20 Jul Making social media work for business

By Tilly Glover, More Fire PR

Social media is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. It can be used to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. But with so many different platforms to choose from, it’s often difficult to know where to start.

Here are a few tips on choosing the right social media platforms to help communicate your messaging:

1. Consider your audience: Who are you trying to reach with your social media messages? If you’re targeting a younger audience, you might want to focus on platforms like TikTok or Instagram. If you’re targeting a business audience, LinkedIn might be a better fit.
2. Prioritise your goals: What do you want to achieve with your social media marketing? Do you want to generate leads? Increase brand awareness? Drive sales? Once you know your goals, you can choose the platforms that are most likely to help you achieve them.
3. Evaluate your resources: How much time and money do you have to invest in social media marketing? If you’re short on resources, you might want to focus on a few key platforms. But if you have more you can spread your social efforts across a wider range of platforms.
4. Keep an eye on new trends: Social media platforms are constantly evolving. What’s popular today may not be tomorrow, so it’s important to be aware and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Once you’ve considered these factors, it’s time to start narrowing down choices. Here are some of the most popular social media platforms for businesses:

• Facebook: One of the most popular social platforms in the world, with almost three billion active users. It’s a great platform for businesses of all sizes and offers a wide range of features, including text, photography and video for marketing and engagement.
• Twitter: Despite the furore over Elon Musk’s takeover and what the future might hold, Twitter remains the undisputed champion of micro-blogging platforms for short, 240-character messages with weblinks, images, video and more. It’s a great choice for connecting with customers and building relationships, but there’s also a lot of drama and spam to navigate.
• LinkedIn: The professional networking platform of choice is now used by over 930 million people worldwide. It’s a great space for businesses and individuals to connect with existing and potential customers and employees, and also offers a range of features for lead generation and sales.
• Instagram: Instagram is the number one photo-sharing platform with over 2.3 billion active users. It’s an ideal platform for businesses to visually showcase their products, services, personality and behind-the-scenes activities. It can also be used to build a following and drive traffic to your website.
• YouTube: The world’s largest video-sharing platform, with over two billion active users. It’s a great platform for businesses to share educational videos, product tutorials, vlog and though-leadership content.

These are just a some of the many social media tools that are available to businesses. The best platform depends on your specific goals and audiences.

To make the most of the opportunities on offer start practising now to help find the right platforms for your business and marketing goals.

Here are a few additional best practise tips:

• Be consistent. Post regularly on the platforms you choose, and make sure your content is relevant to your audience. Once a month is fine, weekly better, daily even more so.
• Use visuals. Images and videos are highly engaging so use them whenever possible.
• Be personal. Don’t just use social media to promote your products or services. Share interesting content, tell stories, and connect with your audience on a personal level.
• Listen to your audience. Pay attention to what your audience says, and respond to their comments and questions.
• Measure your results. Track your social activity to see what’s working and what’s not. Give it time to build an audience, then use this information to adjust your strategy and improve.