Leveraging the Right Social Media Channels to Boost Business

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Leveraging the Right Social Media Channels to Boost Business

Many companies will create business pages on all the major social media platforms to drive traffic to their websites – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest. But with so many options, how do you know which ones are truly the best channels for promoting your business? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be active on all the above platforms to achieve brand awareness. It can take a lot of time and resources to make your company stand out on social networking sites; time and money that could be spent on doing what you do best – running a business. Here are some tips to help you determine which social media channels will give you the most bang for your buck:

Facebook

As of June, there are more than 1.5 billion active users on Facebook daily, confirming the platform’s status as a powerful tool for social media marketing. Facebook allows you to post a variety of content, including text, ads, images, links, and videos. Because of its direct messaging feature, Facebook is also great if your business is customer service-oriented. Additionally, Facebook’s targeted ads let businesses get their content into their followers’ newsfeeds, increasing their chances of making conversions. If you have a budget set aside for social media advertising, Facebook is definitely the way to go.

Instagram

With 500 million daily active users, Instagram is also a key social media player for businesses. If your company has a wealth of visual content to share, take advantage of Instagram. Like Facebook, businesses can pay to run advertising campaigns on Instagram, but you also have the option of increasing your number of followers organically by leveraging hashtags or creating Instagram contests. The drawback of Instagram, however, is that you cannot embed links into your posts.

LinkedIn

Job candidates are wise to create LinkedIn profiles to promote themselves and businesses should follow suit. For B2B companies, LinkedIn is a great channel for posting longform articles about best business practices, industry news and trends, and so much more. Don’t forget to embed links leading back to your company’s website! You can also engage in business-related groups and conversations to assert yourself as an expert in your field. Using LinkedIn’s paid advertising program may also help spread the word about your products and services.

Twitter

Though Twitter’s limited character count may come across as a disadvantage to your marketing goals, Twitter’s strength is providing up-to-the-minute updates. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, Twitter enjoys a substantial amount of user engagement. You can follow certain hashtags to see if people are talking about your business and you can Tweet back at them, name-dropping your services that can meet their needs. But if your target audience is largely inactive on Twitter, you might want to nix Twitter from your social media strategy.

Snapchat

Snapchat, like Instagram and YouTube, relies on imagery for successful marketing and branding. If you have a quick image or video that you only want to share for 24 hours, consider adding Snapchat into your social media strategy. A note: If your target audience is in their mid-twenties or older, skip Snapchat and spend more time marketing on channels where you have more followers.

Pinterest

According to Shopify, about 93 percent of Pinterest users log into the channel with the intent to make purchases. If women comprise a large part of your target audience, and if your company revolves around health, fashion/beauty, food, travel, and do-it-yourself projects, leverage Pinterest to grow your business. Use keywords to attract Pinterest users to your company and if you have the budget, invest in paid ads (which you can use to track conversions). Get in touch with Social Spice Media today to learn more about how we drive sales and create more meaningful connections with your customer base through social media. We look forward to getting to know you and starting a campaign to advance your marketing goals.