickr.
10) Vine
Vines are fun and using Vine gives you the chance to show your fun side to your target audience. Create six-second Vines showcasing your products, or even your staff, and you can build a connection with prospective customers. Vine can also be used for creating mini-ads, announcing product launches, celebrating milestones, and also receiving testimonials from customers who make their own Vines. Vines can go viral quickly, hence you have to use the platform!
These are the top 10 best social media sites for businesses and how you can get started on them to attract more customers. Use them wisely!
