How to Utilise Each Social Media Platform to Work for Your Business

First, why use social media for your business in the first place?

There are many pros to using social media to promote your business, with few cons. If you are just starting out, establishing a presence on the platforms can be completely free if you are doing it yourself. Once your business grows, investing more in your social media presence is a good idea. This could be by outsourcing this aspect of your business to a social media agency, or by having a marketing team take them over.

#1 Communicate with customers

Businesses with better customer service tend to see better customer loyalty. Responding to direct messages on social media or comments on posts is a way to speedily and efficiently provide customer service.

#2 Grow your mailing list

Email marketing is currently one of the most successful ways to convert leads into customers. If you have the budget to run social media ads and promote lead magnets, this is a great way to grow your mailing list.

How to use each social media platform effectively

#Facebook

Facebook is one of the oldest and most established social media platforms, therefore it is important to ensure you have a business presence on this platform. It also has the most social media users at just over 3 billion, out of those on this list. Depending on your business industry and your budget, it will depend on the success you see on this platform and how is best to use it.

Organic reach on Facebook is difficult and most businesses utilise social paid advertising or post boosting on Facebook. (This is then shown on both Facebook and Instagram as the platforms are connected and both owned by Meta).

But if your budget is limited, one way to still make the most of Facebook is to set up a group instead of a page and drive people to join this group. This will act as a concentrated space to nurture the group members.

#Instagram

Firstly, ensure your profile is set to 'professional' status rather than just 'personal'. This feature gives you access to support, analytics, and tools that a personal account doesn't.

Instagram is all about optimisation. It has a wide range of features, which is great! But it's especially important on this platform they haven't been half-hearted, and they have been optimised.

This includes optimising your bio and profile, the links in your bio, your Instagram shop, and any direct messages or automated messages page visitors might receive.

#Twitter

If you already have an established presence on Twitter - great! If not, now might not be the best time to start a new account. With the change in ownership when it comes to Twitter, it has undergone a lot of changes. Furthermore, with the new verified paid structure the platform is prioritising the content of accounts that pay to use the platform rather than those that don't.

If you want to set up a new Twitter account, why not consider Threads...

#Threads

If you also use Instagram and are looking for a Twitter alternative, Threads could be the answer. The latest Threads stats show the platform now has 130 million users (that's a lot). Despite being a fairly new platform, it's showing no sign of slowing down or users changing their minds and closing their accounts.

Compared to Twitter, Threads also has a more generous 500-character count, compared to the smaller 280 offered by Twitter. Plus you can post videos up to 5 minutes long.

#YouTube

YouTube is often referred to as the second largest search engine after Google. It has the second most users after Facebook. Therefore given its high user rate, it's an excellent place to promote your business. Short-form video content you post on your social media can be turned into long-form video content for your YouTube channels, providing customers with a more in-depth, exclusive insight into your business.

There are lots of SEO features and opportunities on YouTube your business can utilise which can assist in driving more traffic to your website.

#Pinterest

Most users use Pinterest as a vision board or a source for ideas and inspiration. There's nothing stopping you from using Pinterest if you have the means and resources to create content for this platform; but it is ideal for businesses to 'showcase' e.g. interior design businesses, fashion designers, virtual assistant tips and advice, home improvement businesses or planning a vacation and hiring a travel agent, just to name a few.

Anything related to showcasing, ideas creation, products, or just mood boarding, is ideal on Pinterest.

#TikTok

Last but by no means least - TikTok. The good thing with this platform is you can repost your Instagram reels onto TikTok, and vice versa, meaning you can appear on both platforms without having to create brand-new content for each!

This platform is an excellent place to partner with influencers (as well as on Instagram), showcase your products or services through catchy and fun short-form video content, and make the most of user-generated content (this is content created by your customers on their experience with your service or product).

Trusty Social is a social media marketing agency. We aim to improve the online presence of busy businesses through social media while positively impacting the world and donating 3% of our profits to social justice initiatives. Find out more by visiting here and get in touch with us here!