Marketing is a field that’s constantly evolving. Strategies that were common 20 years ago are not unheard of, with new methods, tactics, and entire streams of communication opening up over time. One of the largest changes that we’ve experienced over the past few years is the rise and now complete domination of social media in the marketing space.
The size that social media has grown to eclipse all previous estimates. At present, there are over 4.9 billion unique social media accounts, with the vast majority of the world owning and using at least one social media. Even more common is using several different accounts, with the typical American using 6.6 social media platforms.
With the sheer score of social media use, it has marked itself as one of the best places to advertise for businesses. There is a continual flow of traffic to these social sites, making them the perfect place to launch companies, share news, and get new eyes on your products. In this article, we’ll walk through exactly how you should harness the potential of social media for your business.
We’ll cover:
- Spanning the Width
- Content Syndication and Repurposing
- Data Tracking
Let’s dive right in.
Spanning the Width
When we think of social media, we typically think of a few core companies that make up the bulk of interactions. Sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook often come to mind. However, businesses that see the most success with social media are the ones that realize there is more than just these core platforms.
We recommend that you try and spread out your business as much as possible when moving into this online space. Create accounts across as many platforms as you can, being sure to incorporate your same branding across all of these spaces. Over time, as people encounter your brand on multiple different sites, your general brand awareness will increase.
People don’t start to trust a brand overnight. In fact, it typically takes around seven interactions before someone even remembers what your brand does, let alone then considers doing business with you. With that in mind, you should endeavor to expand your visibility as far as possible.
While you may only get a little bit of traction on each of these sites, spreading the width makes your brand go so much further. As with many industries, every little piece of exposure helps, with this holistic approach helping to really get the ball rolling. And, who knows, your company could even stumble onto lots of social media success on one platform you never even really considered.
Content Syndication and Repurposing
In order to make the most of all of the different social media platforms that you’ve joined to bring exposure to your business, you need to know which content formats work best. While a video might do well on TikTok, it won’t fly on your blog, nor will it be particularly effective on a site like Twitter.
The problem that many people seem to run into when trying to create content for all of these different platforms is either being overwhelmed or suffering from burnout. Instead of trying to juggle every single platform separately, we recommend that you spend time learning and content syndication and repurposing.
This is where you create a high-quality piece of content specifically for one platform. From there, you reuse the media elements and repurpose them into a different sort of format. This is what happens when someone writes a blog and then shortens it down into an email for their newsletter.
Repurposing will save you a great deal of time, allowing you to publish more content and get more people to click on your business.
If you want to drive even more people to your social media pages from other sites, then we recommend that you include forwarding links to these pages wherever you can. On your home site, as well as by using social media icons for email signatures in your business, you can ensure that as many people as possible stumble onto your pages.
Especially with email, if people are already reading your newsletter, then one click on your social media isn’t such a stretch. Make sure to create content flows, pushing people from one site to another whenever you can.
Data Tracking
One of the best parts of posting on social media is that the vast majority of online applications will give you a suite of business tools to interact with. Now, depending on the size of your business, you may already have a set of CRMs or data-driven engagement trackers that you use. However, if you don’t, then social media will become even more useful.
Platforms like Zintego come with a suite of data-tracking tools. In these analytics tabs, you can see which posts do best, which hours your content sees most engagement in, and the demographic audience that you’re building up. This is a wonderful site to gather information, which you can then use to influence your strategies going forward.
This information will help inform you about what’s working with your social media strategy and what isn’t working so well. Take a platform like Instagram, for example. In any given week, you could post a mixture of long-form IGTV, short-form videos, reels, and photo content. By looking into your analytics, you’ll be able to see which content format your audience interacts with most.
By then doubling down into that content area, you’ll be able to drive engagement and then refine your strategy even further over time. Data is the key to creating better content. Luckily, social media has all the tools you’ll need to excel in this area. With more engagement comes more traction for your business, leading to an increase in sales down the line.
Final Thoughts
If you’re running a business without making use of the billions of active members on social media platforms, you’re doing something seriously wrong. Social media is a fantastic place to grow your engagement, find new customers, and increase the chance of success of your business.
From getting in contact with a global audience to boosting the loyalty of your customers, there is a whole lot of good that can come from using social media smartly. Building up your audience won’t happen overnight. But, with the tips that we’ve outlined here, you’ll be well on your way to successfully breaking into this busy, hectic, yet incredibly useful world of online media.
