Social media is huge and organisations that have little or no social media presence are missing a big trick. Social media has increased access to information and the speed at which that information spreads. It is imperative for your organisation to be on at least two different social media platforms because it increases the visibility of an organisation to its prospective customers whilst naturally unlocking a wider target audience to aim your messages at.
If your knowledge on social media is weak or are looking to expand and build on your social media activities then take a look as we place under the spotlight and assess four different social media websites: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+.
In our opinion Twitter should play a huge part in your social media strategy and we’d go as far as to say it is the best social media website out there.
The great thing about Twitter is that it is short, snappy and to the point, in fact you have no choice but to be so. Tweets (posts) are limited to 140 characters so you are forced to be as concise as possible, which is a good thing as your messages won’t contain any waffle. On the other side of the coin, this is great for your target audience too. Nobody wants to read long and boring messages so you can be rest assured that, owing to the character limit, your Tweets will be read.
Twitter is a catalyst that can make things go viral. We use Twitter on a daily basis and there are so many things that go viral on it and pick up momentum, like an avalanche. If you tweet interesting content, it will retweeted by your followers, which means it will become visible on their feed, to their followers. The more retweets you get, the more visibility your tweet gets and, as a result, more users see your message. The use of hashtags (tweets that are preceded with a #), can help you create more personalised tweets, whereby the hashtag will act as a unique identifier.
Facebook has been around for longer than Twitter and so more users are familiar with it, which is why you should be on it.
A Facebook page can act as your websites subsidiary where you can share detailed information about your products and services. Pay no attention to those saying Facebook is in decline, it is very much pivotal to the success of your digital marketing activities.
Recently, Facebook exceeded 1 billion users. That means 1/6th of the planet is on Facebook and therefore there is a huge potential for you to harness your brand and attract a huge following. A Facebook page can act as a customer service page. Nobody wants to hear “please hold” or an automated email; the page can be used as an easy way for your customers to get into contact with you.
Your main company website has to maintain a particular look and feel and you can’t go chopping and changing things on a daily basis. On a Facebook page you can add photo’s, videos and be a little more colloquial with your language to display the “human-ness” of the company as well as run various polls, quizzes and competitions.
We love Instagram because it is unique in its entirety to any other social media platform. Instagram is used solely to share photo and images, no textual messages aside from captions. In addition it is a smartphone-based application, although you can view pictures on a desktop or laptop, you’re only able to upload images using the phone app.
The concept of Instagram is similar to twitter as hashtags are used to find specific content. If you’re a restaurant, a holiday homes company or working in the travel and tourism industry, Instagram is most definitely for you. Upload pictures of appetising dishes or sunny holiday destinations to entice your users and generate a huge fan following.
Google+
Google+ is the new kid on the block.
If this was a social media website created by any other company, we’d right it off as being too similar to Facebook. However, this is Google, the most popular search engine in the world. Although the concept is similar to Facebook, it has one huge advantage: search engine optimisation (SEO).
Each bit of content you post on Google+ has its own URL, which means it can rank in search results, in instances where your main website URL’s may not. The more interaction your Google+ post gets, the more likely it is to rank higher in searches and make the first page.
Another very good feature of Google is the ability to link your personal profile to that of your business. The benefit of this is that it further helps in the SEO rankings.
Google+ is ideal for all types of organisations, especially professional businesses such as insurance companies and solicitors firms as well as SME’s and restaurants.
To ensure you’re on the appropriate social media platforms and are doing the right things, contact us and arrange your free digital marketing consultation where we’ll provide you with expert guidance on embarking in the world of digital and social media marketing.
