Why We Love Social Media Marketing For Business

I remember when I first started to wade into social media marketing as a tool to promote home improvement products our business had just installed, I was full of optimism.

Back then my focus was on Business to Consumer (B2C) lead generation and naively I thought I could post on Facebook and then the phone would start ringing.  

Although I had attracted some small sales from my efforts it was readily apparent that I was missing the mark.  So I asked myself why?  What I needed to do was develop some deeper strategy around my efforts with this.

I had just optimised and updated our website with some innovative installations and I had some great pictures, so I was confident that all the warm and fuzzy would happen once I got our clients viewing it.

What did I learn?

An important lesson I learnt was that social media was a vehicle to connect with my clients and drive them to our website.

Once I had committed to social media as a communication vehicle I had to recognise, understand and tailor my content depending on the social media channel on which I was posting to provide appropriate context to the audience.

Business owners and their team members are also on social media as individuals therefore a B2B lead generation approach can be fruitful. It is almost unusual to meet people that don't 'hang out' on a social media channel at some point

There are hundreds of different social media channels available to promote your business offerings.  I use the well known and more common ones.  Here are some of my brief thoughts on the four social media channels I was using.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was the first social media platform started in 2003.  Invented as a business networking tool it now operates the world’s largest professional network.  

Did you know that there are:

• 433+ million members in over 200 countries and territories
• Professionals signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second!

This channel seems to attract the professionals of the world or the better educated in the demographic.  

Tip: For your posts to be read, you need to provide content that is meaty, educational and informative.

Much more thought has to go into understanding what a potential client would want to read, which might not necessarily be directly product specific in context.  Perhaps a desirable content post for LinkedIn would be ‘ways in which your business can provide solutions to potential problems’ that a client might be experiencing before exposing them to your product range in the immediate sense.

For example: Are mosquitoes too annoying to enjoy dinner in your alfresco area?  You might write a post under this topic to attract potential clients considering your automated insect screening options for alfresco areas.

Facebook

It is hard to ignore the presence of Facebook in the current world.  It is widely adopted by large segments of the population and is popular across a large demographic spanning all ages. A great vehicle for promoting your business.

Did you know that there are:

• 1.65 billion monthly active users as of 31 March, 2016
• 1.51 billion mobile monthly active users as of 31 March, 2016
• Approximately 84.2% of daily active users are outside the US and Canada

Tip: Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images.

This is Ian (our agency Principal) at Facebook's Sydney Office writing on the wall!

Instagram

Primarily an image-based platform that is less versatile than other channels i.e: you can’t post a blog on Instagram.  A great vehicle to post impressive or remarkable images that could direct people to your website.

I believe Instagram is underated by business as a promotional tool.  Lots of people like it's instantly gratifying performance. What’s that saying? A picture is worth a thousand words.

Did you know that there are:

• 500+ million monthly active users
• 95+ million posts daily
• Approximately 80+% of daily active users are outside the US

Tip: As Instagram says you need to "Inspire People Visually With Your Business' Story".

Here is a link to how Qantas used Instagram successfully.

Twitter

Primarily, Twitter is a great micro blogging site and is great channel to post your blogs or eBooks to.  The feed moves fast so you have to be agile.  You can get in-the-moment updates on the things that interest you.   

Did you know that there are:

• 310 million monthly active users
• 1 billion unique visits monthly to sites with embedded Tweets
• 83% of active users are on mobile devices

Stats from https://about.twitter.com/company

Tip: We have found that it is a great for getting your content seen by Google quickly.  So tweeting your blog with an image and having it shared does help.

Conclusion

There are literally hundreds of social media platforms that could be suitable to you for promoting your business.  Why do I only use four? I selected four that I felt comfortable with and thought that I understood.

My initial strategy was that I wanted to condense my focus to the most popular and suitable to my market.

Remember that social media should be used to provide content that ushers potential clients to your website. You have no ownership, control or asset value on social media platforms whereas you sure do with your own website.

If social media is looking like a promotional vehicle you would like to employ, remember there are many sites that actually assist you in managing your content offerings e.g. buffer, hootsuite etc.