Did you know there are actually close to 200 social media platforms to choose from… so how do you know which ones are right for your business? Where do you even begin? If you are feeling overwhelmed and confused you’re not alone… starting or growing your social media is a mind field… but strap yourselves in because it’s here to stay so you might as well get started!
Social media, you can’t live with it and you certainly can’t live without in the current business era. We’ve got Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Tik Tok, What’s ap, Twitter, Snapchat… and the list goes on and on… so where should you focus your energy and efforts when it comes to marketing your business on social media. I want to make a very important distinction here when it comes to marketing your business on social media. Social media is designed for that very purpose to make people more social. So you need to take that into consideration when posting and sharing your content… it’s not about selling… it’s about connecting with your audience, gaining their trust and demonstrating your expertise, at the same time you want to be personable and relatable too! It can be a delicate balance and I take a deep dive into this topic in a workshop I have put together due to popular demand from my audience who are struggling with their social media! Designed to help you set up your social media for lead generation…
Click the link HERE to register.
Now let’s talk about where you need your business to be seen on social media, which platforms are going to help your expose your personal brand, generate more leads and grow your business? You can’t be everything to everyone at the same time, so an important thing to remember is to pick one platform at a time and get set up there, posting consistently before adding another. Otherwise, your chances of success on any platform will diminish.
How do you work out which social media platforms to be on?
1. Work out your ideal clients
The first and most important factor you need to take into consideration is where are your ideal clients, who are they, where do they like to hang out on social media? Nothing else really matters, if your ideal audience isn’t active on your platform. Take Facebook, for example it has more active users than any other network, but if your audience hangs out on Instagram, that’s where you need to be!
That said, Internet users have an average of eight social media accounts, so you should definitely consider other factors when determining where you want to have a presence.
2. Consider your company
Your services, your brand personality, your values… should all influence your channel selection too. Highly visual brands, like graphic designers and artists, would explore very different channels to a real estate brand. Some channels have broad appeal to different businesses and brands, like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, while others are very niche. You really just need to weigh what makes sense for your business and understand that what your company does impacts the options available to you.
3. Research your competitors and others in your industry
One of the first steps I take when developing a social media strategy for a client is to conduct a competitive analysis. Among the many insights such an analysis provides are:
• What platforms they’re using
• What’s working/not working
• How engaged the audience is on each channel
While you shouldn’t do something just because a competitor is, it’s useful to see what others in your space are doing, so you’re making an informed decision.
4. Align with your overall social media marketing goals
The reasons you’re on social media in the first place will also impact your decision. If you want to share content and engage with your followers, there are several networks that will work depending on the type of content you share. However, if customer support is a top goal for you, Twitter and Facebook should be on your consideration list before Instagram.
5. Understand the different platforms and their uses
Each social media platform has its own personality and ways of communicating. Twitter is great for conversations and trending topics, while LinkedIn is good for sharing professional expertise and company information. Snapchat was the first to introduce disappearing posts, but Instagram Stories act in a similar way.
Spend some time understanding the channels you’re considering and make sure you know the communication protocol. This will not only help you pick the best platform(s) for your company, but it will also help you avoid wasting time and energy.
6. Keep in mind your available resources
Creating and managing social media is a commitment. You need to tend it, nurture it, give to it what you’d like to see come back to you. If you only have one person who can devote five hours per week to social media, you’ll want to limit your channels to one or two. If you have a full-time person, you can have several channels.
Just remember, social media will greedily soak up all the time you have and still make you feel like you’re not putting enough energy into it, so before you open a new channel, ask yourself if you have the resources necessary to be successful.
For both of my businesses; Real Estate and That Property Mum I focus on three major platforms Insta, Facebook and Linkedin. I have recently added Youtube to That Property Mum mainly because it works well with the podcast platform and I can share this content across both platforms. Tiktok is definitely a platform to keep an eye on as it is one of the fastest growing for social media. Again though it all comes down to where your clients are … and if they are mostly scrolling through tik tok, then that’s where you need to be .. so I look forward to seeing your awkward dancing on there …
Bonus tip: Once you’re on more than one social media platform, you can repurpose your content to share across multiple platforms. For example in my own real estate business I write a weekly blog, which gets shared as an Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook post. And something like this can be shared multiple times by your own team. The algorithm loves content that has been shared and engaged with, this helps it be exposed to more people. Again, I share more about this in my upcoming workshop on setting up your social media for lead generation – click on the link HERE to reserve your spot!