If you’re a business of any type, you need to have a social media presence. However, a lot of businesses continue to struggle to figure out what’s going to resonate with their targeted audience. They aren’t sure how to create content that’s going to be most compelling or how to spend their time and money most effectively.
Promoting your business on social media is going to depend quite a bit on who you see your ideal customer base as being, where they’re most likely to spend their time on social media, and figuring out that ideal balance between being promotional and providing value.
The following are some of the best practices to keep in mind.
Create High-Quality Videos
Whether you’re creating them for paid advertising campaigns or for something else, videos are one of the best content formats you can use on social media. Anyone who’s scrolling Instagram or Facebook, as well as sites like Pinterest and even Twitter, can tell you that a big part of their experience comes from videos.
Videos tend to be more likely to go viral, and more than half of surveyed marketers recently said video is their most valuable type of content to achieve their goals in social media marketing.
Around 93% of companies said they’d gotten new customers through social media videos.
Related: How to Use Facebook for Business: Facebook Marketing Tips and Tricks
Don’t Forget About YouTube
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, behind only Google. You might not consider YouTube as a search engine, but in reality, it’s more than a platform where you can watch funny cat videos.
The YouTube platform can be a powerful way to showcase your brand, connect with audiences and provide value.
There is a certain level of work you have to put into a YouTube strategy because creating video content can require more resources than, let’s say, written or image-based content. The ROI you’re likely to see with YouTube could make it well worth it.
More than a billion hours of video content are viewed on YouTube every day. Research also shows users are two times as likely to buy something if they see it on a video on YouTube.
Evidence suggests social media users are four times as likely to use the video-based search engine to research a product, service, or brand than they are on other platforms.
Related: How To Reach Your Target Audience and Sell Your Product
Consider Following the 80/20 Rule
When it comes to how you break up your types of content, you might want to try the 80/20 rule and see if it works for you.
With this rule, around 80% of your posts on social media are intended to educate, inform or entertain your audience. Then, 20% of your posts and content can directly promote your brand.
This can help you build a social presence that is going to be relevant and engaging to your audience. You want your audience to feel interested and informed, rather than like they’re being bombarded with sales pitches.
If you can educate and inform your audience, you’re going to build a natural sense of trust with them. You’re developing a relationship outside of a transactional one, which is something consumers appreciate.
Do Research On Your Target Audience
The concept of building your social media content and marketing around your audience isn’t new, but still, there are so many businesses that try to have something for everyone. They have no idea who they’re actually speaking to or what their needs might be, and it shows in what they produce on social.
You need to be using social data, which is something only around 55% of marketers say they’re currently doing.
This means you have a tremendous opportunity.
What you need to be able to deeply understand your audience is available, but you have to be looking in the right places.
You also have to understand how the platform itself plays a role in the audience.
For example, you may have good outcomes on YouTube and Facebook when it comes to paid ads because they have user bases considered high-earners. However, if you’re targeting Millennials and Generation Z, Instagram, as well as YouTube, are their top spots.
Women far outnumber men on Pinterest, and this site also has the highest average order value for people who are social shoppers.
If you want well-educated audiences and people who are interested in in-depth and perhaps technical content, maybe your focus is on LinkedIn.
Consider Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing means that you partner with social media influencers, and it’s becoming a growing way for businesses to get exposure outside of paid advertising or organic marketing.
When you partner with a local or micro-influencer, you might see even better results because these people tend to have a highly engaged niche audience.
Micro-influencers are usually considered accounts with more than 1,000 followers but fewer than 100,000.
You don’t have to partner with influencers who have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, and you shouldn’t assume you do.
You want to work with the people who are going to have the deepest relationships with the people who follow them because that’s most impactful.
Community Engagement
High levels of community engagement are imperative. You want to look for groups that are relevant to your business or where your targeted customers are most likely to spend their time.
There are a few reasons community engagement matters. First, you want to know what’s happening in your industry. Second, you want to be able to connect more with your targeted audience. You can use some social media services that will help you create engaging content, schedule it, and engage with potential customers.
Consider TikTok
Finally, TikTok had more than a billion users in 2021, making it one of the world’s most popular apps.
At first, TikTok was associated mostly with teens and young adults sharing videos, but it appears to be picking up steam as the next big marketing tool as far as social media is concerned. There’s less competition because businesses are still hesitant to give it a try, so you might find some unique opportunities if you’re willing to experiment a bit.
