The Importance of Social Media in Business

The importance of Social Media in business cannot be over emphasized. Understanding how to use social media in marketing is a primary concern for an online or offline business. It will help business owners and marketers determine how to create a plan and set goals to utilize social media to their benefit.  Setting up your social media platform and identifying your target audience are two key components in developing your advertising portfolio.

Identify Your Target Audience

Your business’s existing customers and your potential customers are on social media. A successful social media marketing campaign should make current customers feel heard and appreciated while also reaching out to potential customers in a way that promotes your business.

• You will need to analyze information about your potential customer base also, but a little online research might help. Try looking at the social media platforms of your biggest competitors, to see what demographics of their customers follow them online.
• Think about the kinds of social media your existing customer base might be using. Think about the kinds of social media your existing customer base might be using.
• You will need to make some predictions about your potential customer base also, but a little online research might help. Try looking at the social media platforms of your biggest competitors, to see what demographics of their customers follow them online.

Setting Up Your Social Media Platform

As you begin this portion of your setup you will recognize the importance of social media in marketing. and the tremendous potential it will add to your business.

You are now ready to sign up for a social media account. Social media accounts are free and are generally easy to manage, but you will want to check each platform’s guidelines and user terms as they relate to business accounts; they may be different from those for personal accounts.  I have listed below eight of the most common social media platforms that include:

• Facebook: This site is a very popular social media platform, and one that  attracts all demographics (including adults over 65).  If you are trying to reach a broader audience across multiple demographics, this would  be the place to go.
• Twitter: This is a platform that is popular with millennials and other younger generations. Though not as broad in its reach, Twitter encourages niche related communities online, which could end up being helpful for your business.
• Instagram: This social media platform uses images to attract adolescents and adults under the age of 35. It is a very effective way to share images of your product, your business, or the visible results of your work.
• Tumblr: This platform can be very confusing for many users.  Tumblr reaches potential customers between the ages of 13 and 25. Many Tumblr users are college educated and tend to be very loyal to this social media platform.  The users stay active and engaged which makes it another good avenue for your business.
• Linked In: This platform is well known for career networking. LinkedIn offers a publishing platform to reach a wider audience. It can be very effective for reaching potential customers who are employed, well educated and have money to spend.  The platform presents an excellent opportunity to develop targeted leads between businesses.
• Pinterest: This platform works best if you have relevant images to share. It is highly effective at targeting a female audience between 30 and 50 years old, especially those in a higher income bracket.
• Yelp: This platform has an average of 142 million users visit Yelp every month. Yelp encourages businesses to list their services and use the site to engage their customers with both photos and messages.  This is an excellent platform to reach local and online businesses to offer your services and support opportunities.  It reaches a demographic group of highly engaged business people and their customers who have an income.
• Hubpages: This platform allows its members to build hubs (one page websites) The members can use these pages for information, marketing, advertising, recruiting followers and generally making money. The members at Hubpages are encouraged to share their interests thru writing, videos and images.

Consider Using A Social Media Manager Platform

Considering the importance of social media in business, you can manage your online presence without having to hire any additional employees. Online social media manager platforms are generally free and can help you improve your business’s social media presence while also tracking your online outreach.

• Online social media managers like HootSuite and Ping.fm let you manage all of your social media accounts across all platforms on a single website.
• You will be able to schedule posts and messages, review how successful your posts are at reaching your audience, and view any and all online mentions of your business by social media users.
• A paid service like SproutSocial will allow you to create contacts from your social media followers to track how successful you are at engaging them. You can also view and track how many customers use check-in apps like FourSquare at your business.

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing the different social media platforms that are available for marketers to use in their businesses.

Have a successful year!

As always your comments are welcome.