As a small to medium-sized business, you most likely have a social media marketing strategy in place. But are you putting your efforts towards the social media platforms that will be most helpful to your business? When it comes to various social media platforms, not all are made equal for every industry. We’ve broken down the major players to help your marketing efforts go farther!
Facebook is home to 2.41 billion users who spend up to 35 minutes a day on the platform. It’s a no brainer that most companies incorporate Facebook in their social media marketing strategy as it hosts a large audience with a broad range of interests. It’s no secret Facebook’s organic reach on posts for business pages has been steadily declining. If you have the budget, one way to get around this is by using Facebook’s highly targeted ads to get in front of your target demographic. Facebook is a fantastic platform for targeted advertising due to their wealth of knowledge on their users. Facebook tracks the basic demographics of a user like location, age, workplace, and education. But on top of this base information, Facebook also offers the ability to target users on some more advanced options like interests, actions, purchase behaviors, and life events. For example, a wedding venue may want to target their ads to those who have used Facebook’s life events to announce they are newly engaged.
For those who may not have an ad budget, Facebook Groups is an excellent option for engaging with your current customer base while attracting new prospects. Earlier this year , Facebook announced a complete redesign aimed at increasing genuine human connection on its platform. As part of this redesign, Facebook will be making Facebook Groups more prominent and minimize the newsfeed. This offers companies a unique opportunity to create their own Facebook Group to help reach their customers. A company aimed at weight loss may want to create a Facebook Group where its customers can share their journey. When you offer a space where customers can ask questions, connect, and post their own stories, the company is creating brand loyalty and ensuring recurring sales. If Facebook Groups is the right avenue for your business, designate someone on your team to regularly check on the group to moderate, answer questions, and post updates.
YouTube
With 1.9 billion users, YouTube holds second as the largest social media platform. There’s no denying that video marketing has been on the rise, but is it worth incorporating into your social media strategy? YouTube can be an excellent avenue for both B2C and B2B business, but before you start creating content, there are a few essential questions to ask yourself:
- Who is your audience? What do they value?
- What kind of videos will you be making? (tutorials, behind the scenes, product demo, Q&As)
- What action do you want viewers to take? Maybe it’s visiting your website, following the page, purchasing your product, or all of the above.
- Who on your team will be making and editing the videos, or will you be outsourcing?
Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to start planning your strategy. YouTube is owned by Google, making it the go-to search engine for videos. Be sure to optimize your videos for searchability by using keywords, video descriptions, and hashtags. It is vital to maintain a consistent tone and style throughout your video content. It may be tempting to create some videos for your consumers and some videos for a more B2B audience. This will most likely make your channel feel disconnected and could ultimately hurt your brand. Stick to one audience and create content specifically for them. Do some research and look at what others in your industry are doing. Think outside of the box when it comes to your video content. Red Bull has done a beautiful job creating their YouTube channel, with over 8 million subscribers who tune in regularly. Red Bull ties its product in by focusing their videos on extreme sports, which require energy to maintain such an active lifestyle.
When it comes to social media, it can often feel like brands are broadcasting content instead of facilitating conversation. Twitter is the platform that is an exception to the rule, and the magic comes from being the place where customers and companies can connect. Take a look at McDonald’s who does a great job replying to their customers in a meaningful way no matter if the tweet is negative or positive.
The key to success on Twitter is to have a loud brand voice, engaging content (ex. ask questions or post polls), and use hashtags. Take a page out of DiGiorno Pizza’s Twitter account. They have a unique voice, and on top of that, they use not only branded hashtags but trending hashtags to increase their reach. For example, the company live-tweeted NBC’s 2013 performance of the Sound of Music. By tying their brand to a significant pop culture event while still staying true to their product, DiGiorno Pizza earned over 44 million social impressions over the week and over 4,000 new followers .