In Part 1, we covered defining your audience and started discussing choosing the right platform with Facebook and Instagram. Let’s dive into more social media platforms with Part 2 of social media marketing tips to grow your business:
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn, with 500 million total users and 250 monthly active users, is typically the choice platform for B2B businesses, especially if your goal is lead generation. This is also an ideal platform for editorial content, and it can help establish your company as a trusted leader in your field and build authority for your brand. The LinkedIn demographic is also different than other sites because there are more users between the ages of 30 to 49 than there are users under 30.
- Twitter: Twitter, with 330 million users and 500 million tweets sent per day, is the go-to platform if your business is about immediacy, and if you want to reach followers with breaking news, announcements, important messages and other in the moment information. Most Twitter users are under the age of 50, and the type of content that works best on this platform is easily digestible text.
- Pinterest: If you’re a female-focused company, Pinterest, with 175 million monthly active users, is the way to go because of its significant reach among women; 45% of online women are Pinterest users. There are far more women on Pinterest than there are men (81% of Pinterest users are female), and it’s a image/graphics-heavy platform that lends itself to home decor, food, art, fashion, wedding and travel. The median age of a Pinterest user is 40.
- Snapchat: This social platform tends to skew young with the average user between 18 and 24, so take that into consideration before signing on. If this is your target audience, you’ll be pleased to hear that these consumers visit the app 18 times a day and spend between 25 and 30 minutes with it daily. In other words, the potential for engagement is high.
Not every social site is going to be an ideal fit for your business and should should only develop a presence when you can dedicate the time required to cultivate your presence.
Start developing content
Once you’ve narrowed down your audience and the best social media platforms to reach them, you’re ready to begin developing content to share and promote. Here are a few major forms:
- Blogs: Blog posts aren’t a “hard sell,” but rather an opportunity to showcase expertise and thought leadership within your field. By providing useful information to your audience, you can build a community by engaging with readers in the comments, along with those that engage with posts as you share them across platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- Videos: As one of the fastest-growing forms of digital content, video can get your brand messaging across in a concise and entertaining way. Successful businesses that use video content use a combination of short product videos, how-tos, leadership profiles and webinars.
- Imagery: With the rise of Instagram, there’s a higher premium put on high-quality photo and image content. If you own a restaurant, for instance, it may be worth investing in high-quality photography equipment to showcase high-definition images of your best dishes on Instagram.
- Live Streaming: Technologies like Facebook Live now enable businesses to create content and engage with customers in real time, on the fly.
West Press’ talented staff is here to help you each step of the way — from graphic design to printing to mailing services to large format. Contact West Press or your Account Executive at 520-624-4939 today.