Marketing may look like just one side of a running business. However, there are multiple aspects of marketing in the modern age. The most popular mediums include digital, such as social media, and print marketing.
Businesses of all sorts implement social media marketing, whether you’re talking about large corporations or small startups. While the reason for each of these parties using this form of marketing may be different, you can’t deny that it’s much cheaper than other methods, and it helps reach large numbers of target audience members, considering that almost 80 percent of Americans have an account on a social media website.
Now before you start planning a marketing strategy for your business, it’s crucial that you understand that not all platforms will be beneficial in helping you reach your target audience. That’s why it pays off to know which sites will work best for your business.
Choosing a social media platform to represent your brand highly depends on the type of business. Moreover, you need to be aware of the kind of consumers you’re looking to attract. For instance, a large majority of B2C companies choose Facebook as a social media platform. Hence, Facebook becomes their main marketing channel because they can attract a large number of customers.
On the other hand, people using Pinterest for ideas and images make buying decisions based on them. Hence, they are likely to make a purchase. This would explain why a large number of retail and aesthetic-oriented brands have accounts on Pinterest. On Instagram, the plethora of soft-filtered pictures and pretty collages that feature products can encourage anyone to buy an attractive commodity. And that’s not even the whole story. People who are motivated to buy a product because of social media are more likely to recommend the brand to their friends if they have a good experience.
Now, let’s dive into the many social media platforms that can help market a business like yours.
Home to the largest demographic of users, Facebook is the all-rounder social media platform that you can never go wrong with. It has well over a billion active users, so saying that Facebook is ‘widely used’ would be an understatement.
Whichever business goal you want to achieve with the help of Facebook, the website and application can help you. You can drive traffic to your company website, convert leads into sales, find new leads, and most importantly, raise brand awareness.
If you incorporate Facebook into your social media marketing strategy, you will see significant results. This is because it allows you to target a demographic based on a variety of factors, such as their gender, age, and personal preferences.
Instagram comes second because Facebook’s advertising solutions have been around for much longer and are highly advanced. Instagram’s advertising boom began soon after Facebook purchased it, allowing the former to market products using the latter’s user database. However, unlike Facebook, you can generate a following organically i.e. without spending advertising money.
Nonetheless, to get a proper following on Instagram, you need to post high-quality visual content such as videos and pictures. So, if you have good photography skills or an aesthetic sense, you’re sure to get plenty of Instagram followers.
A benefit of using Instagram is that it works well for companies that have a minimum budget, in addition to the fact that they can take help from influencers. Moreover, you will be better off trying to attract potential customers with visual posts, since people are more likely to remember what they see rather than what they hear or read.
YouTube
The once-modest video-sharing website has gained massive popularity as an advertising platform for companies. YouTube has an extensive user base spanning all demographics. People use YouTube for educational, informative and entertainment reasons.
Although you can use the site without an account, now that the website is synced with Google, logging into your Gmail account automatically gives you access to a personal YouTube account. The website’s advertising platform is like that of Google’s. Hence, YouTube advertisements are a great means of developing leads and converting them into customers.
Just like content, you can optimize your YouTube videos by adding the right keywords to the title. This improves click-through rates of your videos, which increases brand awareness and favorability. Depending on the demographic and area, YouTube plays a number of ads before most videos. In addition, the new AdWords improvement includes adding links to products on YouTube, so it helps consumers get what they need without spending too much time searching for it.
Conclusion
Most companies use these social media sites because they have a bigger reach. Businesses can reach a wider target audience using social media. Hence, using social media doesn’t compromise the possibility of attracting a different demographic, either. There are many other platforms but those will only suit certain kinds of businesses with specific goals. Your company can try implementing marketing strategies through the mentioned sites before embracing new ones, to establish and retain a healthy pool of followers.
