Social media is an effective way to reach out to prospective audiences in order to promote the growth of your business. The different social media platforms available at your disposal for marketing strategies require a different approach tailored according to the user base and environment of that particular platform.
Following is a brief overview of how you can use the various social media websites and applications to their full potential to reap extraordinary results.
There is no doubt about the fact that Facebook is ‘The Universal’ social media network hosting over a quarter of the world population. It presents marketing and advertising opportunities that are unparalleled owing to its global reach.
The casual environment of this platform calls for friendly, lighthearted user engagement strategies. Visual component must be given great attention as it is a key aspect of the whole Facebook user experience.
Common examples of content that has proven to lure a larger number of customers through FB campaigning includes
- Free shipping
- Bundle offers
- Free giveaways
- Product coupons
- Limited time offers
- Site-wide discounts
A great example of utilizing Facebook for active promotional strategies is Johnston and Murphy. From ad campaigning to partnering with influencers and trending with a hashtag, they have gone all out to maintain an active social presence.
This platform was the first of its kind to revolutionize breaking news. This tool allows you to broadcast your news, views, and updates throughout the web.
Since this tool is designed around dialogue and communication, you need to be as active and interactive with your customers and audiences as frequently as possible. This will nurture and build your following, credibility, and goodwill among your fellow tweeters and influencers.
A good way to telecast news, updates, product launches, and discounts about your brand is to mix them with fun, brand-building tweets. It is a great way to gain attention and retweets about your product.
Make sure to retweet good reviews and answer product-related queries when possible.
YouTube
It is the best platform for creating video-based content for wider customer outreach. Billions of individuals spend time streaming YouTube videos regularly. The pandemic has further increased that number by ten folds.
More brands are paying attention to creating content that resonates with the audience and also helps boost sales. Instead of trying to make your videos go viral, you must aim to make ‘how-to’ or tutorial videos that have a greater chance of being viewed.
Another promising way of advertising your brand, products, and services is through videos made by the top trending, authentic and reliable fashion and beauty influencers. There is no way you can go wrong with that in today’s time.
This social media application has grown at exponential rates with more than 500 million monthly active users and seems to be the new king of advertising. It currently commands the highest user engagement ratio than any other social media platform.
This social medium is best for businesses that tend to incorporate heavy visual media into their advertisement and promotional campaigns.
Unlike organic posts, Instagram allows for direct links that enable users to land directly on your product page. This increases user engagement by a greater level and also helps spread brand awareness.
Snapchat
Once considered an underdog, Snapchat has emerged as a strong competitive force. It has a very high and ever-growing user base that makes it a viable platform for promoting business.
The short videos posted as stories make for great advertisements that are both concise and informative, making them perfect for a quick advert.
Video lenses are an essential, popular component of Snapchat and are part of the reason for the popularity of this platform. As a brand, investing in sponsored lenses is sure to gain the attention of your target audience and is a great way to promote an online presence.
Challenges of Using Social Media For Business
Now that we have walked you through the different platforms available to actively promote your business. Let us now discuss some common challenges faced by brands when marketing their products or services on the web.
Some are particular to a certain platform whereas others are a common hindrance.
Opportunity costs
Running ads online requires no special training and can be done manually if you wish to lower your operational costs. However, the drawback that arises is that you need to spend most of your time running those advertising and promotional campaigns, which leaves you unable to do anything else.
The opportunity cost on your time can be a major challenge.
Automated Promotional Campaigns
There are countless tools available that allow for automated campaigns. The two major drawbacks to this approach are
- Additional Overhead Costs
- No guarantee
These automated tools come with a heavy price tag unless you are a huge brand with unlimited resources at your disposal.
Regardless of which tool you choose to employ, there is no sure way to go about it. Your tool might and might not work at all, leaving you clueless as to where the problem lies.
Hire an Expert Team
The most successful solution that allows you to sit back and do your own thing while the expert team manages your promotional campaigning is also the most expensive solution.
The only other real challenging factor is the authenticity of your hired service providers. Countless companies offer expert advertising skills but end up doing nothing for you.
Make sure to invest in the right place to avoid getting burned.
Lack of Human and Financial Resources
Social media platforms provide endless opportunities for businesses to reach out to new and current customers. The only hindrance is a limited budget and not enough human resources.
This can significantly disable you from reaching the full potential power of social media.
As easy as it may sound, you need a great number of people to run your social media handles. Each platform varies significantly from the others and needs to be monitored, updated, comments need to be read and replied to, news needs to be broadcasted.
A lot goes into managing your social media presence, all of which requires handsome funding.
Gaining Followers
The struggle is real!
With so many different social media platforms and each thriving to build its niche, it becomes challenging for businesses to gain followers. It is a crowded market with every business trying to steal the limelight from others onto their selves.
In trying to do so, the content becomes repetitive, and that is where most people lose interest. As soon as something becomes popular on the web, everyone is doing it. Just like its emergence, the trend is soon gone and forgotten.
Businesses need to constantly come up with unique content to gain the attention of their target audience.
