Ahh, the olden days of social media advertising, where Facebook reigned supreme and there weren’t too many other options.
Fast forward to today, and the number of platforms vying for your customers’ attention—and your ad dollars—is staggering. How do you know where to advertise and what will give you the best bang for your buck?
6 Tips to Identify the Right Social Media Platform
Find out who and where your audience is
This seems obvious, but it’s surprising how often we skip this step. If you’re a B2B business, for example, it probably makes more sense to spend on LinkedIn, where you can target decision-makers and nurture leads, rather than Facebook.
Profile your target customer to understand their demographics:
- Age
- Income
- Gender
- Interests
These factors can help you narrow down where your audience virtually “hangs out,” so you can invest on the exact platforms they’re using.
READ: 8 Effective Strategies to Increase Your Small Business’ Social Media Audience
Determine how much time and money you have
Every small business owner likely wishes they had more of both, but it’s crucial to be realistic about how much you can invest in social media.
Avoid spreading yourself too thin. Choosing one platform to create a solid following and do targeted advertising is a smarter option than trying to be on as many as possible.
See what the competition is doing
It’s always a good idea to check out what the competition is doing.
See which channels business owners often use, what types of posts seem to get high engagement, and how frequently they’re posting.
This gives you a starting point at where you should be focusing your marketing efforts on and what tactics work to grow your community.
Choose platforms that align with your business goals
It’s best to tie your social media strategy to a measurable business goal.
Building out your social media presence can help with things like increasing sales, improving customer experience, growing your sales pipeline, or increasing brand awareness.
Without clearly defined goals, you’ll struggle to show ROI on the resources you spent on social media. Having goals will also make it clear whether a platform is performing well or it’s time to back out and shift your focus elsewhere.
Offer a consistent experience
Your social media platforms are an extension of your business. Though what you’re doing on each platform will vary, all your channels should have a similar look and feel.
If there’s more than one person involved in managing the sites, it’s worthwhile having a social media guide they can refer to, where you can outline things like tone of voice, types of imagery that are on-brand, and more, so that no matter where a customer reaches you, the overall experience is seamless.
RECOMMENDED: 10 Steps to Build a Strong Personal Brand on Social Media
Don’t sleep on email and website marketing
Think of your social media as bonus content. If your website and email list aren’t up to scratch, focus your energy there first!
It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your Instagram content is or how many YouTube subscribers you have if your website is difficult to navigate.
While social media can be powerful, remember that it’s not an owned platform. Changes in algorithms, user drop-offs, and expensive ad spends are all things that you have no control over.
On the flip side, once you have an email address, you own that relationship and can market directly to prospects and customers.
When in doubt, prioritise building out your email list and those campaigns over social media. To make your business more unique and stand out among your competitors, get domain extensions that resonate business like .biz and .co.
Get started on your social media marketing!
Now that you’ve had your fill on how to choose the right social media platforms for your business, it’s time to put it into action.
Start posting regularly and work your way into posting relevant and high-quality content a day. Because after all, when it comes to social media marketing, consistency is key.
Don’t know where to start? Take our free online course on how to successfully get your online presence going.
Alexandra is the current Marketing Manager in Registry Solutions. She’s also a commercially astute marketer, with expertise across the IT industry. She oversees and manages award-winning marketing strategies within the Australia market for the domain extensions .melbourne, .sydney, .courses and .study CO. Oversee and manage strategies and plans for marketing campaigns within the Australia market for the domain extensions .CO, .melbourne, .sydney, .courses and .study.
