Social media platforms are a must-have for your business. They provide your business with many benefits it otherwise would not have if it didn’t have social media accounts. Social media accounts are especially important if you want your business to grow. Many people utilize social media to discover new businesses, and yours can be one of them. 

The real answer you need to know is what social media platforms are there that you can use that can benefit your business. Social media platforms can be utilized incorrectly if you don’t need them, or don’t know how to use them. 

Social Media Marketing

What’s the point of creating and having social media accounts for your business if you don’t know how to properly utilize them? This is why there is a thing in the marketing world called social media marketing. Social media marketing doesn’t just consist of creating social media posts and posting them with no real direction. 

Simply creating accounts on social media platforms and posting on them will not get you the results that you are looking for in terms of getting more business and brand visibility. You need a plan and here are some elements to include to make your foray into social media marketing a successful one. 

Goal Setting

What are your goals for running your social media marketing campaign? Without set goals, your campaign lacks a purpose and can lead to nowhere in no time.

Researching

Spending the appropriate time researching who you are targeting and what you are targeting them with can help you get a better picture of what can and can’t work. You need an ideal demographic and to use the right content when marketing to them to gain the full benefits.

Observe Competitors

You can learn a thing or two from seeing how your competitors use their social media accounts. They might be doing something that your social media team isn’t doing that can benefit your social media marketing strategy. On the other hand, you may also find something they aren’t doing that you can capitalize on.

Ask Your Followers

Your followers are a great source of valuable information whenever it comes to providing your business with new ideas. These ideas can be just the push you need. 

Assess What Is and Isn’t Working

Launching your social media marketing campaign shouldn’t be the end of that process. It is important to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t that way you can modify parts of your campaign. 

Of course, social media marketing requires you to have social media accounts. That doesn’t mean you should just create many social media accounts for the sake of having them. You need to create accounts on social media platforms that can benefit your business.  

What Social Media Platforms Can Benefit Your Business

People in today’s world utilize all sorts of social media platforms to discover new businesses as well as keep in touch with friends and family. That is why you need to hop on the social media platform train. The key part is finding out what social media platforms can benefit your business. There are many social media platforms out there, but here are the ones that can benefit your business. 

Facebook

When it comes to social media platforms, none are more familiar and popular than Facebook. Many people and businesses have created accounts on this social media platform and for good reason. It is one of the most widely used social media platforms today which means the opportunity of people finding your business on it is high. 

Posts usually come in the form of updates and announcements from users and businesses. You may already know some of the people who use Facebook. The only way to take advantage of this opportunity though is by utilizing a good social media marketing strategy.

Instagram

Instagram is another popular social media platform used by many people today because of the way it displays social media posts. Instead of posts that lack any visual content, all Instagram posts have a picture or graphic on them accompanied by captions and hashtags. The reason Instagram is so effective as a social media platform is because of the way you can utilize it to gain more recognition and grow your following. Using clever hashtags that pertain to your business can help more people discover you, thus leading to them possibly visiting your business and website. 

Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform that is good for short and concise social media posts. Social posts here come in the form of 280 character limited posts that can be accompanied by images. You can’t use long-winded tweets when you are posting on Twitter. Your tweets need to be clever, funny, and engaging to generate any sort of activity and engagement from it. Any tweet that is deemed too long, generic, or simply boring might not generate any good activity whatsoever. Take the appropriate time needed to curate a great tweet before you post it.  

TikTok

TikTok is an ever-increasing popular social media platform that many younger people use today. It allows for the creation of all kinds of videos, most of them with music dubbed over the video. It can be a great platform for a business looking to connect with a younger audience as your business can participate in many of the viral challenges that seem to come out every week. That means your video can have the potential of becoming viral and lead to more people finding out about your business. 

Pinterest 

Pinterest is a social media platform that is commonly associated with arts, crafts, recipes, and gifts. It is a great option for businesses that are more associated with what Pinterest has to offer. One thing to take note of is that although Pinterest is not used as much as some other social media platforms, it can still be beneficial to the right business.

YouTube

YouTube may be seen more as a search engine for videos, but it can also benefit your business from a social media perspective. It is dominated by video content, which is exactly why you should use it! Videos have been shown to be an engaging form of content for your business and what is YouTube made up of? Videos!

You can lead your followers to your Youtube platform so that way they can hopefully convert into subscribers. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media platform that is linked to business professionals looking to grow their connections. That doesn’t mean you should stray away from it if you think it is more professional-oriented. It is always a good idea to build connections, so creating a LinkedIn account for your business can help you gain some notoriety amongst other professionals in your industry as well as other industries.

