Social media has been a significant part of life for most of us in the past few years. Its relevance and importance is only going to increase in the future. Having in mind that almost 2.5 billion people used at least one social media channel in 2017, it is easy to imagine that most of us know how to navigate through various platforms pretty well for personal use. This kind of data also makes social media one of the best marketing and promotion tools providing both wide reach and cost efficiency. But here's the thing - social media for personal use is different from social media for business. If you are just starting a new venture or you are trying to take the maximum of various channels as part of your marketing strategy, I'm going to give you a few pointers into finding your way around social media as a startup or a growing business.
Don't Try to Be Present Everywhere
Ok, maybe a couple of years ago it was important for businesses to be on every possible social media platform in order to receive more popularity. Today, however, it is unwise to spend your energy and time on channels where you wouldn't reach your ideal customer. Conversions are far more important than likes. When you are starting a new business you already know that you must do extensive research to understand your market and your consumer. Find out what social media channels your target audience uses the most and concentrate your efforts there. Once you have done that, you are at least two times more likely to increase your sales because you will be reaching the people who care about your products and services. Want to know what is the most popular and useful social media platform for your business and target audience? Subscribe to MBC's blog and you'll get a free cheat sheet straight into your email.
More Personality, Lots of Inspiration and Less Sales
You must have heard about the changes Facebook is doing to its timeline, filtering content from business pages and prioritising personal content from friends and family. The idea is to minimise the sales posts and heavy business marketing, which, according to facebook's research, people find overwhelming and annoying. However, there is still a big opportunity for entrepreneurs to make Facebook work for their business by using the right type of content - inspirational, motivational, entertaining, educational, personal and relevant. This fully applies to other platforms like Twitter, where relevance and entertainment are of utmost importance; Pinterest, where inspirational, motivational and creative images can create a traffic boom to your website; Instagram, where people like to see content that is personal and they can relate to.
Join Communities and Build Your Own
Social media communities are very beneficial for businesses. Whether it is a Facebook Group, an Instagram Pod, or a Pinterest Group Board, you can find a lot of motivation and inspiration from like-minded individuals, learn new tricks, increase the engagement on your posts, draw traffic to your website, find help and even get new customers!
Invest in a Social Media Course, Coach or a VA
When you choose the platforms you will be focusing your efforts on, you need to learn how to work with them efficiently. Each social media channel has its peculiarities, pros and cons and you need to be familiar with all to make it a successful tool for your business promotion. It is a great idea to invest in a course that will teach you all the essentials. You can even find some free ones, focused on specific platforms. If you prefer one-to-one interaction and you have the cash, you'd surely benefit from hiring a social media coach to let you in on all the secrets for various channels. In reality, many entrepreneurs can't afford to spend the time to learn and execute social media management. In such scenarios, your best option would be to hire a virtual assistant with qualifications and experience in managing different social media platforms.
What is your biggest struggle with social media as a business owner? Leave your questions or challenging areas in the comment section and I'll try to provide answers and solutions in one of my next live videos on Facebook.
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