For people running all parts of their business, serving as the sole marketing person, or part of a small marketing team, you know the multiple hats needed to make it work. When this is the case, social media may seem like a non-essential element of your marketing plan. It becomes easy to push aside when things get busy. But do not write it off that quickly.
More and more people spend their free time on their phones and social media apps. You have to be on those platforms if you want to engage them.
Social Media Platforms You Need to Use
While you are likely familiar with Facebook, there are many other platforms your company should consider when running a social media campaign. Here are the five that most companies need to use:
- YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video platform with more than 1.9 billion active users monthly. This is a giant social platform with billions of hours of videos watched every day. It is second for searches and traffic only to Google. For these reasons alone, you should be using it. Video is also an excellent means of engaging with your audience.
You need to make sure to optimize your videos to rank, so they reach for people looking for content. Because YouTube is owned by Google, you can run your campaign through Google Ads and reach your target audience. Consider posting “how-to” videos as it is among the top-four most searched content categories on YouTube.
Also, those who use YouTube are as much as three times as likely to watch videos on how to use a product over reading how to use it. You can even reuse existing content from your site to boost the rankings. Keep the videos at around two minutes to maximize views.
You should post as often as your team is capable of producing quality content. Once you have utilized this platform regularly for some time, look at your referral traffic from YouTube. This will let you know if you’re on the right track.
To increase your engagement, make sure to optimize videos for SEO, use good titles, utilize keywords, and tag accordingly. Don’t forget to use CTAs or links to get that traffic back to your site.
Instagram is a visual platform that can help move your business along. You can make permanent posts or short-lived ones. Therefore, you have creativity in your Instagram presence while still focusing on your business goals.
What to post really depends on the medium you select. You should keep your posts to short videos or images that embody your company and expertise. Speckle these with some promotions.
Stories go live for 24 hours. You can drive engagement with polls or by asking questions. You can choose to create a mood through music or promote an announcement. Instagram is a great way to tag people and locations as well. Stories offer a chance for behind-the-scenes look into your company.
Share consistent, quality content, and you will get a following. Remember, it is all about the visuals.
Where Instagram is a visual platform, Twitter is more like a conversation. This is a fast-paced platform that sees more than 500 million tweets daily and 320 million active monthly users. It relies heavily on news and international users.
You only have 280 characters, so keep it short. You have the opportunity to post about contests, funny ideas or thoughts, promotions, sales, industry data, and findings.
Because of the number of tweets, posting multiple times a day is the best way to get seen.
One of the older social media platforms, LinkedIn still has over 250 million active monthly users. It is best for B2B or business-to-business marketing. With that in mind, keep your content more industry-related and offer business ideas instead of content for individual clients. This platform is ideal for video content as well. Look to post about twice a week.
With so many companies moving into the Facebook platform, there is less to say that you don’t already know. You could pay for ad placement with this OG of the social media platforms. It is a conversational platform, but the content still needs to be useful.
Remember to mix it up with videos, images, and text. Also, Facebook business pages offer tons of ways to maximize and determine ROI on posts. You will get instant ideas of what is working and what isn’t.
Conclusion
By using the above social media platforms, you will notice a boost to your digital marketing results. Start by focusing your efforts on whichever platform your customers are most likely to be on. Then, expand to make sure you cover all of the platforms.
