If you are the owner of an eagerly poised business, hoping to grow exponentially, into the future, then you will need a social media presence.
You are probably already signed up to one of some 100+ available social media platforms on a personal level, so the idea should come reasonably naturally, although you may have to have a shift in mindset when it comes to how you use your account, if you’re setting up an account for professional business purposes Apart from that, (which shouldn’t be underestimated) it would also be a wise idea to become fully educated around why social media is so important for your business, and it’s future success;
Why is social media so important for my business?
Exposure to more customers than you could ever dream of.
You may be surprised to learn that there are some 3.8 billion worldwide users of social media platforms ranging all the way from the arenas you are most familiar with, being Facebook and YouTube, all the way through to platforms such as Tik-Tok and Instagram. So, before you get started, setting up various accounts on different websites, you can already see the potential that lies in store, all you must do is to tap into it, with the right approach.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach so you will need to do a bit of homework and maybe get some social media marketing support in order to make sure that your efforts are well spent, as you probably know already, on a personal level it can, become far too easy to get carried away and spend hours upon hours, getting absolutely nowhere.
Going from one page to another, watching what start out to be relevant videos of content you are interested in and ending up watching some completely random videos that whilst might be entertaining, have little to nothing to do with why you entered the site in the first place. This factor is equally important to keep at the forefront of your mind when it comes to your business pages.
Relevant content is crucial
If your pages contain relevant information then you will be more likely to attract the right kind of visitors to your page and they will be less likely to be diverted or distracted by something that takes them away from considering using your services, or products. The most successful ‘start up’ Business pages are set up with a view of purely offering relevant content that can, in some way or another, be of value to their target audience, but without actually ‘actively trying to sell anything’.
The beauty of this approach is that people don’t feel like they’re being sold to, in fact they feel more at ease and will be more likely to get involved with the content you post. It doesn’t take much either, for somebody to become ‘involved’, all they need to do is to like a post, or to comment, the golden nugget being that they would share your video or content on their own page which encourages more people to join or subscribe to your page or channel.
Building ‘virtual’ trust has never been so easy
People are so used to using online social media platforms these days that, if you play your cards right and market your pages in the right way then you can start to build trust with people that you’ve never even met. Oddly enough, people buy into an idea well before they’ve even made a purchase so, in a sense it’s all about planting seeds and watching them flourish.
Earlier on, the topic of how you treat your business account opposed to your personal accounts was highlighted, and it’s of so much importance that it deserves a little more explanation. For several reasons, people take to social media to share really personal information, disputes, or dislikes can be seen all over the place, including some really personal information about the user, and their ‘friends’, or family that they wouldn’t dream of discussing with the person stood next to them in the queue at the local supermarket.
If you are somebody that tends to post content that, truly, should be kept behind closed doors and only discussed with those that the matters concern, then you will need to adopt a different approach, a unique way of thinking. A shift of mindset will be needed to help you do the opposite of what has become quite natural to you.
A double-edged sword
To briefly expand upon how you use your account, you must remember that whilst the beauty of getting involved within the social media world is that of exposure, which is also a downside in terms of what people can and cannot see. It could only take one post, which is written in haste to completely tarnish your online reputation, either with your current followers, or with future, ‘could have been’ followers, of whom, you may never know.
Strategies your approach
First, you’ll want to know which sites to focus your attention on, Facebook is a given really, considering the pure size of the thing and the variety of people that use it. This coupled with the number of times the average person logs in each day to check in, post a post of their own, leave a comment, or simply because they are addicted and can’t help themselves.
You then need to consider YouTube, which is all about video content which can be shared across a variety of platforms, as well as having the ability to copy your video URL, to share your link with somebody directly. Both Facebook and YouTube are widely used so demographic specifics aren’t really all that important thus far, although they will be later.
Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat to name but a few are more geared towards the ‘younger generation’ and are more focused towards pictures and photos that attract people to follow you or, your business they are more specifically set up for that purpose, however they can be linked in one form, or another to your Facebook or YouTube accounts.
Focus your efforts
A good place to start would be with Facebook and YouTube, check out your competition to get some ideas of what works, and what doesn’t then, if you don’t feel like you are making sufficient progress, speak with a professional social media/SEO/Digital Marketing agency.
