A big part of succeeding in Digital Marketing is finding out the right channels to promote your brand. But with so many social media platforms out there, how can your company make such a big decision?
Finding the proper channel to announce your goods and services demands as much of a strategy as anything else.
In this guide, you will understand why it is so important to have social media profiles for your business. Besides, you’ll learn how to pick the right ones from the get-go and how each one can take you in the right direction. Are you ready?
By the end of this article, you will be able to understand:
- Why does a brand need a social media presence?
- How to build a social media strategy?
- What social media channels should your brand be present?
Keep reading to find out the answers!
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Why does a brand need a social media presence?
Does my business need a social media presence?
In this day and age must think that all enterprises are online in a way or another and have at least one social media channel to reach out to their customers.
However, you wouldn’t believe how many times the question we proposed above is asked to marketers.
As of writing this article, the same question has been asked by millions of people, with over 425 million Google results striving to answer it.
To get straight to the point: yes, it does. Every company that wants to keep competitive in the current market should look forward to building a social media presence and sticking to it. And we can prove that with numbers.
If your brand doesn’t have a social media presence yet, it might be missing out on a lot of customers.
According to Oberlo’s Social Media Statistics 2020, about 45% of the world population is on social media.
That means that those channels are the best way to reach as many as 3.5 billion people worldwide.
But those are not the only relevant stats when it comes to defining if your brand should be present on social media.
Companies have a lot more to gain from joining Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other such platforms.
- Want to reach younger customers? Social media is the place for that. 90.4% of millennials use, daily, at least one social media channel.
- Older generations, like Boomers and Gen X are also on social media, but in much lower numbers (48.2% in the case of Boomers and 77.5% for Generation X).
- According to the same research, most users spend at least 3 hours per day on social media, and 54% use those channels to research products and services they intend on purchasing.
- Good customer experience is another goal for companies entering social media channels. And it sure pays off, as 71% of consumers that have had a positive interaction with a brand online report recommending that company to their family and friends.
How to build a social media strategy?
As you can see, there are many advantages to building a social media presence for your company. But how can you do so effectively?
What you are looking for is how to build a social media strategy. In the next topics, we will teach you the way to successfully engage with your audience online and find out the platforms they use the most.
1. Figure out where your audience is
The first step to gain traction in social media is finding out where your audience is.
As you are probably aware, each social media platform caters to a type of audience and content, and you should consider that when building your strategy.
Twitter focuses more on news and current events, while Instagram is a visual social network, filled with videos, pictures, and testimonials.
While a social media strategy can include both what you will publish for your audience in each of those platforms is going to be different — and that’s great!
If you currently have no social media presence, whatsoever, you might want to get started in the places your customers already are. This will give you leverage in finding an audience that isn’t only interested in your products, but also what your brand has to say.
So, investigate your buyer persona, its habits, and define the best platforms to join.
Figure out how they use the internet and apply that knowledge to your advantage!
2. Follow up with your competitors
While looking at your customer base is a nice way of getting to know them and the type of content they consume in social media channels, paying close attention to competitors is the only way to stand out.
At least one of your main competitors likely has a social media presence, and you should understand what they do with it in order to build your strategy.
Analyze presence, posts, and audience to see what leads their consumers to meaningful interactions in those platforms and how you can improve your own social media strategy.
There are plenty of tools that can help you compare your efforts with those of other brands, such as Sprout Social, Social Blade, and SimilarWeb.
3. Understand where your traffic is coming from
Have you taken a recent look at the referrals your brand has on Google Analytics?
It is very likely that, right now, someone is reading a post on your blog because a friend or colleague shared it on social media.
The good news is that knowing where this traffic is coming from can inform the decision to join a given platform.
The channels that bring you the most visitors are probably the ones where exclusive content would greatly add to the conversation. Prioritize them in your strategy for the best results!
4. Think outside the social media box
Indeed, it is a good idea to have a profile on the top social media networks — and we will expand more on that on the next topic.
But when building a strategy, your company should feel free to think outside the box and take a gamble on platforms that are not being used advantageously by competitors.
Imagine, for instance, that you are the owner of a local bed&breakfast in a small town.
While Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest might help share pictures, posts, and tips on how to enjoy a visit to the B&B, it is places like niche websites that will really make your content stand out.
Many social media platforms cater to reviewing the type of service you provide, like TripAdvisor.
You should leverage those tools to talk to your audience just as you would when using any other major service.
Also, it is important to listen to their compliments and complaints in order to provide a social media presence that actually influences decision making in consumers.
What social media channels should your brand be present?
Now that you know the main challenges and opportunities when building your social media presence, it’s time for you to find the channels where your brand can excel and what each of them brings to the table.
Pay close attention to what each of these platforms can do for your business before setting up a profile.
Facebook is the biggest social media channel on the planet, and it is very hard to find a brand that isn’t on it.
With its massive audience, Facebook counts with a powerful digital advertising tool that will help you reach exactly the customers you’re looking for.
Bought by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has come a long way from being the app you use to make shabby phone pictures look great to becoming a powerful social media tool.
Today, the platform has its own niche audience and its influencer marketing business model.
Live streaming and real-time content from your brand is the best way to use this tool, and you should consider including it in your social media catalog.
YouTube
Did you know that YouTube visitors watch more than a billion hours of video every day?
Having a profile on this website can make a big difference, even when compared to traditional advertising on TV.
Tutorials, how to’s and lengthy videos with informative content fare much better on YouTube than other video platforms.
Twitter is the website for what’s going on right now. So, if your brand wants to keep customers close — and reach out to them as soon as a problem appears — it is the best channel to rely on.
A Twitter profile can make interacting with customers much easier than it is in other social media, and making an effort you can develop a reputation for great customer service on this platform.
LinkedIn is also a great place to promote your business, especially if your target is a B2B audience.
Long-form content, like blog posts, performs well on the platform crafted to connect business-minded people to one another.
Reddit is known as the front page of the web, with its main page featuring popular links that will become conversation topics on other social media platforms.
Including it to your marketing strategy will guarantee more visibility for your content and access to niche communities that are often not active in any other platform.
Last but not least, we can’t finish this post without talking about Pinterest. This social media channel is also very popular with niche communities — such as DIY and fashion enthusiasts.
If you’re trying to reach an audience that fits that bill, it should definitely be among the platforms you use.
As you can see, figuring out what social media channels your brand should be present on is a challenge in itself. But with the right strategy, your company can be very successful in converting their social media audience into customers.
We hope this guide will help you in finding out exactly where your brand should position itself online.
Ready to start building your presence on these social media channels? Find out how other companies use video on social media to their advantage before you get started!
