Making Every Post Count
Tips for navigating social media in the digital marketing world.
By: Savannah Sayan
Whether your business is a huge chain or a one-of-a-kind ma and pop place, nobody can escape the fact that marketing in the digital worldcan elevate your business tremendously. The internet can help businesses reach a new demographic that they never could before the digital revolution, and with so many different platforms to work off of it can make your head spin. Studying the roles of different social media sites can help you fit their format to promote your business plan efficiently and clearly. Social media is a business owner’s best friend nowadays so these tips are meant to help every business go above and beyond with their digital marketing strategies.
The Importance Of Your Website
Yes, technically not a social media platform, but a websiteis crucial for every business’s digital marketing strategy. “Duh Savannah I already knew that,” is probably your response to that statement, but a lot of people really don’t know how to properly manage a website. Many business owners make the mistake of having a website’s information be what they see as short and sweet, but it comes off as vague and unclear to visitors. You are cheating yourself out of clientele if your website is not detailed. A website is your best friend because it gives you complete control of content in contrast to the character caps and community guidelines you’ll be struggling against when marketing through social media. Your website is the best place to put business’s full story out on the internet filter free. Every social media post your business makes should have the underlying intention to bringing users to your site to learn things about you that your social media accounts will never tell them. Vague websites can make a business look automatically less reliable and equally less professional, so take advantage of your freedom by being loud and clear with lots of personality.
The Basics Of Social Media
Facebook and Instagram are both great in the sense that they’re easy to understand and great for entry-level social media marketing; this doesn’t mean that your posts have to feel entry-level though. Both platforms have their own analytics to track your progress and scheduling to keep you on track, never be afraid to utilize either. You can also boost posts by putting money towards them and designing demographics of users you would like to see your ad. Utilizing boosting and staying educated about your social media analytics are essential to successfully advertising on these sites, but what you put out there is even more important. Facebook and Instagram are driven by grabbing graphics, if your pictures or videos are low quality, users will scroll past your post without thinking twice about it. Give them something visually interesting that will make them want to read more. In addition to this, treat your first sentence as a news headline, they should want to keep reading after the first sentence. Make the sentence a “call toaction” phrase, a sentence that tells consumers how whatever you’re advertising will benefit them, ask questions, there’s so many different ways to be engaging just in the first sentence of your post. Awesome images tied to engaging headlines will get your foot in the door, the next step is to make the ad straight to the point. When you’re utilizing social media advertising, long form posts with lots of fluff and fuller will make readers tune out and keep scrolling. If you’re worried about the caption of your post being too short, refer to the previous paragraph and always give your viewer a link back to your website. Your social media should mainly be used to funnel potential clients to your website to learn more, and I will probably mention that a million more times because it is the best strategy to get business through social media marketing.
For Those Willing To Go The Extra Mile
Most product and service providers can benefit from a YouTube account. No matter what type of company you have there are videos you can make to advertise effectively on YouTube. Dental offices can make hygiene awareness videos, dog trainers can post about their teaching methods, restaurants can start a cooking show in their spare time, the possibilities are endless for your company’s YouTube content. I believe that a business has to be creative and have the time and energy needed to be successful on YouTube, so it may not always fit your business plan. It is also important to understand that with so much contenton this platform, it’s hard to stand out and have your time and energy actually pay off. My best advice for digital marketing on YouTube is to always think outside of the box and to post about projects your company is really proud of. Even just posting reviews of products or equipment your business uses every day could get your name out there, you just have to be willing to put effort intothe platform. Videos on YouTube do pay off in more ways than one for some users, by monetizing videos you can bring in a little extra revenue every time someone watches your video. Community guidelines on YouTube are important to understand if you want to dive into the monetization feature of the platform so make sure that the content you’re putting out always relates back to information on your website. This will ensure that if any important information must be cut out of the video, clients will still have access to it.
For The Casual Business Owner
Platforms like Snapchat and TikToc can be a huge time waster if not utilized correctly in advertising. I mainly recommend these platforms for any business that aims for a young-adult to teen demographic, if Millennials and Gen Z consumers don’t make up a good portion of your clientele these sites are not for you. Snapchat posts have a 24-hour expiration date and content is mainly in the form of pictures and short videos. TikToc utilizes the same design of short videos, but with no expiration. Both are casual and personal platforms that would best be used for work related ads that will have users fall in love with your business’s personality. Be personal and laid back while still having something to say that will further your company cause. Posting short behind-the-scenes vlogs about big work projects, teasing a new product or service line, and quick updates about company goals are all good uses of your time on Snapchat and TikToc. It is easy to get caught up in just posting unrelated content to these platforms because of their design making it very hard to convey details through text, so always ask yourself how this helps your business and why the viewer should care before you post. This is essential for all social media platform marketing, and marketing beyond social media, but I bring it up specifically here due to the fact that advertising on more casual sites makes it harder to stay on topic sometimes. You can be a good representation of your company while still being approachable and finding that happy medium will get your phones ringing and your site explored by future clients.
There’s so many other sites for businesses to look into for creating their voice on the internet, Twitter, Whatsapp, and Patreon just to name a few other popular ones. As a digital marketing advisor I am asked about the platforms I went into detail about most often and I use these tips to manage client accounts every time I come into work. The root of navigating digital marketing is to understand how a digital platform’s format can fit into your business plan. Entry-level sites, high maintenance accounts, and short form advertising accounts are just a few examples of characteristics you have to pay attention to when knowing what type of account is best for your company and how you can design content to be popular amongst a platform’s demographic. Marketing advisory is always available through Wingman Studios as well as website design/maintenance and social media management to make this crazy world of digital marketing one less thing your business has to worry about. Go to our contact page and reach out to us about how we can help you maximize your voice on social media.
