It has never been easier (or more affordable) to directly connect with an audience that loves your brand. It’s the magic of social media. Social media is everyone’s personal marketing tool, but is it really marketing if it is not working? We have broken down the top social media platforms and how you can best use them to help grow your small business’s online presence.
Facebook is a great tool for small businesses to connect with their audiences. It is a highly engaging platform and allows you to connect with a wide range of people. While free for businesses to use, Facebook has a highly affordable and effective ad manager that can help small businesses expand their reach far beyond their existing followers. Even better, Facebook is a highly conversational platform that allows you to truly engage with your followers by asking and answering questions and responding to comments on posts.
Instagram is on fire right now as far as social media platforms go. And it’s not just the young adults who are liking it either. While Instagram is predominantly used by 18-29-year-olds, it is also growing in popularity with older audiences too. We love Instagram as an image-first platform giving small businesses the opportunity to show off their branding, retail space, product and more in beautiful photography. Even better, Instagram stories are an awesome way to attract your followers to check out your page and latest post. It even includes fun engagement features that allow followers to participate in polls and quizzes and ask questions.
While some worry that the rise of other social media platforms has limited Twitter’s growth, rest assured that Twitter is alive and well for many communities. The 280 character limit makes it the perfect platform to send out a lot of content but in short, consumable bursts. In today’s marketing world, audiences don’t always want to consume a 300-word blog or even a 50-word post to learn about a deal you’re having. Twitter standards are great for facilitating the kind of content that will capture and keep readers interested to the end.
LinkedIn is the number one platform for professional networking and B2B connection. Why? There is simply no other social platform designed for that exact purpose. While LinkedIn may not be the ideal platform for every small business, it is a necessity for businesses that do B2B sales. It is also important for business owners to maintain their personal profiles of LinkedIn to help establish them as professionals and experts in their industries. Your business will lack trustworthiness if your profile is sloppy, or worse, unfindable.
Don’t just use social media, take advantage of each platform’s unique capabilities to reach the most amount of people in the most efficient way. Your small business will thank you. While it can be a challenge to balance all of the characteristics of each social platform while showcasing your brand in the best light, you don’t have to do it alone. The social media experts at H&C Inc. can develop social media campaigns unique to your brand to make the most of your online presence. Connect with us today to get started.