In the modern era we can hardly find a reputable business organization without any social platform relevancy. Using social media marketing is easily the most cost effective way to advertise your business today.
Many businesses before this time period of the social rush could get by with the simple e-mail marketing campaign or the old fashion cold calling (which still can be used) but is not nearly effective as the use of social media marketing.
With this being said, we are here to discuss top Social Media Platforms that any business should dive into in order to stay up to date and not become a dinosaur.
Many people have asked us "What are the best social media platforms for business?", so we wanted to cover this topic as detailed as possible in order for you to make the best decision possible. With out further a do, here are our top picks we recommend the best social media platforms for a business.
1. Is Instagram good for marketing?
Dubbed one of the fastest growing social media platforms. Of course our first pick would be Instagram. One of or if not the most popular Social Platform of our time period is the leading cause to many successful businesses. Many people use it to engage in a enormous audience that is itching for their next experience, service or that new product they have been waiting for.
If your business is not utilizing Instagram already, chances are it is not up to its full potential. The primarily mobile photo sharing network had reached 1 billion monthly active users, up from 800 million in September 2017. Using the power of visuals such as photos and videos, you can make ways to capture your audience.
That number should be an automatic trigger in your brain telling you that, you need to harness this platform for your business. Harnessing this massive network and the potential to reach thousands and or millions of potential customers will elevate your business to another level.
In 2015, there were approximately more than 77.6 million active Instagram users in the United States. This figure is projected to surpass 111 million in 2019. I will list some key insights that you need to know for your business.
1 billion people use Instagram.
80% of users are not from the United States.
There is a 39% Women & 30% Male ratio that use the application.
59% of users are below 30.
72% of teens use Instagram EVERYDAY.
72% of users have bought a product on Instagram.
77.6 million Instagram users are from US.
Instagram’s Mobile Ad revenue is expected to hit $7 billion in 2018.
I can go on and on about facts that will show you how vital it is to tap into this platform. This is why hiring someone that specializes in Instagram marketing will allow you to sky rocket your business by allowing for a new audience to view your product or service you are offering.
2. How can you use Facebook to promote your business
This platform did probably the smartest business move known to man, but slowly being forgotten. Facebook bought out Instagram on April 9, 2012 for 1 billion dollars. This move was obviously made by the Social Media powerhouse due to Instagram getting a huge boost in popularity and was a major competitor.
Facebook by far is in the top 3 most used social platforms, and that is why we ranked it second in our list. Also it is one of the cheapest ways to get your business out there! This makes it ideal for small to medium businesses with a limited marketing budget. Larger businesses can fully utilize this with social media marketing concepts and different campaign themes through Facebook before committing to bigger advertising plans.
Other than posting texts of your next business venture or just trying to get to know your audience, Facebook lets you upload pictures and videos from your business like Instagram. This can be a powerful way to communicate with customers and clients, allowing them to have a preview of a product or service without having to visit your organization. Which back in the day, that was a given. Now a days most business deals are run through Social Platforms and you do not even need to step foot in anyone's business facility.
Facebook uses algorithms that analyze detailed information that millions of users enter into their profiles or search for on the platform. As the owner of a business page, you can pay a certain price to utilize this key information to deliver targeted advertising to a specific group. The targeting options are almost endless and can be a bit overwhelming. Learn what social media marketing agencies do and what social media marketing involves.
For example, a shoe store could use Facebook to calculate how many women over a certain age in a specific city have listed 'shoes' as an interest. Then they could develop an ad for a new trending shoe, and pay for it to appear only on the pages of those people. This is a very powerful tool that your business needs to harness.
3. How do you advertise on YouTube
YouTube is a video-focused social media network that continues to have a growing audience. This Social Platform is number 3 in out list. Launched in 2005, YouTube is web-and mobile based with over 1 billion active users. Google bought the platform in November 2016, which is why YouTube accounts are linked to Google Plus.
Such as Facebook and Instagram, YouTube has similar ways you could engage your audience such as:
Comments: Comments can be organized by most popular or newest, they even can be deleted. Engaging with users who comment on your videos boosts the video's engagement traffic. This is a great way to get your brand name out there, but can be time consuming. Youtube advertising can be targeted with search engine marketing.
Likes: This is a more passive form of interacting with content, with minimal impact. However, if you've chosen to show your likes publicly on your channel, these videos will appear under the playlists section on your page.
Subscriptions: The best way for users to stay up to date with your brand's content is to subscribe. Every time a user uploads a new video, a subscriber will receive a push notification. Easily the most important topic on this list, you should continuously encourage your channel viewers to do this action, this will enhance engagement in the long run and boost the longevity of your channel.
