Michael Wight
Social networking sites are everywhere, and today these are not only used to keep in touch with friends but also to promote businesses. We look at the top social networks that will be helpful to your online marketing campaign. Businesses have to go where the customers are. Where do you find the largest amount of people at the least cost? Social networks, of course.
Which Social Networks to Focus On?
So, you have decided to leverage the advantages of social media. The first decision to make is which social networks you will be including in your overall strategy. Highlighted are the 5 most important ones.
1. Facebook
It is the biggest social network with 1.49 billion active users. It allows you to make business pages so that those who like your page can stay in touch with all the updates. It also has a Performance Tracking Tool called Facebook Insights.
▪ Cost effective. Marketers only need to set up a business page and quickly connect with their customers.
▪ Directs traffic to your site.
▪ Targeted advertising. Reaching the right people can make a world of a difference.
▪ If you have a brick-and-mortar outlet, the ‘check in’ feature can help you track customers and offer them relevant information as they shop. Offer exclusive offers to in-store customers.
▪ Facebook Places can be an excellent way for businesses to attract customers. This is a feature that displays a list of nearby businesses whenever a user checks into a street or neighborhood.
▪ You can share ads, offerings, deals, events, company info, etc.
2. Twitter
It is a micro-blogging tool which helps you interact with industry professionals, leading brands, and interested consumers. Its USP is the character count and has a performance tracking tool in the form of Twitter Counter.
▪ You can ‘tweet’ (post) multiple times in a day.
▪ You can set up Twitter to automatically publish updates when you post content on other social networks, such as Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
▪ Twitter Search can help you discover current trends. Current conversations can be searched by using # (hashtag) with your keywords.
3. Pinterest
It is an image-heavy platform that is gaining popularity as a powerful marketing tool. This may not be for every kind of a business though, and you need to study your demographics better to know if you need to be on Pinterest.
▪ Pinterest has ‘boards’ that help categorize your image collection.
▪ Beautiful images will draw in your users.
▪ You can showcase the ideas, people, moods, and places behind your brand
▪ Use your boards to reflect your brand values, personality and taste.
4. Instagram
This platform is focused on visual content; allows you to post images and short (15 seconds) video clips. It has some amazing filters that make it extremely famous. You can track account performance with the Followgram tool.
▪ It provides customers with a visual, text-free way to connect with your business.
▪ Use hashtags (#) to group and categorize content, making it more discoverable.
▪ Give the users an option to comment on posts via Facebook and an option to ‘tweet’ the post
5. LinkedIn
This is a social network for professionals and is used to find jobs and also find valuable employees. If you’re in sales or in a business that requires competitive employees, this is where you need to be. It also has a performance tracking tool called LinkedIn Page Insights.
▪ It’s valuable for making contacts and reputation building.
▪ Use LinkedIn to make job announcements, connect with industry experts worldwide, and post official company information.
If you have any more questions or wish to know how you can use these to give your business a boost, please get in touch with us.
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