Social media has become a fairly normal aspect of our personal lives. As we have seen throughout this series, social media has been a place of connection, discovery, and creativity. But in order to finish this series on the Social media guide for small businesses and entrepreneurs, I wanted to dive into 7 popular platforms you can use to grow your business.
Why each platform?
As we have seen, platforms used strategically, correctly, and consistently have the potential to build a business brand, but there are other ways that the different platforms can help grow your business. While dependent on your business, it is important to note that not all businesses need to use each social media platform. Nevertheless, here are how some of the popular platforms can be used.
1. Facebook
While Facebook has transformed throughout the years their message has remained the same, connect you with others. When it comes to business, there are a few ways to leverage Facebook. You can create a business page, run advertisements, gather consumer sentiment, and build your community.
Facebook has one of the largest user bases with 1.19 billion females and 1.51 billion males (Aslam, 2021). This is one of the main reasons advertisers and companies alike flock to the platform.
As a small business, using Facebook can be beneficial in creating your name or telling your company story. With the about section, you can go into more detail about the company especially in comparison to the other leading platform bio sections. Facebook ads have begun to help companies budget their ad spending and target their desired audience. When done strategically, these ads can be well worth the time, effort, and resources.
2. Instagram
Instagram has become one of the most used social media platforms on this list, aside from Facebook and Youtube (Statista, 2021). Through Instagram, users share photos and videos making it heavily focused on imagery rather than copy.
When using Instagram for business, you have the ability to use the insights generated from the app itself. This will help small businesses begin to understand which content is working and what can be worked on. Instagram is consistently updating and adding to its features making it a great way to stay in touch with your audience.
Small businesses can take advantage of all the features available on Instagram including stories, story highlights, reels, shopping, and guides. It’s just dependent on what goals the company has and who they want to talk to.
3. Twitter
Twitter is the platform users go to when they want to discover what is going on and what conversations are happening around the world and locally. There are some clear strengths to that. Videos, copy, and speed all are able to help a business connect with and grow an engaged audience.
Twitter is often overlooked by small businesses that tend to focus on Facebook. However, Twitter can be effective just the same. Twitter is used by a majority of companies as a way to gauge customer sentiment, communicate with consumers (customer service), and gain feedback from their following.
Customers love to be involved. Twitter is a platform that can do just that. Similar to Instagram Stories, Twitter can use polls to ask questions and garner a participating audience. Twitter is a great tool for real-time engagement. If you have a big event your company hosts, it would be prudent to use Twitter before, during, and after to create buzz and share the event and your business. As previously mentioned, Twitter is also a great tool for customer service because customers often take to the platform for complaints and concerns. This can help smaller businesses cut costs by using a free platform to communicate with their customer base.
4. Youtube
Youtube is used by billions of users (Youtube, 2021). This platform consists of both businesses and personal content creators making videos ranging from anything from fitness to fashion, automotive to beauty.
Youtube, when used by businesses, can share the brand message, help customers find and purchase products, and drive traffic to the website or desired landing page. Because Youtube is owned by Google, having video reviews of your product or videos of your service can help you land high on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Landing higher on the SERP will give you a greater chance of increasing traffic to your page. Furthermore, the traffic coming after having seen a video usually consists of individuals who are further down the customer journey making them more likely to convert.
5. LinkedIn
When you want to network with other professionals in your industry or expand your company, LinkedIn is where you can go to make those connections. Not only are there connections to be made, but professional groups can be joined to stay up to date on what is happening in the industry.
If your company is focused on Business to Business (B2B) work, using LinkedIn could be the best platform for you from the start. If it is more of a consumer-focused business, then LinkedIn can still be beneficial but in a different way by acting as a way to establish credibility. This platform, along with the next, will be a good place to share your company blog if you have one. Once again, driving traffic to your website. Along with sharing your blog, you can also expand your company, when you’re ready, with qualified individuals.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social network, but it oftentimes acts as a search engine. Customers turn to Pinterest when wanting to find new things to try, blogs to read, pretty much anything they find interest in.
So, how can a business use it to grow? Well, if you are a business that can have a blog, which most are, it is wise to write valuable content and share it on Pinterest. This helps drive traffic to your website and gain insights into what your current and potential customers are interested in. Traffic from Pinterest is similar to organic traffic as the potential customer is actively searching for your product or service.
7. TikTok
TikTok is one of the newer social media platforms. It entered the arena in 2016 and gained popularity in 2018 through 2019 (Iqbal, 2021). The platform had also faced privacy concerns as it expanded, which ended with adding additional chair members into the company including Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (Novet et. al., 2020). Due to this, businesses have not yet taken full advantage of the platform. However, the app is continuously growing and providing an opportunity to reach a younger generation.
As a business, you could study trends and learn how to communicate with future consumers. Furthermore, this fast-paced platform is a good way to showcase a more humanized version of your business. Most of the other mentioned platforms are used in a more serious manner, but with TikTok, you can relate to your consumers through the use of a brand ambassador or company representative creating content that adds value and is shareable. This platform wouldn’t need tons of money in advertising but rather a heavy focus on content creation and general creativity. By creating engaging content that is aligned with the trends and beliefs of future consumers, your company can build brand recognition and loyalty.
Always remember your audience
While a company can use every single platform, it can be overwhelming and counteractive. When using social media to help grow your business, you must truly understand who you are trying to reach and in what way. That way, you can use the right platform for your company and audience, which ultimately, will give you the most out of your efforts. Keep in mind, being a company on social media isn’t about sharing a bunch of posts, but rather, it’s about building a connection and a community around your company that can eventually result in profitable actions.
References
Aslam, S. (2021). Facebook by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts. Omnicore. Retrieved from,
Iqball, M. (2021). TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021). Business of Apps. Retrieved from,
Novet, J., Kimball, S., & Shrman, A. (2020). Trump agrees to TikTok deal with Oracle and Walmart, allowing app’s U.S. operations to continue. CNBC. Retrieved from,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/19/trump-says-he-has-approved-tiktok-oracle-deal-in-concept.html
Statista (2021). Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2021, ranked by number of active users. Retrieved from, https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Youtube. (2021). Youtube for Press. Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/intl/en-GB/about/press/#:~:text=Over%202%20billion%20logged%2Din,time%20comes%20from%20mobile%20devices.