Chances are you’ve heard of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok – but have you heard of QZone, YY or Taringa? There are thousands of different social media platforms, and it can be tricky to know which to dedicate your time and budget to.
Putting your business on a platform simply because everyone else is on it, or your neighbour’s kid told you to, is not a good enough strategy. Before investing in social media, consider the following points:
What are you social media goals?
The first thing you need to figure out is what you want to get out of social media. Possible objectives are:
- Creating awareness about your business
- Growing affinity for your brand
- Having a place where your customers can reach you
- Driving traffic to your website
- Bolstering your search engine authority
- Creating a funnel for sales leads
Once you know what you want to get out of your social media marketing, you’ll be better positioned to choose the right platforms.
What kind of business do you have?
Not every business will work well on every social media platform and something like a site that offers online betting nz may find that advertising on other platforms is more profitable. A business that performs a service, for example an accountant or lawyer, is unlikely to perform well on visually oriented social medias like Instagram or TikTok. Often, businesses that perform a service such as real estate agencies, search for social media marketing for realtors assistance to get them on the right track for gaining clients through social media. Consumer product-based businesses, however, might do very well on a more image-heavy platform, if they put together a good content plan.
Consider your audience
Growing an audience from scratch is no small endeavour, so make it easier on yourself by choosing a social media platform that is favoured by your target market. If you aren’t quite sure who your target audience is, you can figure this out by looking at your current customers, or the customers of similar businesses; or by doing an audience survey. Then you need to learn who uses the different social media platforms.
The Pew Research Centre reports annually on this, so have a Google for the latest report. Finally, you could use a social listening tool such as Meltwater, Crimson Hexagon or Simply Measured to track conversations about your brand or industry on the web – but be warned, while extremely useful, these tools don’t come cheap, so do consider your budget/the size of your business before making this investment.
Quality over quantity
Because social media is ‘free’ to use, it can be tempting to jump on every new platform that comes along. But bear in mind, doing a sloppy job on social media could potentially turn potential new customers away from your brand, and ruin your carefully created identity. It’s a better idea to pick one or two platforms that fit your brand well, create beautiful, engaging content that will do well with the audience, and monitor the platforms closely.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to social media, so remember to keep analysing and adjusting your strategy as you progress, and it won’t be long before you start to see the results.
