It’s 2023, and if you’re not dominating the online world you’re missing out. Around 64.4% of the globe’s population is using the internet; meaning these consumers are expecting to find your business online.
At first, the social media network can be a difficult realm to master and knowing where to start can seem daunting… But with the right tips and tricks, it’s not. In this blog we’ll discuss insights into social media marketing and which platforms are beneficial for your business!
What is social media marketing and why is social media important for your business?
In short, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is utilising various social media platforms as a marketing tool for your business. You should be following wherever your audience is and as we said above, they’re online – and so should you!
There’s a plethora of benefits to using social media for your business, here are some of the most important:
- Increase customer trust
- Brand recognition
- Create an online community
- Engage with customers
- Get a leg up on competitors
- Cost-effective
- Brand loyalty from customers
- Connect to customers and the community at any time
- Increase sales by driving traffic
To be successful on social media platforms you should always: create a content strategy, be consistent, engage with comments and messages, post interesting and relevant content, track and analyse your pages, and research competitors.
What are the most popular social media platforms for business?
Most social media platforms nowadays have a unique selling point which attracts their users, and this reflects on their age and interests. These networks can be split into two categories, the more ‘traditional’ networks and the newer ‘media sharing’ kids on the block.
Here are our insights into a few major platform in 2023…
When Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook back in 2004, the primary purpose of the platform was to connect Harvard University students with each other; from here it spiralled incredibly into a network for the globe to stay in touch with their family and friends.
Now the 2.93 billion monthly active users each month are made up of an abundance of consumers, including businesses, charities, e-commerce, and communities.
Key reasons why Facebook is vital for business include:
- Facebook Ads allow you to target specific audiences in a cost-effective way
- Facebook Business Manager gives access to messages and comments all in one place across multiple pages
- Great for targeting older audiences who aren’t on the likes of Instagram or TikTok
- Largest and most recognised social media platform
- Can add automatic lead generation into the ads
- Impactful customer engagement
- Powerful analytics and Facebook insights
- Can share articles and long-form content
Newly owned by Elon Musk, Twitter allows users to ‘Tweet’ their thoughts and connect with fellow users. Nowadays, it’s suggested the 450 million active users per month primarily use it as an international news source and to follow celebrities – With Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter’s co-founder) original intent in 2006 being to connect friends and groups through SMS-based communication and hashtags.
The platform’s highlights comprise of:
- Easy to gain followers
- Simple @ and # targeting
- Limited words mean more precise postings
- Easy to ‘retweet’
- Build a brand personality
- Collect feedback quickly
- Creates a community
As the world’s largest professional online network, LinkedIn is designed specifically for business – Connecting employers and employees together, and businesses with potential clients.
Founded in 2002 with around 64 million active monthly users, LinkedIn is ideal for:
- Increase brand awareness
- PR and networking tool
- Attract top talent and new employees
- Improve search engine ranking
- A valuable demographic
- Increases business credibility
- Can buy premium packages to further benefits
- Increase business contacts
Over a decade ago in 2010 Instagram was designed with photographers in mind, as a platform for them to share their art easily through technology. Since then, founder Kevin Systrom developed the app further into video sharing network – with over 1 billion users per month.
Why is Instagram useful for SMM?
- Created for mobile
- Visually appealing
- Popular with younger audiences
- Built-in stickers and polls
- Time-limited stories
- Ideal for businesses of all sizes
- Great hashtag visibility
- Increases customer credibility
- Perfect for user-generated content and tags
TikTok
With a similar reach to Instagram, at around 1 billion monthly active users, the younger 2016 platform was initially created for users to share lip-sync and comedy videos. More recently, TikTok has deep-dived into a world of educational videos and e-commerce.
Key reasons why TikTok is helpful for your brand:
- Maximises creativity
- Reach younger audiences
- More exposure through trending topics
- Unique and innovative network
- Showcases your business through video
- Can invest in influencer-created content
So, what do you think about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok? To conclude, we recommend selecting around three social media platforms and doing them successfully – rather than attempting to have a presence on all the networks and spreading yourself thin with content not up to scratch.
Contact Fenti
Here at Fenti, we have a Social Media Management team dedicated to doing the hard work for you, taking care of your content plans and social media platforms – Reach out to us today if you need a helping hand!
