Questions answered in this post:
Where should I start with social media marketing?
What platforms should I use?
So you’ve started your business and you know you should be on social media, but you have no idea where to start. Here you’ll find out how to choose your first platform, what to post, and when.
First, you need to choose a platform. It is unrealistic to grow a large, engaged following on many platforms at the same time, so pick one to start. Think about your business and your customer base: does your product lend well to images? Consider Instagram. Does your customer base like frequent updates? Twitter. Are you marketing to Gen Z? TikTok. Millennials and older? Facebook. Is your business B2B? LinkedIn. Often you can pick two, but we recommend no more than that. Once you grow a large enough audience on one platform, you can use that momentum to start other accounts and grow on other platforms. If you want more information, check out this Forbes article on choosing the right platform for you.
Once you choose a platform, you need to decide what kind of content you will put out. Although content varies, there are general principles for your strategy. To engage your followers, you want your posts to be a mixture of content, advertisements, and brand posts.
Content
These are the posts that will convince your audience to follow. Brainstorm what kind of educational or engaging content relates to your brand and will add value to your audience. For example, if you are a real estate company, you can post about the home purchasing process, updates on the market, etc. It may be more difficult to think of content if you sell a product, but think about your industry in general: is there news you can repost? Are there any discussions or polls you can use to engage with your followers? Overall, content should be posts that are related to your business but that could stand alone and make sense.
Advertisements
Advertising on social media is often a lot easier and more cost effective than traditional methods. There are many options, but the name of the game is variety and frequency. Whereas TV commercials often produce many commercials in a general theme (think Progressive or State Farm), SM requires you to be more creative. In particular, these posts highlight specific products, services, or deals. In general, you want to balance these posts with content and brand posts so that your followers don’t become unengaged.
Brand Posts
Although this type of post is often confused with advertisements, it is more general to your brand. These help to develop name recognition and solidify brand loyalty. You need to identify what your brand values and means. What do you want to be known for? This can be hard to decipher, but it’s important to determine on the front end so that your online presence is cohesive.
Conclusion
In summary, you want to have a mixture of content, specific ads, and brand solidifying posts on a platform that your customer base is likely to use. The balance is difficult to strike, but once you do, social media can be a powerful and free tool to grow your brand recognition and increase sales.
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