Social media for business

Life & Work, Quotable Magazine

Be Your Own Influencer: Boosting Your Business On Social Media

Starting a business can be overwhelming. Putting your business out on social media successfully can be even more overwhelming.

But it doesn’t have to be!

With technology advancing daily, establishing your business’s social media presence can be confusing. With so many social media apps and tricky algorithms, everything can seem daunting to keep up with. But with a little organization and planning, you’ll be able to grow your business, easily connect with new followers, and say goodbye to overwhelm.

When it comes to creating your business’s social media presence, you’re first going to want to decide which social media platforms best fit your business goals. Envision how you want your business to be perceived and how you want to communicate with your followers.

Choosing Your Social Media Platforms

Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms and is great if you’re just starting out. The platform is home to 2.7 billion users and 77% of that number consists of people ages 30-49. Facebook lets you share your business hours and basic information about your business. When a potential customer views your business’s Facebook page they’ll be able to see all of your posts and pictures that are centered around raising brand awareness of your business. This makes it easy for clients to interact with your Facebook page because they’ll see what makes your business unique without visiting it in person. Facebook accessibility and messaging features also help you connect with your audience by getting the conversation going between your business and clients!

If you’re looking for immediate updates and your target audience is younger, then Twitter might be the best choice for you. With the majority of its audience falling within the 18-29 age bracket, Twitter is known for quick updates and keeping up with rapidly changing trends. Twitter sees 6,000 Tweets per second which just goes to show how many users are active on the platform– and your business can be one of them too. Because everyone is constantly posting their opinions and thoughts, putting your business on Twitter will allow you to see the insights and reactions clients have to your brand.

Or if you want to promote your business in a friendly, genuine way by showcasing your business creatively, then Instagram is the way to go to market your business! Known for having a younger demographic, with 67% of people that use the picture-based social media app being 18-29, Instagram is all about showing your business off. Equipped with visual features like stories, videos, pictures, and link embedding, Instagram makes it easy for you to put yourself out there. And when you switch your account to business, Instagram gives you insight into how many people interact with your posts and stories, letting you have a social media marketer and a social media analyzer all in one app!

If you want to hop onto the TikTok train, a popular video platform, be ready to be easily discoverable to new, younger viewers. The age group of 16-24 year olds make up more than half of the user base for TikTok so if your target audience is on the younger side then this platform might work out for you! TikTok’s unique algorithm allows users to engage with a wide variety of others and lets you go viral even if you’re new with few followers.

Strategize, Strategize, Strategize!

After you know which platform you want to engage on the most, now it’s time to find your target audience. Honing in on a target audience is an effective way to grow your following in a niche area. You can gain insight using your social media analytics to see what posts and hashtags are doing well and which aren’t, and you can follow popular niche hashtags to see what type of content is trending for your target audience.

Planning Your Content

A tool that will help you the most is a content calendar. A content calendar makes it easy for you to know what to post and when, so that you’re never in a tight bind trying to find last minute content to post. There are multiple templates across the internet that offer social media calendars that your business can get organized on.

Google Calendar is a great go-to if you want an easy-to-use platform that multiple teams can access. With its connection to other Google channels, using Google Calendar lets you track and organize your social media planning across other platforms in the Google Drive system.

If you’re looking for a calendar that’s more interactive for team collaboration, Trello is a fan-favorite amongst the social media managing community. Trello provides a full view of boards and lists that let you keep track of your planned content and social media campaigns.

Organization and creativity is Notion’s main priority. With its own pre-made templates available, Notion is another free option that lets you create your own content calendar as simple or complex as you need it to be. Its features also show off color coding, assigning tasks to team members, and tracking stages of content production.

Put the Social in Social Media

Building a relationship with your audience and talking directly to them helps you showcase your authenticity through your content while also promoting the happenings of your business to your followers.

A great way to interact with your followers is through comments, giveaways and clear calls to action. Your audience may know your brand, but it’s your job to keep the conversation going! Most social media platforms already have interactive tools you can use to get your engagement going.

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all have stories which feature built-in polls that’ll help you interact with your followers and figure out the mindset of your followers so you can cater specific future content.

Multiple choice posts are also available on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These posts can be fun in an engaging way that shows your followers that the conversation between you and your followers can go both ways.

And most of all, don’t forget to show who you are! Social media analytics show that your followers are more likely to see you as authentic and genuine when they see there’s a real person behind the account.

Tracking Trends

Social media trends are constantly switching up and changing, but understanding how your business account can fit in with these trends can help you out in the long run. While it may send you in a tizzy trying to stay on trend, social media trends offer your account a big boost in the opportunity of being discovered by potential followers.

Google Trends and TweetDeck are free data exploration platforms that analyze social media trends so you don’t have to. Taking a look at them can help you monitor what topics and hashtags are trending so you can stay current and informed in your social network.

Never Stop Learning

Social media is rapidly changing and expanding with each coming day. Understanding how to market your business on social media will benefit both you and your future business ventures. Attracting new clients, developing your brand, and increasing your market reach; social media marketing will benefit the growth of your business and save you money. As social media has grown, so have businesses’ attitudes towards using it for a quick and easy way to market their products and services.

Some expert social media gurus give out their free advice on YouTube, but you can also gain more in-depth knowledge by enrolling in a social media course with SkillShare or at a university.

Katalina Elise is a member of the Quotable Magazine editorial team. A senior at NC State University in Raleigh, she’s passionate about baking, spending time with her cat, and writing at her favorite art cafe.

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