In 2016, if your brand isn’t on social media it may as well not exist. And if you are on social media, but not on the relevant platforms, you may as well not exist either.
There are a number of social media platforms that have popped up over the last few years but it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be on every single one of them. You need to consider whether your target audience is on the platform and actively using it, and the overarching goal you want to achieve.
Do you want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to improve lead generation? Do you want more people visiting your website? These are the questions that need to be answered prior to creating your social media profiles.
Social media is like having a virtual pet. You need to feed it (with content) and give it regular attention (by acknowledging and responding to comments/messages). It’s no good having a social media profile if there’s nothing on it.
So, which social media platforms are right for your brand?
Main audience: Every Tom, Dick and Harry
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Website Conversions
The unique thing about Facebook is that your target audience, no matter your product or service offering, is almost certain to be there. If you’re a B2C, you have no excuse for not being on Facebook.
A Facebook Business Page is perfect for building and maintaining a consumer-brand relationship. Consumers can contact you publicly or privately and essentially get to know you without even needing to visit your website.
Facebook allows for all content types (video, live broadcast, games) and is continually enhancing its features to improve the consumers’ experiences with your brand. The key to keeping your audience engaged is with a variety of different content that they can relate to and understand.
Facebook also offers the most cost effective and large reaching advertising tools so you can target the right people at the right time.
Main audience: Males and females aged between 20-45
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Website Conversions
Twitter is the place to be if you’re in sport, government or the corporate world. It’s all about the here and now, so you need to be prepared to tweet things as they happen.
Limited to 140 characters per tweet, the aim is to be short and sharp while still conveying your message. The key is to use hashtags that your target audience are looking at so you can capture their attention.
Essentially your brand should be on Twitter if you have quick-fire updates that your consumers would be interested in.
Main audience: Males and females aged between 30-64
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Website Conversions
If you’re a B2B, then LinkedIn is the right place for you. LinkedIn allows you to target people based on their level of education, skills, job title, industry and more, making it the perfect social platform for businesses.
As it’s a more professional social network, thought leadership content is vital. If you go overboard with the sales promotion, you’ll lose credibility in an instant. Your content needs to be well thought out and you shouldn’t be afraid of expressing your opinion. It’s the best way to encourage engagement from people.
Main audience: Males and females aged between 18-49
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead Generation
In recent months, Instagram has become more ‘business’ friendly. They’ve introduced Business Accounts to make it easier for consumers to contact their favourite brands.
As it is solely a photo and video sharing platform, your content needs to eye catching. B2C’s thrive on Instagram because it creates an opportunity to showcase their products in a way that is different to Facebook or Twitter.
To succeed on Instagram you need to understand that your consumers are looking at the platform in their downtime. Drilling sales promotional content is going to turn them off so you need to think outside the square and on a more human level.
Main audience: Females aged between 18-49
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead generation, Website Conversions
Pinterest is quite underrated in Australia. If you’re a B2C and your target audience comprises women, seriously consider Pinterest.
Think of it like Instagram, except users can save, or ‘pin’, your content on their Pinterest Boards and come back and look at it at another time. They use your content to piece together their ideas for their next recipe, function, outfit, etc.
Snapchat
Main audience: Males and females aged between 18-24
Goals achieved: Brand Awareness, Lead generation
It’s the baby of the social networks, but Snapchat has come out with a bang! With more than 100 million users, the platform is buzzing.
Like Twitter, Snapchat is all about the here and now, so a lot of time and effort is also required. It provides the opportunity to show off your brand in ways you couldn’t before with behind the scenes videos, teasers of new products and exclusive interviews.
If you’re still not convinced about Snapchat, Hootsuite reported that 76 per cent of Snapchatters purchased a product they saw on the platform in the last month.
