Whether you are a new or long- established company, it should be obvious that social media is a key area of engagement for your customer base. By incorporating the four social sites below, you will be actively building your brand through social media to reach your existing audience and a new audience at the same time.
Facebook is still the most popular social media platform on the planet, so having people “like” your company will help verify what you do amongst potential customers in a way that they understand. Make sure to post pictures, regular status updates, videos and other content, as well as encouraging people to review what you do – it’s the perfect way to establish what your existing audience think of you. And always be reading and responding to comments.
Twitter can feel a lot more congested than other social media sites, but it is worth getting to grips with. Not only is it a way to directly engage with your audience, but by jumping on relevant trends and hashtags, you can expand your reach incredibly quickly – making content that is both on trend and engaging can lead to it reaching thousands of people in a small amount of time, and importantly for small businesses, this can be low or no cost.
Instagram may not be for everyone, as many companies may feel they do not have any visuals to offer. However if you are in a creative, fashion, graphic design, art or a host of other visual industries, Instagram should be at the forefront of your marketing strategy to help highlight your creative expertise. For all companies it is also a great way to show what goes on “behind the scenes”. For example, if you run a beer company, showing the stages of beer production visually could really help tell your story.
The most professional of the 4 listed, LinkedIn is important for highlighting your professional expertise to others in your industry, as well as being a great resource to help find new suppliers, staff and corporate customers.
Conclusion
Developing a social media presence is not just a case of keeping up with the competition. Done well it can also help engage customers, both old and new, in a fun and different way, and with smartphones now being used worldwide, people can in effect carry your brand around with them in their pocket. Focussing on keeping your content engaging, regular and on- brand is an important part of a successful social media strategy. Remember too that you can have fun with both your company and your audience in a way that a lot of traditional business practices don’t allow.