4 social media platforms that are great for business marketing
Today, philosophers continue to debate whether a tree that falls in a forest makes a sound, but the answer remains unknowable. Business owners can, however, skip the argument because when it comes to entrepreneurship, existence is being perceived, and the easier it is to be perceived, the better off you are. In other words, you need an online presence so that people can easily find you and keep your business running for a long time. But given how highly competitive the business world is now, it isn’t easy to stand out. Given that today’s audiences are more informed and more selective than ever about the brands they support, it’s imperative to prioritize building meaningful connections. And how do you do that? It’s simple: you need to understand where your customers and prospects spend their time and leverage these channels to convey clear, relevant messages that resonate with people.
Of course, selecting the right social media channel for your business can be as challenging as choosing beaches or mountains for your next road trip adventure, and you have to consider your business goals, target audience, resource availability, and the type of content you’re planning to share, to name a few. With this in mind, let’s explore below which social media platforms can fuel business growth.
With about 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the titan of social media platforms. Marketers can reach about 2.249 billion users on this platform, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes to drive customer engagement, brand awareness, and sales. One thing to note if you’re planning to use Facebook for business marketing is that you should create a business page and not a personal profile, as they include unique tools and allow your audience to like your page to receive updates in their news feeds, which is something that’s not possible for a personal profile. To make the most of Facebook, you should get deep into engaging content, community, and adding value. In other words, instead of broadcasting like an advertising channel with one-way communication, focus on delivering what people want – think private groups, local groups, and sending individual messages.
Instagram may once have been just a visually driven platform for sharing pretty pictures, but not anymore. With over 2 billion monthly active users, it has become a huge marketing platform for businesses and has one of the highest engagement rates among social media channels. Some of the most noteworthy features to leverage on this platform include:
- Instagram stories. These allow you to share real-time updates and keep your audience engaged. In fact, 50% of the app’s users have bought a product or service after they saw it in stories.
- Reels. This is among the most compelling features of Instagram, enabling you to create engaging videos that could go viral, thus helping you attract potential customers.
- Instagram Live. With this feature, you can connect live with your audience in real time, host product demonstrations, Q&A sessions, and other live events to build a community. You can even invite businesses or influencers for collabs, which will help you reach a wider audience.
While Instagram is an excellent platform, it can have lower organic reach, so if you want high conversion potential and a more direct way to communicate with customers, you should consider an email marketing platform. Email marketing works great for building a relationship with your audience, providing an intimate channel for personalized content, as well as audience ownership, compared to your Instagram’s lists of followers which are subject to the algorithms of the platform. Obviously, there’s no need to choose one over the other, as a combination of the two can be more impactful.
Snapchat
Snapchat may not be the first platform that comes to mind for business marketing, but it works well, especially if your audience is primarily Gen Z. With daily active users increasing by 18% annually, the platform’s popularity is only growing among younger users. But what makes Snapchat a great platform to advertise your brand? First and foremost, you can show your potential customers exclusive content: for example, teasing a new service or product by “snapping” a behind-the-scenes look. This will build transparency and make people keep coming back for more. Snapchat also lets you showcase your brand’s human side, which is key to building meaningful relationships with customers. What you should keep in mind is that this platform isn’t anything like Instagram or Facebook, so you shouldn’t aim to post the edited highlight of the day or your business. It’s quite the opposite: people are there for unfiltered content, so it’s all about posting real, raw videos and photos that allow people to get a different view of your business.
YouTube
Did you know that YouTube is the second most-visited website globally? That’s precisely what makes it great for boosting brand awareness and driving high-converting traffic. But don’t expect to succeed by only creating a channel and publishing a video or two. You must use this platform strategically, which involves defining your audience, conducting competitive analysis, and creating quality content, to name a few. Short-term video is now all the rage, so you can use YouTube Shorts for quick content viewing and reach mobile-first audiences. Shoot videos up to 60 seconds long and make the most of text, filters, and built-in audio to ensure your videos are compelling and stand out to viewers. When leveraging YouTube for business growth, don’t overlook SEO unless you want your videos to get lost in the sea of unwatched content (and stay there forever). You should optimize your videos at the very beginning of the video creation process by conducting keyword research to find the right angles and topics and then optimize a few key elements when hitting the publish button: titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and tags.
The bottom line
Ultimately, building lasting relationships with customers starts with showing up where they spend most of their time. Each platform, whether Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube, has unique strengths you can leverage to stand out in a crowded digital world. When you understand how each of these platforms works, you can use them with purpose to meet your business goals. In the end, the more intentional you are about your online presence, the easier it will be for customers to find you, trust you, and choose you again and again.
