Social media platforms are everywhere and most companies use social media strategies to connect with people and build awareness about their products and services.
There are also many people who use social media to connect with friends and family and do not respond well to obvious commercial posts.
So it is something of a dilemma.
You will get a good response if what you are sharing is interesting and valuable to the people on the media platform.
Different social media platforms have different audiences an nuances.
LinkedIn is more oriented towards business and professionals.
Facebook user accounts are more oriented towards friends and family.
Facebook Pages and Groups can be more aligned with special interests and business.
Social Media Role In Marketing
The Marketing Wheel model we are suggesting has your website as the hub of your online presence.
The strategy is to build awareness and trust through social media and lead people to your website where you encourage people to sign up for your mailing list or buy goods and services.
Perhaps the business relationship starts with a message or phone call.
What Are The Best Social Media Platforms for You?
The short answer is to start with the platforms you are already on.
On LinkedIn? Start there.
On Facebook? Start there.
Where Do Your Ideal Clients Hang Out?
You will find it easier to select which platforms to use first if you have a great idea of the desires and needs of your ideal customer.
Then you may need to do a little research to figure out which social medial platforms they tend to prefer.
Perhaps Pinterest? Perhaps Instagram?
Images and Video
Studies have shown that posts with images and especially video get more engagement.
So it is worth putting together images and short videos to go with your text.
You can find good stock images for free or low cost from various sites including pixabay.com where you buy the artist a ‘coffee’ if you use an image.
Other sources include iStockPhoto.com, Adobe Stock Photography, ShutterStock, and others.
You also likely have a great still and video camera on your smartphone.
Adding some text with PhotoShop or other image editors can help grab attention and communicate your message.
Professionals such as myself can help script and assemble video presentations.
How Many Platforms To Try
I suggest you pick three social media platforms to try.
You are doing a form of market research to see what works for you. If you experiment with three to start you may find that one is much more rewarding for you than the others.
Which Platforms To Try?
Depending on your ideal client profiles and where they tend to hang out, you might start with Facebook, LinkeIn, and Intstagram or Pinterest.
You preferences may differ.
Why Facebook Is A Good Platform To Include
Although news article make it seem like Facebook is on the edge of imploding, it is a good place to start with your social media explorations for the following reasons:
- The number of people on Facebook is near the bounds of human comprehension.
- You are likely already using Facebook with a personal profile.
- You can create any number of business and specialty Facebook Pages to profile your business.
- You can create Facebook Groups to build special interest communities and encourage engagement.
- The sharing and liking mechanisms can help your posts go ballistic.
- Facebook Video can generate captions for your video. This is hard to do on your own and important because many mobile users will run the videos without sound.
- Facebook will send you notices about how to improve your Facebook Page profiles and posts.
- Facebook provides great analytics about the reach and
tjhe demographics of the people who read your posts. - You can boost your posts to a highly targeted marke for a budget you set. You can try different things for different targets and see what works best. In the very least, this is low cost marketing research.
- Paid posts get you in front of people beyond your friends and family, who may rather watch silly cat videos than look at information about your business.
Facebook is a great place to learn and practice your social media marketing skills.
You can also take the writing, images, and video that you create for Facebook and try with LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms.
Look for ways for the platforms to work together to bring interested clients to your website and to you.
Use a Social Media Editorial Calendar
You will have more success if you plan out your social media campaign, including:
- How many posts?
- Which platforms?
- When?
- How often?
How Many Posts?
Likely more than you are thinking at the moment.
Once a day per platform is a modest place to start.
How many posts are best for you depends on how much time you have or what budget you have to hire someone to write and post to your social media marketing plan.
The good news is that you can write a single post then edit slightly to post on other platforms.
Social Media Management Tools
There are some great online tools to help plan, manage, and send out posts according to your calendar.
Two that come to mind are MeetEdgar and Hootsuite.
I think both have free trial accounts and informative newsletters. Worth a look.
Need Help?
Social media marketing is a large topic and can be a lot of work.
Please contact me if you want to discuss planning and implementing a social media marketing plan for your business.
Greg Dixon
gregdixon@sharedvisions.com
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