What social media platforms are best for my business?
The rise of multiple social media platforms truly has changed the marketing landscape. Traditional marketing requires much time & even more money. But with social media, you can now accomplish a lot even with limited resources.
A presence on any social media platform allows your business to:
- Communicate & interact with existing & potential customers
- Learn more about your audience
- Helps your business show up in search results
- Helps drive traffic to your website
- Address customer reviews & feedback
- Humanize your brand
In other words, if you don’t have a presence on a social media platform, you are missing out. But with so many different social media platforms out there, which one should you choose?
So many social media platforms, so little time
To help illustrate this point, let me share with you a story about a classmate of mine in high school. When I first entered, a teacher stressed the importance of becoming involved in the community, whether it was joining the football team or trying out for the school musical.
An ambitious classmate of mine, however, decided to take our teacher’s advice too far by trying to become involved in everything: sports, drama, debate teams, honors societies & the list continues. By trying to be involved in every possible extra curricular activity, he was doing more harm than good because he was burning himself out & not providing any positive contribution to the clubs in which he was involved.
This same situation can be applied to social media. When you try to do too much in one area, you may neglect another area. If you try to be everything to everyone, it may have disastrous results because you are not focusing enough attention on that subject.
Invest in the right social media platforms
As a business owner, you are already aware that you do not have infinite time or resources. Just because you can be on every social media platform, doesn’t mean that you should be. You need to create a social media plan that works for your unique brand, even if this means focusing only a few social media platforms.
Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, focus on a couple of social media platforms that allows you to best showcase your message to your targeted market. When determining which social media platforms to invest in, here are three things to remember:
What are your goals?
Are you promoting a product or are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Are you attempting to establish thought leadership or simply build an online community? When you reevaluate your goals, you need to evaluate if the functions of that specific social media platform can align with your goals.
Where is your audience?
Social media allows you to reach a wide variety of audiences. Are you reaching the right audience though? You need to perform research & study each social media platform’s demographics & use that information if that platform is right for you. Once you find out where your audience is, you can start developing a marketing plan that is customized to their needs.
Not all social media platforms are created equally
Many brands make the mistake of assuming that large social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter are the best ones to invest in. But again, just because there is a large audience on that platform doesn’t mean that it is right for your business. Again, reevaluate your goals and your audience.
Each social media platform has its pros & cons. With that, you need to decide if you can use that social media platform to your advantage. For example, Pinterest & Instagram are highly visual. So if you own a fashion boutique or a restaurant, you may want to focus your efforts on these platforms. Likewise, LinkedIn is a go-to social media platform for professionals. If you have a B2B business, it is essential that you are on this platform.
Just like determining your audience, it is important that you do research on each platform to find the right one for you. Take a look at our Infographic that breaks down multiple social media platforms.
Ok, so you know your brand needs a presence, but you’re not entirely sure where. This is where Kraus Marketing can help.
At Kraus Marketing, we can help develop a social media strategy for you. We can help determine your goals, desired audience & which social media platforms are right for your business. Contact us today at 973-998-5742 or visit us online at www.KrausMarketing.com, and we’ll talk social.