How To Use Social Media to Benefit Your Business
Promoting Your Brand By Becoming A Social Media Expert
Social media has become a useful avenue to promote brands, gain credibility, and expand outreach. The amazing ability of these networks to gather information and target audiences gives businesses a diverse arsenal of marketing weapons to employ. Here are a few tips to use social media to promote your brand.
Use social media dashboards to automate posts
A social media dashboard allows you to manage multiple accounts on one platform. There are free options, like Hootsuite, which usually limit the amount of accounts you can manage at one time (Hootsuite has a paid option as well). On the other hand, paid options, like Buffer, typically allow you to manage unlimited accounts and provide additional features to aid your social endeavors. These features include real time statistics, upgraded automation of posts, and apps that increase usability of the platform.
The ability to schedule posts is one of the most useful features of social media dashboards. You can spend an hour or two at the beginning of the week, set up all of your tweets, posts, and updates, and the dashboard will do the rest of the legwork for you. This leaves more time to strategize social media campaigns and tend to other parts of the business.
Include sharing buttons on your website
The value of social media as a promotional tool lies in its systemic nature. Just one post that gets shared, retweeted, and goes viral can put your business on the map.
One of the best ways to increase sharing of your brand is to include social media icons on your website. There are many options for placement, and some businesses even run split tests to find the optimal placement that attracts the most engagement. What’s key is to have them situated around your content, so that if users feel compelled to share it, they can do so with ease.
Interacting with your audience
If large brands take full advantage of this aspect, so can you. Social media allows a more personal interaction with the companies people support. They can ask direct questions, state what they like and dislike about products, and generally have actual conversations with the companies themselves. This has never been made easier than with the advent and adoption of social media.
When someone follows your business on Twitter, give them a shout out and say thank you for following. You can even send them a direct message telling them to come to you with any questions they have.
Respond to comments on Facebook, allow people to post on your company’s page, and post photos that give people an inside look at what your business is all about. Use social media to develop a personal connection and at the same time get a feel for what the masses want next from you.
Sharing valuable content
This is by far the best way to gain credibility in your industry. Share content that will help people’s lives, that relates to what your business stands for, and is worth paying for but you’re giving it out for free.
If you’re selling nutritional products, share studies that show which natural ingredients lead to a stronger immune system (and make sure these same ingredients are in your products).
If you own an accounting firm or financial advisory service, share articles that give people actionable ways to better manage their finances, especially to prepare for tax season when money can be tight.
If you’re a real estate investor, share information about the systems you have in place to help facilitate the ins and outs of real estate acquisition, building buyers lists, or property management; there are a plethora of topic ideas to share in the world of real estate investing.
Provide this content as a service to your audience and establish an expertise in their eyes.
Utilizing Ads
Ads in general can be annoying. But ads on social media are more conspicuous, and if marketed in the right way, can go viral themselves.
Facebook has an ad program that allows you to reach out to your target market with unbelievable precision. Google+ offers the same type of service, and you can even place ads on YouTube videos that relate to your business.
These ad campaigns are slowly taking over from traditional television or print ads, and rightly so; they are cheaper and provide a more precise way reach your target market.
Take advantage of the opportunity the modern age has presented businesses by become a social media expert, relentlessly promoting your brand.