Social media platforms are the “in” place to market your brand and business. Starting with the COVID-19 pandemic, the world of business experienced an immense shift in digital marketing along with the rest of the world. What worked quite well in 2019 suddenly didn’t do much in 2020 with millions of people changing their lifestyles and moving on to working remotely. Those who could adapt to this sudden change rose to the top in a short time and learned that the ‘’new normal’’ also applies to how to promote your business on social media.
Now, as a new year begins, companies and brands whether they are big-middle or small-sized, are looking for new trends and ways to increase their visibility on social media and thus reach more customers. An important step that you should work on is to find an answer to the question ‘’which social media is best for business?’’. In this writing, you’re going to find a comprehensive guide on how exactly you can do that and start your business year one step ahead. So keep on reading.
Why Is It Important to Choose the Right Social Media Platform?
You may think that pondering over the social media platforms and trying to choose the most suitable ones is a waste of time and energy. However, before you close the page and start posting the same product picture all over your business accounts, let’s take a look at some information. According to 2022 marketing industry survey findings done with 1.067 marketers across the world, there are visible changes in the way social media marketing is conducted. Both B2B and B2C companies with different scales plan on putting influencer marketing and short-form video marketing before other strategies. And these inclinations drive certain social media platforms forward as they are known for these features.
For instance, Instagram is extremely effective when it comes to reaching new customers and directing them to your website for sales. Although Facebook is still the biggest social media platform with around 2.9 billion monthly active users, lately, Instagram is getting a lot of attention with influencer marketing and its short-form video feature. The platform provides brands to follow the trends that will help their marketing plan and helps them find influencers that their target audience follows and partner up with them. And, as can be seen in the before-mentioned survey, marketing through influencers can be more impactful than any ads.
The only thing you need to do to get the maximum result is to find out where the majority of your audience hangs out. Then you can plan a marketing strategy around that social media and pinpoint your goals using its features. Because what’s great for a social media platform may not work for another.
Ways to Grow Your Business Using Social Media
In the past, a seller would call out to its customer to draw attention and it used to work! Now, instead of calling out and persuading your customers that your product or service is worth buying, you post what they like and get them to know you better. This creates a more natural process in your marketing strategies and brings the customers closer to your brand. So, which points should you take into consideration while applying these strategies? Here are a couple of ways to promote your brand on social media and grow your business!
● New Year New Trends to Follow
In comparison to the past, everything in our world becomes more interactive with each passing year. From the music industry to the shopping experience, all the determinants affect each other so fast. This applies to the marketing industry as well. In his writing on Forbes, Nick Leighton points out that in B2B social media marketing, creating short-form videos is also effective just like it is in B2C marketing. Moreover, 30% of marketers are thinking about spending money on these kinds of videos instead of longer ones.
Another new trend that will put your brand among the top players is storytelling. The benefits of a well-planned narrative are immense! Not only does it familiarize the customer with your brand but also creates a bond that you can strengthen through further interactions. With social media users growing daily, it may look hard to create that bond at first but it’s important to invest in that since it also helps brand awareness. When your followers know your brand as a friendly social media account, they increase their interaction with you and ultimately become potential loyal customers.
● Inbound Marketing on the Rise
There are a lot of ways when it comes to growing your business. Among these methods, some bring temporary growth whiles some of them are here to stay and help your business to connect with your customers more effectively. Before we discuss any inbound marketing, it’s important to understand its core principles to create efficient marketing strategies.
– What exactly is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is the type of marketing strategy that as a business owner, you try to create meaningful content that your target audience can relate to and love. This may sound easy at first because inbound marketing doesn’t really have a rule book and each business follow a specific route special to its customer profile. But this is also why inbound marketing is more advantageous than other strategies. It’s unique and it targets specifically your current or potential customers.
– How to plan inbound marketing?
To plan inbound marketing, you first need to specify who your target audience is. This will help you who they are and what they value, need, and want. Then you can start to think about the ways they like to communicate. Does your target market follow TikTok influencers or do they like to read more? This information is going to help you decide your way of creating a marketing plan. Lastly, you can determine which social media platform they use the most and promote through it.
