Social media is without a doubt one of, if not the, most popular communication platform there is nowadays. It’s completely revolutionised the way that we communicate with each other in so many senses of the word. It’s helped us to communicate who we are, communicate with those who are physically far away from us, and it’s also helped us massively to communicate in a business sense. Using social media in order to help businesses grow is something that is only getting bigger and bigger in the current climate, yet a lot of people are reluctant to partake. Usually, this is due to a lack of education on the topic, because they simply don’t know how to make it work. So how can you use social media in order to make your business work?
Understand Who Your Audience Are
One of the most important things to understand when you’re in the initial stages of using social media in order to optimise your business, is understanding who your audience are. You have to know who your audience are before promoting your business on any platform at all, even websites. For example, sites such as https://www.rankwarrior.com/ use their platform online in a way that attracts people looking for link building services and SEOS, I.E businesses. It’s all about knowing what you do for people, and ultimately which people to target.
Therefore, when using a secondary platform such as social media, you have to understand who uses what platform. For example, Facebook and Twitter tend to be fairly safe bets because they’re fairly universally used social media websites. However, Instagram is very much used by younger people, and Snapchat and Tik Tok even more so. You have to understand who your audience are in order to know where to successfully place your business on social media.
Once you know this, you can target your niche even further. For example, Facebook is full of forums and pages dedicated to various topics. Say for example your business was to do with hair and make-up. You’d easily find hair and make-up forums and pages on Facebook, and if you were accepted to join and advertise on them, you’d be able to target your audience in the most direct way possible. By literally posting to them, and only them.
Engage with Your Niche
As previously mentioned, one of the primary functions of social media is using it to communicate with one another. The amazing thing about it is, you can be just about anywhere in the world, thousands of miles apart from your recipient, and as long as you both have an internet connection, your message will ping over there straight away. When you think about it like that, the opportunities are endless!
Therefore, in a way that you couldn’t on various other platforms, why not use social media in order to engage directly with your target audience? That’s not to say become their best friend, but it’s a good way to build a rapport with someone, don’t you think? This way you can get feedback straight from the horse’s mouth (or keyboard!), and literally directly send offers, deals, and whatever else you’re offering directly to your potential clientele. It literally doesn’t get more direct than that.
Remember not to be too pushy though. If there’s one thing people hate, it’s someone constantly messaging them about deals, and asking them to look at their website. The best thing to do is maybe send your content to a handful of people, and patiently wait a reply. At some point, you’re bound to get a response, and remember that word of mouth is the best kind of review there is for a lot of people.
Be Active on Social Media
Finally, one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to use social media to promote their business, is by not using it actively. The downside to social media being used so frequently by a lot of people, is that if you don’t post regularly enough, your account will just get lost in the mix. The less you post, the less of an impact you’ll make, and ultimately the more likely people are to unfollow you. The last thing you want is to gain a following, and then lose it just because you aren’t posting enough. That’s not to say post anything – make sure your content is new, relevant, and of a high quality. Just make sure you’re posting regularly enough to remind people you’re still around!