There are many tools small business owners should utilize in order to carry out a successful business operation. One very important tool businesses should use is social media. Social media is an excellent tool that assists with the marketing strategies of a company, but also helps with maintaining public contacts. Social media allows you to connect with your email contacts through multiple social media platforms.
As you’ve probably already noticed, there are a variety of social media platforms that a business can utilize. How do you choose the correct platform to build your business? The following outlines 2 of the basic important social media sites, and how you can utilize them in your marketing plan.
Facebook is an excellent tool to promote your business since to this day it is known as the number one social media site to connect with friends and share content. Businesses are urged to take advantage of the opportunities to market to their customers through self-promotion, and Facebook provides a wide variety of tools to do so.
First and foremost, a Facebook page is the ideal free marketing tool to allow businesses to identify themselves. You are able to go beyond product and service listings. You are able to share links to relevant information on your business, images of products and overall company activities, as well as posts on a customizable page to give a better sense of your business’s personality and character.
Your Facebook business page is the spot to develop your brand identity and to reach your customers on a more personal and intimate level. Other valuable tools include: Facebook Advertising, promoted posts, and hosting Facebook contests.
Instagram is a whole new way to expose your business to a new people. A social network geared towards sharing photos and 15-second videos, Instagram allows users to share visual content to people who follow them in a timeline-style display format. This simple concept is the cause of Instagram’s worldwide popularity. As of August 2015, there were 300 million active monthly users, with 75 million people opening the app on a daily basis. It’s estimated that 90 percent of the user base is below the age of 35, with the 16-24 age bracket making up 41 percent of the user base.
Similar to Facebook, Instagram gives your followers insight to the image you set to portray for your business. Publishing content on Instagram helps to expand your reach, build loyalty, and inspire future sales. That being said, it depends heavily on the type of business you are, for Instagram provides the opportunity to bring users into the world of your business with snippets of what goes on behind the scenes or to show your products in an unusual, creative way.
It’s really all about selling a lifestyle and its benefits behind your product, rather than the product itself. The general ways to do that are: staying relevant without bombarding your followers, being creative and imaginative, expanding your reach by using the right hashtags, as well as building an engaged community by rewarding your followers.
Social media marketing is just another creative outlet in order to reach your target markets, and stay in touch with your key connections through various channels. Taking you beyond the inbox, social media is all about sharing your services and products creatively, but most importantly quickly. Save yourself time and energy by utilizing social media to reach and impact as many present and potential customers all in just one post.
