How to Effectively Use Social Media for Your Business

You’ve buried your head in the sand for years, believing you didn’t need to get on social media to promote your business. But the time has come for change!

Using social media for your business can initially seem daunting, but with a few tips, you’ll be on your way to attracting customers online.

Why You Need Social Media

We’ve proven that social media isn’t a fad. People of ALL ages spend two and a half hours per day scrolling through social media.

Brands are tapping into that audience, investing in building their social presence through engaging content, photos, videos, and ads.

Social media is a great platform to build brand awareness, create trust, and engage your customers or future customers. Remember: many people go to social media channels first to learn about a brand, so if yours isn’t there, how can they learn about it?

One last reason you need social media for your business? It’s easier to use than you think! Let’s look at some proven strategies to get started.

Start By Understanding Where Your Audience Spends Time

For newbies to social media, there’s often an urge to create accounts on all the platforms, but that’s a big no-no. Just like you serve a particular niche with your business, each social media channel has its own niche.

Each platform has a slightly different audience, so to maximize your efforts (and spend less time managing your social media), explore your audience and find the social sites they’re most likely to be on.

LinkedIn

If you run a B2B company, LinkedIn is a must for reaching your audience. The content there tends to be professional, not a forum to talk about your kid’s Little League tournament. You can share articles your audience would benefit from reading, updates on your company, or industry insights.

Facebook

Facebook has a wide audience, but look elsewhere if you’re trying to reach the under-25 set. Most active users are 25 to 54. 

You can create a page for your business or even a group to connect to a certain demographic, such as divorced women. Content that does well includes blog posts (you can link to your site to drive traffic there), community discussions, and product announcements.

Instagram

If you sell products to people 18 to 34, you can connect with them through Instagram. It’s highly visual; engaging photos and videos stop people when scrolling through their feeds and get them to pay attention.

You can share photos of your products but also consider lifestyle content. If, for example, you sell bath products, you can also provide images for creating bath bombs or enticing photos of a steaming bath, complete with a glass of wine.

X (Formerly Twitter)

X is a social platform that requires you to engage in conversation. Some brands simply create a profile and expect people to follow, but the brands that do best are those that seek out conversations with others and respond to comments. 

TikTok

This is a great platform to reach Gen Z (12-27 years old). They respond to witty, engaging, viral content. There are always trending challenges you can follow to garner more viewers.

Snapchat

Gen Z is also on Snapchat, with 14% of teens using it almost constantly. It’s great for behind-the-scenes content, contests, takeovers by well-known industry influencers, and funny content.

Create a Content Calendar

Once you’ve set up profiles on one or two of the social channels where you’ll find your audience, you’ll need a game plan for your content. You’ll want to post at least a few times a week, depending on the channel.

Aim for a variety of content, and keep it different between channels. For example, if you publish a blog, you can share it on Facebook, then post photos that relate to your post to Instagram, with a blurb about the blog.

You can mix up what you share by creating a rhythm to your content. For example, you could share your latest blog post on Monday, give a tip on how to use your product on Wednesday, and share customer reviews on Friday. This gives followers variety and keeps them interested in seeing what you have to say.

There are tools that can help you schedule your content so you’re not wasting time posting in real time. Buffer, for example, lets you schedule posts and customize them for each network. 

Pay Attention to Analytics

Your goal with social media is to create brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. You can measure both of these using the metrics provided by the social platform.

Over time, you can see trends on which posts are getting the most engagement. Likes, follows, and shares are gold! Ultimately, one of your goals should be to drive traffic from the social channel to your website, though some channels make that more challenging (like Instagram, which doesn’t allow hyperlinks in the text for a reel or photo).

Pay attention to these statistics as you plan more content and leverage what’s working to keep engaging your audience.

Consider Hiring Help

Here’s something I tell small business owners: you have to be realistic about how much time and energy you are willing to spend on social media management. If you know you aren’t adept at it or don’t have time to dedicate, hire a social media consultant to do the job. You’ll still have a say in the brand voice, but you won’t be mired with the actual work. It’s worth the expense, trust me.

Invest in Advertising

Once you’ve spent several months with your new social media strategy, consider investing in social media advertising. This can help you target exactly the audience you want to reach with a promotion for a product or event. And social media ads can be quite affordable!

Level Up: Explore Newer Social Channels

We discussed the tried-and-tested social media channels, but there are always new ones coming on board. My advice is to wait a while to see if they stick around because you don’t want to waste time creating a presence if the site is going to disappear (MySpace and Google + come to mind).

Here are a few newer social platforms you might want to explore once you’re comfortable with using social media for your business.

Mastodon 

While similar to Twitter/X in that it centers around microblogging, Mastodon stands out because it’s decentralized and not owned by a single entity. You can join a server that focuses on a topic, and it’s a great place to do market research.

Threads

This is a side product of Instagram and is very similar to X and Mastodon in its format. You can provide interesting content and engage in conversations.

BlueSky

The newest social darling was created by Twitter’s founder and is also decentralized, which means there’s less political and consumer-driven agenda. You can use it for brand awareness and engaging content.

Pay Attention to What’s Working. Ditch the Rest.

Every six months or so, assess your social media efforts. If you find that you get far more engagement through one channel and very little through another, consider leaving the latter and investing even more in the former.

See what your competitors are doing. You may get great ideas about how to engage your audience (just make the ideas unique from what the others are doing!).

Remember that social media is an ever-changing animal. What works this year may not work in a year or two, so be ready to pivot when needed.

Social media is a must for any brand these days. By having a presence where your audience hangs out, you can foster trust and create awareness of your brand.