In a society where there an estimated 3.196 billion social users worldwide, social media has become the ideal tool to grow your business.
However, it can be a bit of a maze to navigate- there’s an estimated 105 social media platforms already out there, and that number is only going to grow. Deciding what platforms to use can be a difficult task.
Don’t worry. We’ve put together a step by step guide detailing how to choose the right social platforms for your business.
How to Decide Which Social Media Platform Your Business Needs
1. Work out your goals
It’s advisable to work out and decide what you want to achieve from your social media strategy before setting out on your digital journey.
Setting a number of goals will not only help organize your strategy, but also help decide which platforms are best suited for your business and which ones are less of a priority.
For example, is one of your goals to improve customer service?
Your business could use Twitter by creating a Twitter handle dedicated to customer service.
Ensure that your support team monitors the page regularly and your customers will love the almost instant response they receive. They may even be less angry as a result!
2. Consider the key players
Whether you run a small cafe or a multinational company, there are some social media platforms so effective that you would be a fool to ignore them.
Facebook now has a total of 2.3 billion active users a month. Meaning that nearly 28 percent of the world’s population use it on a regular basis.
Interacting with an audience this large and diverse is a must for your company, and they also provide a tonne of useful data for you to get the best out of it.
Facebook Audience Insights allows you to accumulate and interpret large amounts of data regarding the demographic, interests and behaviour of your audience.
Their Target Add feature also enables you to ensure that your ads are targeted to a specific audience.
However, while you can access an insane quantity of people, the competition on Facebook is fierce. Ensure that the content you create is of a high standard in order to attract and build your follower base.
This is slightly different from Facebook. It’s not your business that needs to be on Linkedin, but you.
As the CEO of your business, it is important that your customers or clients can see who you are.
Your LinkedIn profile should detail your credentials and achievements in order to present your business as a reliable place to go. After all, business is all about building trust between you and your clients.
Twitter is one of the most active social media sites out there due to its fast pace nature.
It is a great resource for promoting your latest product of any content you are soon to publish.
Twitter is also a great way to interact and build relationships with influencers, who can then go on to promote your content to their leagues of dedicated followers.
Similar to Twitter, Instagram is an amazing marketing tool.
The visual underpinning of the app means that it is widely popular and perfect for posting images that promote your products.
Add hashtags to your images to ensure that they are reached by as many people as possible!
3. Consider which platforms your clients use
Regardless of your strategy, it’s important to know what platforms your clients use in order for it to be effective.
Gathering this data may be a time-consuming process, but it will pay off in the long run.
A simple survey asking your customers which social media platform they prefer and which influencers they follow can be really effective.
To be sure to get a good reply rate, add this to your site or send it to your customers via email. Adding an incentive such as entering your repliers to a £20 Amazon voucher prize draw will be sure to increase reply rates.
4. Work out which platforms you DON’T need to be using
It is just as important to know which sites your clients don’t use. There’s no point investing in a platform if your audience won’t see your efforts.
Working out which platforms to avoid mostly just involves common sense.
For example, if your business is based around fashion for a younger demographic, Instagram would be the place to start.
However, if you run a business that is aimed at a more mature demographic, a site like Facebook may be a more effective platform to run with.
In 2018, social media needs to be embraced. Use it wisely and I guarantee it will be a massive benefit for your business.
About The Author
George is one of Nobly POS’s co-founders. He’s completed a masters in Management and Organisational Analytics and has helped build digital teams and products for companies such as BSkyB and McKinsey & Company. It was at the latter where he met his fellow Nobly co-founders and the rest is history- they’ve been providing EPOS systems for coffee shops, delis, restaurants and bars for five years.