Did you know that people worldwide spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on social media? And based on recent research, YouTube and Facebook are the two most widely used online platforms in the United States, with users visiting these sites at least once a day.
Given that, it makes business sense for companies to leverage these online platforms to boost their marketing efforts. In fact, Facebook alone has a 2.14 billion advertising audience. This shows that the site has become much more than a platform where people share daily life updates but also for businesses to advertise their products and services and to nurture relationships with customers.
5 tips to leverage social media
If you're not sure how to use various social media platforms to your business's advantage, here are five tips to get you started.
1. Find and establish your voice
To establish your business's social media presence, it pays to sound more like a human — someone your audience can relate to. This lets you show a different side to your business and makes your audience and followers more likely to engage with your posts. And once you establish that persona or voice, keep your brand messaging consistent.
2. Produce quality content
Building a social media presence entails more than merely posting a few status updates every now and then. Focus on creating quality content like blog posts that will offer value to your target customers and not just upsell your products or services. Value-added content can also help you to establish expertise and thought leadership in your industry.
Moreover, you should try experimenting with different formats such as short videos, images, polls, and other types of posts, as your customers may not always have the time to read entire articles. For instance, you can look into utilizing TikTok influencers for marketing, as the platform is currently known for having the highest social media engagement rates today.
3. Explore more than one channel
Remember that there’s more to social media than Facebook. Learn where your customers spend most of their time online. Consider other channels too like LinkedIn, which is now one of the top three social media platforms for B2B content marketing. Knowing where your customers are lets you conduct a more targeted approach for both organic and paid marketing initiatives.
4. Create a strong community and offer customer support
Aside from its potential reach, social media is a good avenue to nurture leads and maintain healthy engagement. You can use your social media platforms to address your customers' concerns, which lets them know that they can trust you to solve their problems regarding your products or services. This, in turn, creates positive customer experiences and helps improve customer retention. In fact, based on a Sprout Social study, 78% of consumers will buy from a brand after having a positive experience with that brand on social media.
5. Set benchmarks
Aside from producing content and generating engagement from your posts, you should also track your metrics. This allows you to set benchmarks, so you can monitor what works and what doesn't in your business's social media strategy.
It's also worth finding out what your competitors are doing. This lets you find out best practices and things to avoid. You should also take time to learn from organizations in other industries to see if there's anything from their side of the fence your business can adopt.
It’s time to reap the benefits of social media for your business. But being social media-ready isn't just about knowing these tips and tricks; it's also about having a problem-free IT system so you can focus on meeting customer needs. For your IT needs, let the experts at Hero Managed Services help you. Schedule a FREE IT consultation today.
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