Businesses can utilize social media to market their products and services, share company updates with customers and increase brand recognition. They can also use it to provide value to followers by teaching something, making them laugh or providing entertainment.
Social media can help humanize your business and build trust among customers by encouraging user-generated content creation and swiftly responding to any customer concerns that arise.
No matter the nature of your business – local stores, ecommerce websites or agencies alike – Facebook remains one of the world’s premier social media platforms, providing businesses of all kinds an incredible opportunity to reach potential customers. But how should businesses leverage its marketing power?
Facebook started as a private social network for Harvard University students, but has quickly grown into an international platform with millions of users worldwide. Users can share text status updates, images, videos and external links with friends and followers; join groups, follow public figures/ businesses/ organizations etc; engage in discussions; etc.
Facebook has become an integral part of life for millions, while businesses use it to stay in contact with customers and prospects. While it does have its drawbacks, Facebook provides an ideal platform for various forms of business marketing strategies.
Facebook allows businesses to set up pages for their business and promote them with paid advertisements, reaching a larger audience and raising brand recognition. You can track and measure the performance of these ads while benefiting from free tools that help manage and create advertising campaigns.
An effective way to promote your business on Facebook is through hosting events. Events on the platform can be entertaining and educational, attracting potential new customers while giving exposure for your brand. Facebook offers intuitive event management tools which make this task simpler – perfect for marketing your company!
However, Facebook has struggled to balance its corporate goals with user privacy and safety, prompting its recent controversy to raise serious concerns over its priorities and ethics. Facebook must clearly articulate which aspects of its platform it wants to take responsibility for while delegating such accountability to governments, independent agencies or users where needed; furthermore it should provide greater transparency into fundamental tradeoffs involved with social networking rather than trying to project an image of responsibility by attacking bad actors while also pushing its own advocacy initiatives.
Instagram has quickly become the go-to platform for sharing everyday experiences through quirky photographs and short videos with quirky filters. While Instagram may appear solely to be used as an avenue to display selfies and vacation pictures, it can also be leveraged as a business promotion platform by engaging young audiences visually with visual content that showcases your products or services – customers will likely follow if you engage with them regularly!
Instagram provides an array of digital filters and editing tools that give your images their signature look, as well as multiple ways to highlight videos and photos. Furthermore, Instagram allows you to post multiple images or videos at the same time into a carousel format – you can even add captions for better engagement rates and to convey what services or goods you offer!
Utilizing a hashtag strategy on Instagram is vital to reaching a wider audience. Choose some branded hashtags relevant to your business and utilize them within posts, videos and stories; additionally it’s wise to stay abreast of trending hashtags within your industry as these will increase your chance of being discovered by Instagram.
Instagram Insights provide a range of metrics to monitor, such as engagements, follower growth, most-engaged hashtags and more. This information can help you discover what types of content your audience responds best to so that your profile has maximum visibility.
By including location tags on your photos, they will help people discover your small business more easily, as they will appear alongside those posted by other Instagram users in that location. Additionally, this may help potential customers research businesses prior to visiting.
Instagram Stories provide another great way to market your business. Instagram Stories allow followers to access short video clips you post, making it the ideal way to highlight special events, new products or upcoming promotions. Plus you can connect it to all your other social media accounts!
Instagram provides users with the option to create both personal and business accounts. Although you can still utilize this app without one, signing up for one can open up many features that can help promote small businesses.
LinkedIn is the go-to social network for business professionals. Dubbed the “Facebook for work”, LinkedIn boasts over 774 million global users who make it an excellent way to promote your company or service. LinkedIn marketing can help raise brand awareness, foster relationships with partners, generate leads, and drive traffic back to your website.
LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards long-form posts that feature thought leadership content and industry tidbits that increase audience awareness of your expertise. You or someone from your team can write the articles themselves or curate and share other sources’ pieces; videos are another powerful way of reaching an audience – they have 3x greater engagement rates than text posts on LinkedIn and are particularly appealing to millennials.
LinkedIn provides you with a unique advantage over Instagram and Twitter in that you can tag individuals and pages when sharing content, giving a greater sense of personalization and connection between yourself and your target audience. Furthermore, LinkedIn provides paid advertising options like Sponsored Content and InMail that allow advertisers to target specific demographics with targeted campaigns.
As you use LinkedIn to promote your business, remember it is a professional networking site and should remain as such. Though professionalism should remain intact, don’t be afraid to show some personality by focusing on people both within and beyond your company. Use LinkedIn as an avenue to showcase employee advocacy or share employees’ success stories.
The Network Updates feed on LinkedIn provides a quick snapshot of what your connections, customers and competitors are up to. Check this feed often to stay abreast of other members in your network as well as post any of your own updates.
Pinterest provides an effective platform for telling a visual narrative of your brand that connects directly with target customers. No longer just for crafts and fashion enthusiasts, more businesses have discovered its low commitment nature as an effective means of advertising products and services on this platform.
Pinterest Pins are one of the main forms of content you can create and are the driving force behind its popularity. By sharing one, it will link back to your company website so people can learn more about you and what services or products you offer. Plus, Pinterest allows you to upload videos and images so you can show people about your business instead of telling them.
Pinterest can also serve as a great platform to conduct market research by keeping up with what other companies in your industry are doing on Pinterest. If a successful tactic for another brand stands out to you, try and incorporate similar content in your own marketing.
Promoted Pins on Pinterest offer your brand or product the greatest chance of being seen by potential customers, standing out at the top of search results and reaching potential clients who are searching for specific topics or keywords. For instance, if you sell black leather sandals ideal for summer and are a florist in Santa Barbara, adding relevant key words as captions of your Pins increases their chance of being noticed by people searching for these things.
Pinterest provides another fantastic tool to build your brand’s reputation as an expert in its field by using infographics and data visualizations in pins, making this an effective strategy for small businesses who wish to establish themselves as industry leaders and attract more customers. Furthermore, using Pinterest you can share testimonials and positive reviews from existing customers by either creating dedicated boards or including them in other boards; you could even integrate a Pinterest widget or button on your website so visitors can start viewing your content immediately upon visiting!