In today’s digital world social media forms a key part of the marketing toolkit, used by many to help promote their small business, engage with their target audience and sell their product or service. There are many different social media platforms, all with their own unique benefits to choose from. It is important to choose the right platform for your business.
If you are new to social media then don’t feel a need to dive in and create profiles on all platforms. A better way would be to to start with a more measured approach, do one platform well and then build on your successes. As to deciding which platform to focus on, that is answered by a simple question – “Where do your customers hang out?” Once you know this that it makes life easier and also makes the content creation piece simpler as there is less to juggle!
There are many social media platforms out there, but the key ones for a small business owner to consider are probably Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube, Pinterest and maybe Tik Tok depending upon your age demographic. With over 70% of the Uk population (50.8m people) registered on social media networks and 45m engaging regularly, it is no wonder that it is a key channel to consider.
So what should you consider when picking your platforms?
There are a number of different things to consider when choosing the right social media platform to help drive your small business forward, including:
- Understanding where your target audience hang out? Taking some time to define your target audience, what they look like, what are their aspirations and understand them, will certainly pay off. Once you know this, then cross referencing this insight with the network demographics, will help to guide your network choice.
- What are your objectives? What are you trying to achieve with your social media activity? Is it sales, revenue generation or brand awareness? Ensuring that you have an understanding of what success looks like is really important.
- Do some research and understand how each of the different platforms work. Sign up with the platforms, engage a little, take some time to look around – are your competitors on here? If so what kind of engagement and success do they achieve? Do you like how the platform works – you will resonate more with some platforms more than others.
- Each platform works differently and has optimum ways of working. Think about how often you should be posting on the platform – this may form part of your decision making eg: Twitter for example you should be posting small snippets of content upwards of 6 times a day vs on Linked In or Facebook where the optimum number of posts is once per day.
- Content. Once you have an idea of who you are talking to and where they hang out, have a think about what kind of content you want to share with them – what do they engage with and what questions do they have?
Once you have selected the right platform for your small business, ensuring that you comment on your networks posts is equally as important to the content that you are sharing.
Social media is an incredible and cost-effective tool for any small business that wants to increase their exposure and reach online. It can be used to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, support your SEO strategy, generate leads and help you to understand your audience better. But for a small business, the secret is to choose the right platform by taking a targeted approach rather than spreading yourself to thin across too many platforms (at least initially) is a much better strategy.
If you would like some help in selecting the right social media platform for your business or kick starting your social media marketing strategy please do get in touch to arrange a no obligation discovery call.
Sources:
- Statistica – social media usage in the UK.
- Quick Sprout – How to effectively market your small business on social media.
- Digital Marketing Institute – 10 ways small businesses can market themselves on social media.
- Digital Marketing Institute – Which social media platform should you use for your business?