Playlists: Organize the proper content using the site's playlist feature. If you choose to publicize them, playlists will appear on your channel's page below your uploaded content. This is a way to organize your own content on your channel.
Sharing: The site's social widget allows users to share videos on other social media networks, such as, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
There are four video ad options, including TrueView in-stream ads, these play before, during or after other videos (the yellow line on the video duration marker). After five seconds of these ads, users can skip the ad.
You'll only be charged for the ad when a viewer watches 30 seconds of the video or interacts with the video. Which is a great way for the engaged audience to see a great preview of your offer.
Another form of advertisement are discovery ads, which appear when a user is searching or browsing content on YouTube or across the web. These clips aren't limited to 30 seconds; they can be as short or long as you intend them to be.
Bumper ads are six seconds or less, and users can't skip these. These ads also appear before, during or after another video. Outstream ads play only on mobile devices, showing up on partner websites and within apps. You'll be charged for these ads based on cost per thousand impressions (vCPM).
4. What is Twitter and how does it work
One of the most used social media platform to get new information fast, the Twitter business slogan is "Twitter is where people come to discover what’s happening." Catchy and partly true, just like most Social Platforms Twitter is a place that users use pictures and texts to engage their audience.
Boasting on over 500 million Tweets being sent each day, hundreds of millions of people exploring links, articles, Retweets, Trends, this is a place to learn where the market is going.
There are six parts to a Twitter profile – a Twitter handle, profile picture, a username, bio, header image and pinned tweet. These are the foundation of your business on your account, this shows people what you have in store for them right off the bat.
Your Twitter handle is your @name and is your identifier on Twitter. It can have up to 15 characters and should symbolically represent your business. Your profile photo should visually represent your business and brand as well. Every Tweet you make will have your profile image and name, so keep that in mind.
For your bio, you have 160 characters to describe your business. Try to include information such as your location, business hours and a link to your website. Introduce your brand and what you are made of here, this is a huge factor in customer decision making. The header image behind your profile picture can be used to highlight specific things like promotions, giveaways, events or news.
Lastly, your pinned tweet is the first tweet people see when they visit your profile. Like the bio it can also be a big factor of your Twitter image/presence. You can always go back on it if you are not satisfied and change it.
Just like Facebook and Instagram, Twitter uses the same principles to targeting who you want. Hashtag targeting, engaging photos, creative texts, creating polls for people to engage on, and many more social media marketing tactics.
5. What is LinkedIn How does it work
LinkedIn is different from other social networks. With more than 560 million users, according to its website, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful Social Media platforms on the Internet. In our last piece on the list, it’s one of the best platforms for business-to-business (B2B) marketers to advertise on.
Just like most of the platforms talked above on our list, LinkedIn gathers information about it's users such as occupation, position, skills etc. Advertising is relativity the same in regards to the targeting formats the platform has to offer.
Capabilities that allow you to use filters like industry, company size and job title to target specific types of individuals. Using this information will surely get your promotion in the right eyes, make sure to use your dollar wisely and hyper focus on your potential customer or client.
One of the unique tools LinkedIn offers is the capability to have pre-filled texts automated for your target audience. You can use sponsored In-Mail or Direct Messaging to speak directly to users who match your specific criteria. Sounds like a great LinkedIn marketing strategy!
You can also use text ads, which can run on a pay-per-click (PPC) or a cost-per-impression (CPM) model, this works similar to using Google ads or Bing ads which is something that will be addressed in a further blog post. These ads allow you to increase the visibility and relevancy of your company , which will potentially lead to more business if done right.
LinkedIn also offers lead gen forms which are pre-filled with the LinkedIn user’s profile information. This is a win for business owners that do their own marketing since lead data is likely accurate and high quality, and it is a win for users because now they don’t have to spend the time filling out all the fields in a contact form.
6. Amazon The King Of Online Shopping
You thought we were done? Fortunately our author was in a good mood and decided to give a little freebie to our readers. We can not forget the leading online retailer on this planet, if you are in the product selling industry you just hit a gold mine with this article. Continue on to learn our insider knowledge on Amazon Selling.
Using Amazon as a platform to sell your product will be a game changer for your business. It is not quite a Social Platform but it has social aspects such as product reviews, which little do people know can be a very good way to advertise your company.
By incorporating as much human interaction as possible during your customer's purchase on Amazon can lead to a better brand recognition. An example, in your product description make sure you emphasize that your customer can ask you any question they want about the product, or even reviewing similar products from other companies can lead to brand awareness. We talk about they key ways to use Amazon Here.
That link will also dive in on advertising via Amazon which is a great skill to have if you want to succeed in that competitive market. Need help building your Amazon Seller Account? We got your back.