For all business owners, time is precious. Therefore choosing to focus your efforts on the right social media channels is key. Think about where your audience might be found, how they behave / what they might be doing on these different channels and where they might be most responsive to your message. The big 4 networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) are a good place to start because of the size of their audiences and targeting opportunities, but not all of them may be relevant to your business or the best use of your time. Here are a few considerations to help you choose the right social network on which to focus your marketing efforts.
People use this network primarily for keeping in touch with friends and loved ones, but they will also ‘badge’ themselves by following brands and companies that they like and want to be seen to like. It’s the perfect place to build loyalty and to use that loyal audience to endorse your company to others. Any interaction or conversation you have with a person on Facebook will then be seen by a proportion of their connections in their newsfeeds. If managed well, this can be highly influential – the digital equivalent of word of mouth.
People also use Facebook as a customer service channel, often going to a company’s profile page to discuss queries and leave negative feedback before calling you directly. Not wanting to deal with negative feedback in this space isn’t a good enough reason to not show up, as people will talk about your business whether you are there to respond or not. It’s much better to be part of the conversation and show a helpful and professional face when managing any issues. (See our recent blog on how to manage negative social media).
The home of breaking news and fast-moving bite-sized content. More likely to be used to follow interests and make new connections than to catch up with close friends. A good platform for brands to grow networks of influencers and potential customers, and to remain top of mind through regular tweets. The fast-moving nature of Twitter benefits more from regular content than other channels, so can require a bigger investment your time.
A photo and video based platform, great for building communities of like-minded people and businesses through curated visual content. Traditionally Instagram has been known as the place of the perfect moment – where you would only share the very best picture. For a business, this means neatly styled products and situations for people to covet and aspire to. While this is still the case, Instagram Stories now also provides businesses with a great opportunity to show their behind the scenes, to give your brand personality by showing the face behind the camera, and to give a more realistic and relatable view – which if done authentically can be equally as compelling as shiny filtered images.
A professional network of business connections, used for finding similar companies and customers and therefore perfect for B2B marketing. As this platform is primarily used for business communications, any content and interactions here should be polished and professional. Great for showing thought leadership through interesting and shareable content. For more tips on which channels to choose and how to get the most from your social media strategy, check out our A-Z of Social Media. If you would like to discuss your social media strategy with us then please feel free to get in touch.