No matter who you are or what you do, if you own a business or you are an influencer you should know tips and tricks of using social media to your advantage. Aside from social media marketing not being an option you can either indulge in or decline anymore, it has come to be a place where the absolute majority of people with access to the internet spend their time. And not just for entertainment or to kill their free time. Education, work, business, social life, everything has been moving towards operating on a virtual level. And because of this, the way social media affects people has altered.
Specifically during the pandemic where there is basically no other option but to get on social media platforms and do what you have to do. Before the lockdown Zoom was just one of the many video chat services but its engagements rose dramatically in the span of just one year. Compared to December 2019 with only 10 million meeting participants, when the world was just coming to terms with a new disease starting to spread, in 2024 the number reached 300 million. Zoom was the most downloaded free up for iPhones in the US. Why Zoom and not Skype or literally any other platform? Zoom creators have been able to market themselves correctly at the right time.
The thing is, ever since the epidemic started and Zoom became a hot topic, the platform has been putting out an update after an update to accommodate the needs of its many users. It only makes sense. When something gets bigger, it needs to adjust to its new position. The same thing happened to social media overall. And this is definitely not only about the way apps and websites are constantly changing their layout and introducing new services to be as convenient as possible, but also the ways people’s attitudes have changed towards theirs and others’ social media presence.
Nowadays it is unimaginable to own a business without having a website or a social media page dedicated to it. Social media platforms are where your customers and your competition are, therefore it is the place you need to be. What is the fastest and most direct way to communicate with your targeted audience? How can you showcase your products, services, or yourself efficiently? How can you advertise your content without spending a fortune on it? Where can you make important connections with the right people? Social media checks out everything there is on your business running plan. For example, more and more business owners are starting to use social media as a social recruitment tool for attracting top talent, which you can learn more about here: https://www.careerarc.com/social-media-recruiting/.
All of that in mind, as a business owner you need to be able to read the room.
Get on Social Media if You Have Not Already
Starting with the basics. Being an influencer without at least one social media platform is out of the question. The essence of being an influencer includes being a social media user in itself. But if you are running a business with just a website with no social media presence whatsoever, you need to immediately change that. You don’t have to dig deep into statistics, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Youtube are the top 5 platforms currently and probably where most users are registered on. Choose one if it’s overwhelming and you do not have a social media manager yet. But the optimal thing to do is to sign up on at least two social media platforms.
Cross-platform interaction and the way it works is one of the advantages of social media marketing. Sharing a single post from one account onto another can significantly boost the number of engagements. So think about it. Eventually, you will have to sign up on more than one platform anyways.
Another good thing about social media marketing is that you can spend the minimum budget on advertising but if you know the ways to do it correctly, you can succeed profoundly. Investing in social media marketing can take many forms, such as for instance boosting the number of engagements your posts or account gets, especially when you are just starting out it can be difficult to get the attention you need. It could be in the form of hiring a professional, read influencer, that can become a sort of like a “Face” to your brand; simply give you a shoutout; do the review of your products and services, or you can do the latter yourself.
Be as informative and interesting as possible. Include all of the necessary information about the products or services you offer to potential clients. Welcome the feedback and make sure you showcase the praise you get on your social media accounts so your future customers can trust you easier. Customers love seeing positive reviews from real people.
Be active. Pay attention to the ways the platform of your choice operates. It could be a trendy video challenge for Tik-Tok or those viral YouTube challenges that come every other week; It could be a hashtag or a plugin under a viral tweet on Twitter or maybe frequently using Instagram Story. Do what you need to do in order to get as much attention as possible. All of these will help you in establishing your brand firmly.
If You Are Already Here
If you are already on social media there are some things that you need to pay extra attention to.
First things first, make sure you are not slacking off. Social media presence is all about reminding your audience you are there and you are offering them some kind of content that they need. Business owners previously spent a lot more money on advertising campaigns that took weeks or months to be fully launched. The process could be done in a few minutes, hours, or days thanks to the ways most social media platforms operate. You just need to be actively engaged in it.
If running your business outside of social media takes a lot of time, you may want to hire a professional manager similar to subscriberz.com that can take care of everything. The person needs to be skillful and know bits and pieces about different platforms. Do not trust just about anyone, thinking social media marketing is easy. Competition is still fierce and you need to be attractive in many aspects to get ahead of your rivals.
In case you cannot afford to hire someone to run your social media, take some time out of your day to update them. 15-20 minutes every day can get you far. The good thing about many social media platforms is that you can schedule posts. You can write the post whenever you have some free time, attach an image or a video, and either save it as a draft to post it later or schedule it to get posted automatically. Honestly, this feature is so convenient. Works like your personal assistant, except it will never make a mistake.
While most social media platforms have a scheduling option, not all have custom features for it. Twitter, for example, came up with TweetDeck, which is their official attempt at making the platform much easier to use. Tweetdeck gives the ability to schedule future content. Unfortunately, TweetDeck does not allow you to schedule Twitter threads. If you need a way to schedule Twitter threads, you can look into a Tweetdeck alternative tool. With it, you’ll finally be able to get threads finished in no time. Hypefury is one of the rare social media scheduling tools that support scheduling Twitter threads. Moreover, it also automates retweets to get extra engagement on your tweet and growth on your account.
Another important thing to take into consideration is the social aspect of the platforms. Whenever there is something big happening in the world or locally, people are discussing it on social media. Like your customers, they want to see that you share the sentiment. Political correctness is a big thing on social media. And to be honest it has become less about coming politically correct and more about having common sense and taking the right side. Show your support where it’s needed. It could be a donation, a post, joining a hashtag, or directly speaking out about it.
A thing that is partly connected with the above-discussed topic is plugging your personal accounts into your business accounts and vice versa. In this way, you are showing your customers that there are real human beings behind the business accounts. This will enhance the feeling that the connection is genuine and will make them trust you more. Think about how many YouTubers launch their own merchandise when they get particularly big. Promoting your persona outside of your product is always a smart move. Of course, on the terms that you are comfortable about it.
In conclusion
As a business owner in 21 century, there is no avoiding social media platforms when it comes to marketing and advertising. You absolutely need to create a strong social media presence in order to be on the same level or get ahead of the competition. And the situation will likely never change or go back to how it was before. You need to catch up and keep going along with how things operate on the market. It can be a lot but this is why social media creators always strive to make their platforms easier to use.
Virtual reality is not only virtual anymore. It affects how things are in real life more than anything else. Media and communication are two of the most important things we all need to get on par with. Especially if you are a part of the business sector. Get started with establishing your brand on social media and you will see for yourself.