Now that you know what platforms you should be using in 2021, how do you know which ones to use for your business? 

Difference in Platforms

Each of the different platforms we just discussed all come with their own unique benefits, which is how they are different from each other. Fortunately for you, we have generated a little list to help show the differences from each of the social media platforms. 

Facebook 

Facebook is one of the go-to platforms for new and emerging businesses as it is pretty easy to create a business page and many people who you may know likely have a Facebook account so you can ask them to like your page. Along with the ability to post details about your business, consumers can post reviews on your business page. 

Facebook also arguably has the most amount of active monthly users at 2.74 billion. That is a lot compared to other popular social media platforms. When it comes to sheer numbers, then Facebook is likely the direction you want to go in terms of gaining more followers as part of your social media strategy.

Facebook lets you create the typical social media post, but they also include the ability to post stories. These stories can be great for any announcements or other important things you want your audience to know. Be sure to use that feature if you plan on using Facebook. 

Instagram

Instagram, just like Facebook, is another widely used social media platform and is commonly mentioned as the second most popular one today. It is different in that all of the posts are accompanied by pictures and graphics. You can’t create a media post with just words, so be creative whenever you choose a picture or graphic and use the appropriate hashtags and captions with it. 

Instagram provides your business with the opportunity, just like Facebook, to post engaging stories. It also has the added advantage of using a link-in-bio for your social media posts. This can direct users to a certain page on your website based on what the post is referring to. 

TikTok

Tiktok is a growing social media platform that is still relatively new and is being more used by younger generations, whose demographics are among the youngest across social media platforms. With TikTok, you need to be creative, concise, and engaging with your content as many of the users there don’t want to be watching a clip that seems to drag on and is deemed “boring.” 

If your business is catered towards a younger demographic, then you should look into utilizing TikTok. From kids to college students, there is a pretty broad audience of younger people who browse through it.

YouTube

YouTube is among the largest sources of video content worldwide. It may not be seen as a social media platform, but if your business creates video content regularly, then it can be. Creating video content can help you connect with your audience especially since video content is among the most engaging forms of content you can use. 

If you create a decent amount of video content and have a regular schedule, then definitely look into utilizing YouTube as part of your social media strategy. It offers your business a place to host all of your video content under one account instead of storing them somewhere else. With the right SEO practices, your videos can reach out to a wider audience, which can lead to more growth for your business. 

Twitter

Twitter, compared to other social media platforms, only allows you to post posts with 280 characters or less. If you go over that 280 character limit, then you won’t be able to post it. To successfully utilize Twitter, you must be able to create social media posts that are both engaging and quick to the point. Many people who go through Twitter go intending to scroll through posts until they find one that they deem interesting. So if your tweet doesn’t grasp their attention, they might just scroll on by.

Twitter is a good social media platform for businesses that are targeting a younger audience as a lot of millennials go through Twitter at least once a day and are between the ages of 18 to 29. 

Pinterest 

Pinterest is dominated by a largely female user base. In fact, 42% of users who use Pinterest are women while only 15% are men. Pinterest has quite the reach and grasp as many recipes, clothing, and home decor can be found on Pinterest. Just like Instagram, Pinterest has many images posted with descriptions of recipes and items that users can read more about by clicking on the “pin.” 

If your business is centered around cooking, fashion, home decoration, or “visual” friendly business, then you should definitely look towards using Pinterest, especially if women make up most of your consumer base. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a bit different from the other social media platforms as it is more business-minded than them. Many people who use LinkedIn are business professionals who are looking to grow their networks which is why businesses who deal in more B2B than B2C can benefit from having a LinkedIn account. With a LinkedIn account, your business can reach out to other businesses that you feel can benefit from your assistance. 

All in all, if your business is more catered to serving and helping other businesses rather than traditional consumers, then LinkedIn should be a social media platform that you should consider utilizing as a part of your social media strategy. It can help you get more business as a result of the connections that you make. 

There are many different social media platforms that businesses and brands can use depending on who they are targeting and what they are wanting to do. It all depends on what suits your current situation social media-wise, and the business you are in.  

Conclusion

Utilizing social media as part of your branding and marketing strategy is a great way to drive more traffic to your business, website, and to get more brand recognition. Just be sure to keep in mind that simply creating accounts on social media platforms that you don’t need might not get you the results that you are looking for. Only utilize social media platforms that your business can use correctly. 

IF you would like help in marketing your brand, feel free to contact us here!