Choosing the Best Social Media Channels
For Your Business
With so many social media channels, it can be difficult for a small business to choose the best ones or to know where to start.
Whether you are a solo entrepreneur, a business owner, or a nonprofit, you are busy hiring staff, helping customers, and generally doing whatever it takes to run your company. While you know social media is important, your time just can’t be stretched any further. How can you add more to your to-do list?
But you can’t afford not to be on social media these days. It is one of the best ways to connect and build relationships with your current and prospective audience. You have probably found yourself in the situation of searching for which channel is the best for your business and how to use social media effectively and with limited resources to market your small business.
If we know anything. No two social media channels are created equal.
So, how do you go about choosing the right channels and creating quality content to help reach business goals? I’ve done much research on social media, along with trial and error. Here, we will narrow down which social media platform(s) your business should be active on to enable you to optimize your marketing efforts and generate better ROI.
Social Media
So, what is social media? As obvious as this question may seem, it is more than just Facebook. According to Sproutsocial, over 3.6 billion people worldwide use social media, and the number is only projected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025.
And, with numbers like this, you will want to be EVERYWHERE. It’s important to remember that you’re not trying to get EVERYONE’s attention on social. Or to be EVERYWHERE. When choosing the best social media channels, focus on just the people who most prominently need what you’re offering are on.
In an earlier blog, we briefly touched on this: Who is the audience you want to invite? For me, my audience is geared toward mid-sized businesses, non-profits, and business owners looking to grow their businesses more strategically. One easy way to visualize this is to think about what networks are used and for what purpose.
Think of it as more of a professional network with the intent of building connections and networking. Tradeshow. Thought leadership. Industry trends.
This is more in-the-moment content: a cocktail party, breaking news, a live event, and timely and relevant updates.
It can be thought of as your dinner party. Share interesting stories, relevant information, and a more casual setting.
Like Facebook. In a casual and more curated visual way. Images are your stars.
Like Instagram. In a casual and more curated visual way. Images are your stars. You can also add URLs to the images. These days, Pinterest is being called another search engine that has the ability to create folders visually.
Yelp
It can be thought of as your word-of-mouth marketing platform. Relevant reviews and images of customer experiences.
Which Platform to Choose From?
There is no right answer to this. While we covered just a few of the many social media channels available, it is very dependent on your business, target audience, product, or service, and what you have for time to implement a strategy that will get you the ROI that can be found with a good social media strategy.
Examine your Social Media Footprint
Once you have decided on your social media platforms, the next steps are to identify the right measurement tools and grow an email list.
It is important to know whether all this time and effort that you spend to post on social media aligns with your goals and adds value to your business. None of us have time to spare. Every minute of running a business counts. Let us make sure the time you do have is focused and well spent. It is important to determine the reach of your posts and engagement metrics like click-through rates, social shares, etc. Some of these measurement tools are free to use, while others need to be subscribed to. Some of these tools are Hootsuite, Sproutsocial, etc.
It might seem silly, but you actually don’t own ANY of your followers on social media. It is not uncommon for businesses and influencers to lose their platform on social media. For various reasons. This is why capturing information from your followers is important so you can provide them with value outside of social media. When you build an email list, you own that leads that you can utilize. Plus, with a 4400% ROI, email marketing will improve your bottom line.
Action Items
That’s it! Here are a few breakdowns on determining which channel is a fit for your business while adding value (without being on every channel)so that your audience can familiarize themselves with your brand and offers. With the right channels and consistency, you’ll be on your way to building a brand that people adore in no time.
Not to worry, though! Our job is to work with businesses to help them tell their brand’s story and create personalized social media content for all of their platforms. Reach out for FREE Social Media Audit and see how we can help you.
