Technology is undoubtedly something that each of us uses in our everyday lives, both personally and professionally. With the world brought to a halt over the last year, many have turned to the online world to keep things ticking over and keep their businesses moving forward. Team meetings have become virtual, and face-to-face conversations morphed into regular emails. It’s safe to say that things would have been a lot different had we not had technology!
The same can be said for social media as an entrepreneurial tool. Businesses worldwide use social media in a multitude of different ways, and ones that are unique to each occupation’s working practices. For some, it can be challenging to understand how social media can benefit a business and how best to monetise on this readily available and somewhat free tool. Due to its ever-changing nature, it can certainly be challenging to get your head around, but there are ways that you can get to grips with it, and that is where we are here to help!
We have compiled a helpful list of tips to enable you, as a business owner, to utilise social media to your advantage. Broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks will have you slaying the social media game in no time! Scroll on to find out more.
Learning which platform works best
This is more of a trial-and-error process, mainly as it entirely depends on the sector and industry that your business lies in. For the most part, Facebook and Instagram are the easiest platforms to use to reach your customers. These platforms allow customers the opportunity to build a two-way communication channel with you. Both social media are entirely free to use and to set up. Still, they offer the chance to explore the paid advertising avenues if you would be interested in it. LinkedIn is also an excellent social media to use, but is more for professional use than for personal, and is a bit more formal than the former suggestions.
Using either a specific company account or as a business owner, this is a suitable place for linking with other companies and businesses, as well as like-minded people. Once you have understood the different platforms and how they best work for business, it is best to consider the social media schedule and the types of content you will be posting, which leads us to our next point.
Scheduling posts and deciding on content
This is the most time-consuming part of using social media but is undoubtedly essential when wanting to utilise it as best as possible. It is not surprising that there are certain times of the day when people use social media the most, with the prime time for posting, including the middle of the working day (10 am-2 pm). Using engagement tools available through social media scheduling sites—such as Hootsuite and others—will allow you to see what posts get the most engagement from your audiences and what times they are most active.
When understanding the types of posts your audience engages with the most, you can recreate these and appeal to their tastes more often. There are also companies available who can help you. Digital Finch for example, provides a range of digital and animated explainer videos. Animated videos are an excellent and creative way of engaging with your audiences on social media. These can be used for marketing products and for corporate use as well. To find out a bit more about Digital Finch’s explainer videos and how companies like these can help you explore the social media world, head to their website for more.
Working hard and being consistent
Like any aspect of a business, you will see results based on the effort that you put in. By regularly posting, you are sure to keep your audiences engaged in your business; they will become more likely to purchase your products or services, mainly if you include some sort of call to action in the posts. Ensuring that your company website is visible on social media accounts will make the journey from the social media post to the checkout a lot easier for your customers; you don’t want them endlessly searching and ending up on a competitor’s webpage!
Review your efforts
Doing this regularly is also sure to bring some impressive results and allow you to notice anything that is working for business and anything that is not. You do not want to spend endless hours working on social media posts to discover that they do not have the impact you intended. By reviewing this aspect of your business—along with any others—you are sure to nail the social media world in no time! Most of all, be creative! Allowing yourself to promote and advertise your business in this way should be stress-free and an outlet.
