Ready to get your business on social media? How do you know which is the right platform?
There are a few things to do that will help find which social media is right for you, your business and your customers.
Understand your customers
Do you know who your customers are? Most business owners have a pretty good idea who their ideal customer are. It’s a really good exercise to do 2-3 user personas for your customers. It will really help you build a more rounded picture of them and their needs.
The key questions to ask are:
- Which gender?
- How old are they?
- Do they have children, grandchildren, pets?
- Where do they live?
- What other brands do they like?
- Why would they like your brand or even be interested
- What are their pain points?
What platforms are your personas using?
Once you have that rounded picture of your customers then we can look at social media demographics to see where they hang out. The headline demographics may shift a little so it’s always best to check the most up to date.
As you can see the demographics differ per platform. Based on the information you know about your customers, e.g. gender, age, etc, you should be able to match up a couple of platforms where your customers are already active.
Which social media suits your business type?
You may spend a lot of time loving Instagram, and scrolling through beautiful feeds but does it suit your business?
Instagram is very heavy on the visual side of social media so it can be more difficult to find enough content to use if your business and products are not very ‘photogenic’. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but it is certainly a consideration.
If your business generates blogs, how to guides and FAQs for your industry then LinkedIn may be a good fit. LinkedIn can work very well with created rather than curated content.
Higher proportions of curated content are considered acceptable on Facebook and Twitter, which is great if your business doesn’t generate much content.
Some social media is better for B2B, for example LinkedIn, and some platforms work well for B2C, for example Facebook.
Choosing social media for your business
So, with the combination of the users personas and the type of business, you should be able to choose 1-2 social media platforms that you can concentrate on.
Now is a good time to check out those platforms and see if your competitors are there and what they are posting. Are there any influencers for your industry? Start to follow them.
Before you start posting tactically, try to think strategically:
- What your customers will be engaged by?
- Think about your tone of voice – what is the personality of your business?
- What branding can you use – colours, logos?
- Posting schedule – what times/days are your customers online?
Getting results from your social media
Getting the right platforms, the right content, and the right schedule are all a good starting point for getting results online. You also need to listen to your audience and be engaging.
By far the best results from social media will be with a social media marketing strategy. Spending the time upfront on this will allow you to focus on your business goals through social media.
You also need to adapt a test-learn-test method with social media. Keep an eye on your statistics to see what is performing well and adapt your content based on that.
Need help?
Why not book a free Discovery Call with Plumb.Digital and find out how we can help you to get results online for your business?