Social media can be one of the most effective digital marketing channels today. Social media enable you to run targeted campaigns with greater control. However, with so many platforms to choose from viz. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., it can be challenging to select the ones that are ideal for your business.
If you don’t know which social media channels will work best for you, just follow these steps:
Understand Your Target Demographic
Offering top-quality products and services won’t do you any good if you don’t know where to sell them. The same concept also applies to social media marketing, which is why the first thing that you must do is take steps to decode your target audience. Understand where they are coming from, what their passions and desires are, where they are located, age-groups and other demographics.
Understanding your customers is very important in social media marketing in order to understand which platforms to use — different platforms are popular among different users. For instance, you will find younger users on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. On the other hand, you will find more professionals, senior management, business owners, etc. on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Take Stock of Existing Traffic Sources
If you are already active on more than a few social media platforms, then you can identify the suitable channels for your brand rather easily by comparing all of your traffic sources. You can look into Google Analytics Social & Network Referrals Search report or the reports from other popular social media management platforms like Hootsuite to see which platforms are providing you maximum traffic and highest conversion rate. For instance, if you are receiving more “shares” on Facebook than “retweets” on Twitter, then you can focus on the former with confidence and launch amazing social media campaigns that are wider in scope and able to capitalize more on what you have accomplished already with your current presence and engagement.
Learn from Your Competitors
Seasoned entrepreneurs understand that competition is good. They understand that healthy competition compels them to push their limits and achieve their true potential. Also, when you have competitors, you can learn from their mistakes and save time and money, both of which can be spent because of wrong decisions.
By taking a closer look at how your rivals are using social media channels for branding and marketing, you can adopt the best strategy for your own business. Some of the things that you can learn include the social media channels that most of your competitors are using, the kind of content that’s getting the maximum engagement, their content publishing schedules, etc.
Using Suitable Content
Good social media marketing tools can really help with your campaign planning and management. However, the success of your campaigns will depend on the quality and relevance of your content, as different channels are suited for different types of media.
The following are some of the most popular platforms with their appropriate content types:
- Facebook: Videos, live streaming, blogs, and curated content
- Twitter: News related to your brand and industry, blog posts, and GIFs
- Snapchat: Teasers and exclusive content, sneak peek into the brand’s behind-the-scenes operations, contests and giveaways, etc.
- YouTube: Engaging long-form tutorial videos, product reviews/demonstration videos, educational videos, etc.
- Pinterest: Infographics and step-by-step photo tutorials
Bottom Line
Many businesses try to capitalize on all the popular social media channels for maximum ROI. However, this approach is flawed from the beginning because you may get good transaction on one platform and completely bomb on another.
If you put all your money and resources on only those platforms that you know will work for you, then you can achieve your goals faster and avoid hurting the cash flow. So, be sure to take the above steps and create a focused plan rather than one that’s based on a “spray and pray” foundation.