– Types of inbound marketing
Inbound marketing includes many different types of marketing. The list includes; content marketing, using SEO (search engine optimization), webinars, events, social media campaigns, and viral videos.
12 Steps to Finding the Perfect Social Media Platform
Now that you know exactly why it is important to be on social media if you have any business at all, let’s look at the steps you need to take on finding the right social media platform for your brand and business.
Step 1: Know your brand
When choosing a social media platform for your business or brand, looking at other successful brands is simply not the way. First of all, you should consider your brand and the values it represents. This will guide you in the right direction.
Step 2: Know your customers
Just like your brand, your target audience is also special in terms of what they are looking for in a brand and its marketing strategies. For instance, if you want to attract more people to your Instagram account, then you should make research on doing business on Instagram and how its users prioritize certain topics.
Step 3: Look into where your competitors are
The top-tier competitors in your line of business set a good example for your social media strategies and how to promote your business on social media. Considering their methods and customizing them for your brand can also be a starting point.
Step 4: Follow small inclinations
There are a lot of ways to be successful in social media marketing. And one way is being able to detect upcoming trends.
Step 5: Be open to changes and trends
Brand awareness can be achieved in many ways. Your customers may be familiar with you as a solid follower of all the new trends. This would make them visit your account regularly. Or you can turn these trends into ads that suit your brand. This is a clever way to both follow trends and keep a steady profile of your business on social media.
Step 6: Explore when necessary
Whether you’re doing business on Instagram or any other social media platform, sometimes it’s good to try new things along the way. It also helps to stay active and relevant too.
Step 7: Be Consistent
This step is here for two reasons: creating a high-quality social media presence and brand awareness. No matter what you post, try to hold on to one thing. This could be posting on a certain day and time or partnering up with new people each month.
Step 8: Use your resources well
Your budget doesn’t matter as long as you know how to use it efficiently. Don’t waste your time trying to succeed on every social media platform there is and choose wisely among them.
Step 9: Different Platforms, different rules
Each social media platform shines out with a different feature. TikTok is known for short-form videos while Instagram is great when posting pictures. When you are working with a lot of different applications, you should also switch the way you promote your business while also preserving your core values.
Step 10: Find new partners
One of the biggest advantages of social media is the opportunity to connect with influencers. Don’t hesitate to try partnering up with influential people that your target audience follows and loves!
Step 11: Engage more
The number one rule for being successful on social media is to be social! If there is anything as important as deciding which social media is best for business, it is the fact that you should post often and regularly because no one wants to follow an account that posts once a month.
Step 12: Check your ROIs regularly
Any successful business is good at checking numbers and what they mean. This gives them the option to move early on and find a solution if a problem arises.
What Social Media is Best for Business?
According to many surveys and research, the top social media platform to promote in 2022 is Facebook. The tech giant is still the go-to platform for businesses and brands. After Facebook comes to Instagram as the platform follows the trends closely and offers its users more options every day.
Among other social media platforms are LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, this will help when deciding which social media is best for your business especially.
Be on the Bean with Socialays’ AI-based Assistant
Once you decide which media platform to use to grow and expand your business, it’s time to decide what kind of content you should post on each one of them. And you may feel overwhelmed with the different aspects of the platforms. Don’t struggle with any of them with Socialays’ an AI-based social media assistant that reads every comment on your accounts and categorizes them into certain groups so you can keep track of them easily. Socialays AI-based social media assistant works day and night and auto-controls unwanted messages such as spam, ads, and hate speech. Start your free trial today and enjoy working with a non-stop social media assistant!
In Closing
Social media is a big part of the business world no matter how small or how big the company is. The biggest reason for it is that these platforms offer their users endless possibilities to connect with their potential customers. It also provides opportunities to partner up with social media influencers and gets closer to their audiences.
Which social media platforms to use to promote your business also matters. Because investing in a less used platform is a waste of time and energy for your marketing team. With more people using the internet, the competition between these platforms gets bigger and it makes deciding among them harder. However, with each year come also new trends to attract new customers while keeping the old ones happy. Following these trends shows business owners which social media platforms are going to be popular in the upcoming year. In this writing, the importance of using social media marketing and the possible popular platforms are mentioned.
Applying these tips will surely help you get your business where you want it to be in 2022!
