A few years ago, in a post on “5 Proven Ways to Attract New Customers to Your Ecommerce Website”, we mentioned that building a brand through social media was an excellent strategy for driving traffic. And while audiences are always slowly migrating from one platform to another, this is still one of the most effective approaches for businesses trying to increase the number of people visiting their websites.
Despite what platforms like Facebook and Instagram might have you think though, using social media to grow traffic isn’t as easy as clicking a few digital buttons. In fact, it’s not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities and end up making mistakes.
So if you are looking to build up your business’s social media presence, it’s best to take a thorough approach, and take the time to learn what you’ll need in order to find success. This can be a fairly involved process, all things considered, but the following tips will go a long way:
Choose the Right Platform
We tend to think of social media users as a relatively uniform group of people: They all like to make posts about their topics of interest, share content with their friends, and sometimes write rather elaborate comments. However, it’s important to remember that different social media platforms actually have very different audiences.
As much effort as Mark Zuckerberg has put into making Facebook look new and fresh, for instance, the reality is that its audience is composed mainly of adults (and some older adults). By contrast, Instagram is visited mostly by young adults, and an article at USAToday.com reports that Snapchat and TikTok seem to be gaining popularity among Gen Z.
Not all differences concern generational divides, but those differences in age groups speak to why your business should be particular about platforms. Do the work needed to identify target audiences and goals, and prioritize your own posts and activity accordingly.
Tag Friends on Instagram
One key objective of posting content on social media is to use other people’s contacts to increase visibility. That is to say, you don’t just want to share a post; you want to leverage other users in such a way that your own post ends up being shared from one person to the next, and its impact begins to spread.
One of the most popular techniques is to include a call to action reminding followers to “tag a friend.” The benefits of this approach were explained in an article on Instagram engagement at AskMoney.com, which noted that the strategy is often applied to contests and giveaways in particular.
Both of these types of initiatives make it easy to encourage followers to share content. Meanwhile, it’s also worth noting that when an effort like this goes well, Instagram actually rewards frequently shared (or “viral”) posts by making them visible on the “Explore” page. Needless to say, this too is good for engagement.
Work with a Small Influencer
Sometimes businesses can put themselves in much more powerful positions on social media by tapping into the followings influencers have managed to obtain. In fact, contacting even a relatively small-time influencer or content creator can enable a business to market directly to a niche audience that is likely to show interest in whatever product or service the business sells.
There are all sorts of examples of how this can work. A business selling casual apparel to younger audiences, for instance, might find a fruitful connection with a YouTube-based sneaker influencer. A business promoting a new post-workout sports drink would do well to make contact with a given fitness influencer with a large following within a relevant audience.
Whatever the specifics, connecting with someone who already has a large number of followers can help your business to establish some early reach on social. It’s a nice, affordable way of achieving social growth.
Start Scheduling Posts
When it comes to your own social media posts, it’s also a good idea to start scheduling automated releases as you begin to grow your company. Needless to say, you’ll have a lot on your plate getting a small business off the ground, and it can be difficult to maintain a regular social media presence on top of everything else.
For this simple reason, a lot of small business owners now turn to services like Sprout Social, Planable, CoSchedule, and more for help Crucial Tips For Social Media Presence.
While these services have their own distinct features, the idea behind all of them is to simplify the process of releasing regular content on social media. They will help you to schedule posts in advance and release content at regular intervals, which accomplishes two things. First, it makes your business appear more professional and reliable. Second, it frees you up to focus on other day-to-day matters without worrying too much about when you’re engaging on social media.
Don’t Get Carried Away with Paid Ads
Paid ads are useful tools for attracting new customers. Furthermore, companies like Facebook have made sure that these ads are clear, and provide a lot of control. However, Facebook has also been accused of inflating its reach to charge more for certain ad placements.
Thus, companies sometimes find themselves overspending on a campaign that seems promising, “Crucial Tips For Social Media Presence” but that hasn’t generated enough traffic or conversions to be worthwhile in the end.
Paid social media marketing can still be a very useful tool, but those managing them should have very specific budgets and goals in mind.
Implement Social Listening
While the term “social listening” sounds a little bit invasive, this has actually become common practice for a lot of businesses big and small. Essentially, it refers to the idea of scanning the web for conversations about your business.
This means tracking basic engagement, for one thing – how many people click on your social media posts, for example, and what demographics they represent. But it also means picking up on what is being said about your products, marketing maneuvers, or company at large. If there are common comments of a given nature being made, a social listening program or service (such as Mention) will pick up on them.
The idea, ultimately, is to hone your marketing approach, or possibly even your product or service offerings, based on what consumers have to say about your business and Crucial Tips For Social Media Presence. In this sense, you can think of social listening much like general data analysis or market research, but based on discussion rather than raw data.
Conclusion
Today, it has become essential for businesses to have a social media presence that is not only consistent, but strategic and effective. People spend such a big portion of their time online browsing through these platforms that when they can’t detect your business’s presence on said platforms it’s almost like the business doesn’t exist. Furthermore, businesses that are not actively engaging on social media are missing out on important opportunities to refine target audiences and improve offerings.
With all of that said, getting the most out of your social presence still requires a thorough and thoughtful approach, as well as some real time and effort. The tips above will help you get off to the right start, and turn social media platforms into tools for your business.
