consulting

There’s no denying it. Social Media is part of our everyday life, as consumers, marketers, and social beings.

Whatever the niche is, whether B2B or B2C, one thing is certain—we have to do social media right. The fact is, your target market is in social media, you just have to know where and how to reach them efficiently.

Today we talk about how to get ahead of the game and maximize social media’s full potential to grow your business. Here are several ways to leverage social media to grow your business:

1. Jump in the Social Publishing Bandwagon

The rise of Content Marketing has caused social media networks to build their own publishing platforms. With the success and growth of LinkedIn Pulse, other social media giants have also taken this publishing route. Today, aside from LinkedIn Pulse, we have Twitter Moments and Facebook Instant Articles. And then there’s Medium, which is not really considered a “social network” per se, but have become a content distribution channel that bloggers and brands use to attract bigger audience.

What’s happening here is, these social networks have allowed users to publish full articles on the social media platform, rather than just sharing links. That said, definitely include social publishing in your content strategy this year and see how it works for you!

2. Know Where Your Market Is

You don’t have to be in ALL social media channels. Say, if you have 3 hours to allot to social media in a day, don’t spread those hours thinly across 3-5 different social media channels. Instead, take 1 or 2 channels and focus all of your efforts there.

Here are some quick social media statistics:

• 90% of Instagram users are below 35 years old.
• LinkedIn is more widely used by professionals and executives, aged between 30 to 49.
• YouTube reaches more adults aged 18 to 34 than any single cable TV network.
• Snapchat is the youngest social network of all. More than six out of 10 Snapchat users are in the 18-to-24 age group.
• Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest drive the most social media referral traffic back to websites. But YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn drive the most engaged traffic.

You have to begin with understanding who your market is, and then finding which social media network they hang out in. Invest your time and money there.

3. Engage with Social Media Influencers

Adweek claims Influencer Marketing as the next big thing. This is where PR, SEO (link building), Content Marketing and Paid Advertising intersect, and many brands will continue to take on social media influencers to talk about their products and spark conversations with their market.

This is true for both B2C and B2B strategies. In SEO and Content Marketing, we call this “influencer outreach”, where marketers build relationships with subject matter experts for the purpose of creative link building, thought leadership, and networking. With (relatively) little effort to connect with influencers in your niche, you can actually hit a lot of your targets at once.

When engaging with social media influencers, it’s good to take note of the following:

• Your biggest advocates have the fewest followers (Buffer). A huge following may get you a lot of hearts and likes, sure, but that may not equate to action and engagement. Interestingly, “an analysis of over 1 billion social mentions from the past two years showed that 91 percent of mentions come from people with fewer than 500 followers.” Hmm.
• Focus on quality content over quantity of reach. “Brands are interested in value, not empty views,” says Frank Narra. This tells us to not be blinded by the number of followers, instead, focus on the credibility of the influencer and his/her ability to create valuable branded content.

 

That said, consider setting budget for influencer outreach this year. Not only is it good for brand reputation and immediate traffic and sales, it can also add value to your organic rankings and visibility long-term.