With over 2.1 billion people active on social media, it makes sense to utilise these online communal channels for business. People use social media for business to communicate, engage and share content. It brings forth a means by which business’ can develop a two-way dialogue with their customers. Your social media strategy and campaign will depend on the premise of your business, your target audience and the social network channel in use.
Below we have each of the big social media channels listed, along with ways in which they can be utilised to help grow your business:
How to Use Social Media for Business Development
As the #1 social media platform worldwide, Facebook can drive a traffic jam of potential customers to your business’s fan page. Cross-promote your fan page and business website by inserting a Facebook widget.
Leverage Google’s Social Search feature to have your Facebook content indexed by Google and drive traffic from search engines. To do this effectively, link your fan page to your website.
Engage with potential customers on a daily basis. Customers can reach out to you and you can even target specific groups by defining your preferred audience by factors such as gender, age, city or country etc. This enables you to hone in on your target audience.
Improve brand credibility and awareness. Facebook is a breeding ground for shares and likes. Viewers can share your Facebook posts with their friends, spreading and displaying your brand’s name in front of their connections.
90% of Facebook users expect businesses to have a Fan Page, emphasizing how important social media for business can be. Whilst most don’t appreciate business’ trying to sell to them on Facebook, you can still connect and strengthen customer relations via Facebook. Post relevant and persuasive content to drive clicks to your main website.
Twitter accumulates over 500 million Tweets each day. It’s a quick and easy way to connect with customers in a social environment rather than a serious business one, which many people find uncomfortable and off-putting. Many business’ now use Twitter for branding.
Gain valuable customer feedback and insights to help further improve your services or products. Listen to your customers and they will appreciate you for it.
Market your product or services to thousands of potential customers with a simple persuasive tweet. You can also utilise Twitter to keep your followers updated with your company’s latest news or achievements etc. Spark interest with promotions and coupon code giveaways.
Promotional and business tweets are just as likely to go viral as a cute Panda video. This can lead to an increase in sales and ROI.
Twitter is a great way to improve brand loyalty. Engaging with your customers via Twitter and helping them with any queries they may have, will increase their loyalty for your brand. They will be more likely to follow you and re-tweet your content.
Google+
Google+ may not be as popular as Facebook, but it would be foolish to ignore it and its 363 million users. Content posted on Google+ is indexed instantly. You could say Google is a little biased here, but who cares when it will do absolute wonders for your SEO efforts? Google+ can be used to rank your business higher in search results, so it’s definitely worth the time!
The Google+ Business Page is one of the main influential ranking factors when it comes to Google’s local search results. By having an active Google+ account posting relevant content regularly, you will see your business climbing the list of local search results.
Collaboration opportunities are available for free. These include video chatting with colleagues and customers via the Google Hangouts feature.
You can have your message reach the right audience with a simple click. It’s an easy way to share content to the right people. In fact, the +1 button is hit 5 billion times per day! So feel free to promote brand awareness, advertise promotions and speak to thousands of potential customers.
Improve B2B marketing with Google+. You can use this channel to engage and establish relationships with other businesses and potential customers. Google’s SnapKnot tool is excellent for B2B marketing as it has an impressive member conversion rate.
As a professional social networking channel with over 347 million registered members, LinkedIn is the ideal place to search, find and promote business and marketing opportunities.
Generate new leads by making connections. Joining relevant LinkedIn groups in your industry can also help to not only spread brand awareness, but to make contact with valuable like-minded individuals who may be seeking your services.
Connect with potential clients and even customers by making personal contact with them. Create personalised messages, avoid seeming too “sales pitchy” and speak to the individual.
LinkedIn can make you and your business easier to find. Implanting a social strategy via LinkedIn will help to gather more quality leads. The possibility of creating inbound leads is more consistent with LinkedIn than with other social channels because it focuses on business above all else, making it perfect for B2B marketing especially.
Build brand credibility and awareness by hosting a LinkedIn event. This will help you to gain more leads by inviting LinkedIn influencers to attend.
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