Social media’s rise in the past decade changed the way we connect, communicate, and use the internet. From a few platforms like Friendster, MySpace, and the like, we took our baby steps to online friendships and content creation. Today, social media is a force when it comes to bringing people together and delivering content to consumers always hungry for what is new and trending.
We even go to social media for information about the most relevant and meaningful topics, or to be heard on crucial issues in society. Social media has taken the forefront this year as the world battles against a pandemic, racism, natural calamities, and more while trying to stay connected and updated. Social media is now dubbed as the new village square.
Taking all this into consideration, businesses must leverage the power of social media to strengthen brand awareness, get leads and conversions, and boost sales.
Indeed, the internet is hard to imagine the first internet without it. In fact, 3.8 billion people use social media, out of 5.54 billion internet users. That is almost 84% of all internet users. The number continues to rise, as newer generations dominate the internet, who have not known digital life without it.
Social media fuel the exponential growth of mobile phones. Mobile responsiveness is now a staple to websites because people want to consume content on the go and through the convenience of their phones.
Social media has driven innovations and creativity to a whole new level in the digital age. If your brand lacks a social media presence, then you are not optimizing its potential. You are missing what social media can do to boost your business to the next level.
Social Media as a Business Tool
Among all social media platforms, Facebook has the highest number of monthly active users (MAU) of 2.5 billion. YouTube follows closely with 2 billion users.
As a result, 91% of retail brands have two to three social media accounts. Among small to medium enterprises (SMEs), 81% use social media as a business promotion tool. Social selling and marketing are highly-effective and cost-efficient eCommerce tools that more and more brands are using to hit their demographic successfully.
For instance, if you are targeting female consumers mid-range in age, you must have an account on Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest. If your consumers are female of a younger age range, you need to pair your Facebook account with Instagram, Snapchat, the newest phenomenon in social media, TikTok.
Here are the top social media platforms that work well to promote businesses.
Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Business Promotion
Facebook is a favorite among marketers and businesses. It covers a wide demographic range in terms of location, age, gender, work, education, and interests.
Other factors that marketers can use is the purchase history, behavior, and even current relationship status. Brands can target exact audiences and optimize ad investments. Targeted ads placed on Facebook are producing great results in conversions, and so brands use them a lot.
However, it has gotten Facebook in trouble several times before. Protocols on data privacy have been adjusted, but it is undoubtedly that Facebook’s data gathering is tenacious, causing their Facebook ads to do very well.
Recently, it gave third-party-access to the personal data of 87 million users. Facebook faced several costly and highly-publicized lawsuits. It had to payoff damages to consumers. But knowing how tenacious Facebook gets on data gathering, this may not be the last time they cross the line.
Facebook remains popular, and Facebook ads continue to increase and gain popularity as a cashless business solution.
#YouTube
YouTube tops video-sharing platforms, with revenues reaching $4.04 billion. YouTube channels have over 100 million DAU or daily active users.
YouTube has leverage access to Google’s advertising platform. Businesses can use that advantage when they advertise on the platform to optimize ads and campaigns.
YouTube also uses keywords and key phrases to determine its own SERP ranking. Brands have guiding factors, just like Google’s SERP, on how to create videos that rank on YouTube.
YouTube is no longer just a platform to watch videos. It is a powerful marketing tool and proven it is worth being the second most popular platform after Facebook. The demand for video content continues to soar. Brands need to shift gears and see the importance of video content in SEO.
#TikTok
Video content is more compelling than text content or picture content. People love videos as they can get more information compressed in a short time. Even something as a resume can be upgraded to video resumes that can set one apart from other hopefuls.
It is the fuel behind TikTok’s success. It is a video-content sharing platform with short-form videos, all packed in less than a minute, intended to bring humor and great enjoyment.
In the first quarter of the year, TikTok became more famous, even becoming a social media sensation, as stringent quarantine measures pinned the public at home. TikTok went beyond just being a platform for teenagers and younger millennials. It has become a formidable User-Generated Content (UGC) platform with 800 million active users, garnering 115 million downloads just in March 2020.
It’s the leading social media platform so far, and brands have flocked to TikTok to strengthen brand territory and stay relevant even in times of pandemic. Businesses need to optimize TikTok’s success and do brand-promotion on TikTok to increase engagements and get more leads.
What is trending now are funny videos and challenges you can do on your own, or in collaboration with other TikTok users, Originality is a plus factor. If your video production techniques are at par, you get more likes as well. TikTok provides different filters and effects that users can use together to create impactful videos.
Posting content consistently also improves engagements. You can create your own challenges if you are an influencer, or you already have a considerable amount of followers. Another trending option is collaborations with one or more users.
These challenges have encouraged the most amazing and creative user-generated content (UGC). Brands and influencers need to master how to do TikTok marketing and launch campaigns while the app is significantly trending, and because advertising is now available on TikTok.
Advertising and marketing on TikTok It can be through the following:
- Infeed Native Content: like Instagram’s “stories ads; you can put download links and backlinks
- Hashtag Challenges: if your content goes viral, brands can get you more leads from increased engagements
- Branded Lenses: like Snapchat’s 2D and 3D glasses, but for viewing videos
- Brand Takeovers: brands take over TikTok for one day and make hashtag challenges, images, videos, and GIFs; brands can include backlinks to videos
Facebook now owns Instagram. When Instagram started in 2010, it was an overnight success.
It had gained a million followers in just a few months. It was innovative and refreshing when it came out because of its interface, content, and user interaction. It started the trend for multiple filters, high-quality images, and saw the rise of user-generated content (UGC).
Now, its “stories” feature and IGTV combine videos into its daily updates. As a result, it became a more effective method to get leads and conversion.
It is easier to run ads from Creator Studio for both Facebook and Instagram. Businesses can now synchronize their strategies on both platforms much more quickly, manage campaign progress, and see reports all in one location.
Twitter is best if teens and younger millennials are mainly your brand’s target audience. This demographic also loves IG and Snapchat. Engagements can fly through the roof when your tweets go viral.
Since Twitter only allows 150 characters, brands should strategically pack every post with compelling copy, important keywords, and links to your website.
Twitter is also renowned for its real-time updates called live-tweeting, some unexpectedly going viral, and “breaks the internet.” With Twitter’s 330 million monthly active users, 145 million daily active users, going viral even on a single post is a big deal in terms of brand recognition, engagements, clickthroughs, and conversions.
About 63% of Twitter users are between 35 and 65, 66% of whom are male. Understanding that defines what kind of content you’ll be posting on Twitter. Change content as needed to make your tweets retweet-worthy as much as possible.
Social media penetrates 49% of the world’s population. Leveraging social media for your business is one of the wisest decisions you can make to boost your business.
Modern technology and social media in our daily lives that the most phenomenal change social media brought to us is in how we communicate. It has “overtaken traditional methods of communication, making the world within reach.” Social media revolutionized our lives. It has opened “wide avenues, even for ordinary people to get information quickly and share their content on a global scale.”
Conclusion: Social Media Marketing Takes Your Business to the Next Level
Enterprises need at least two active social media accounts. When you’re posting videos extensively, you should go with Twitter, Instagram, or even Facebook and YouTube. You can include other social media sites as you get a grip on doing social media marketing.
Open accounts on all platforms you believe will help your business. Book your brand name early for consistent account name, page name, and handle. Produce content regularly and build rapport with your customers.
Set your goals, get your marketing strategy for social media in place. Start your social media campaigns with confidence and see your brand and your business improve significantly.