Social media for businesses can be like fuel to fire, no pun intended. So if your business, be it big or small, does not have a social media presence, it is missing out on a lot. It can be the source to get new customers, increase engagement with existing ones and build an overall brand image.
Social media platforms are highly competitive; with brands posting quality content regularly, your post needs to stand out to be noticed. It can be quite tricky sometimes, as every social platform is different, and different platforms have different guidelines. So, it is understandable if you get overwhelmed during the process. To help you out, this article talks about several social media practices that every business should follow to get the best results out of their social media growth.
Best Social Media Practices for Businesses That You Should Use
There are various tactics for various aspects of a business. This article talks about them through different subheads so that it becomes easier for you to understand:
1.Social Media Marketing
- Research About Your Audience: This is the first step for any social media marketing strategy. You cannot create or plan your posts effectively if you don’t know who your target audience is. The research should answer questions like, Who are my consumers? What do they look for online? Are they aware of my company? When you find answers to these, you should create a post for your company, as it will help you in getting an ROI.
- Posting Consistently: Everyone values something that is timely and has a steady presence. Always post consistently to your social media handles, as your consumers appreciate regular updates about the company. It will be easier for you to do this by using several social media calendar tools available in the market.
This technique will help you plan out quality content for your campaigns and also give you enough time to work on feedback from customers.
- Choose the Right Platforms for Your Business: There are a lot of social media platforms available out there, but you should choose one that best aligns with your goals. For example, if your company deals with content writing, there is no point in opening up a TikTok account as it will not be fruitful for you. So, before just randomly signing up for every new platform that comes up, first ask yourself whether or not it is needed by your company.
- Stay True to Your Brand Voice: How do you differentiate between Nike and Puma? Their logo? Yes! But also through their brand individuality and brand guidelines. Define your brand guidelines in advance and strictly follow them so that people can recognize you with them.
A few things that are involved in this are visual style and tone which defines everything from caption style to punctuation choices. Always remember that the best Instagram captions are not the one you copy from other competitors but the one that defines your company and its products.
- Use Social Listening to Your Advantage: Now, don’t think listening means literally listening through your ears. Social listening is a process of understanding online conversation. It is a research process which can help you find out if there was a mention of your brand name or its products. This can help you respond to your consumers in real time and even position your product better in some cases.
- Ask for Feedback: According to a report published by PowerReviews, over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. So, you can imagine the power of positive feedback on your company’s website or social media handles.
You can ask for your customers’ opinions and ideas or even ask general questions about how they like your product or about them to enhance engagement. This is a way through which they will feel as if their voice matters for your business, and at the same time, it will increase the chances of conversions for your future consumers.
2.Social Media Practices for Consumer Service
- Promptly Reply to Comments and DMs: The comment section of your social media posts and direct messages are the best places to find what people are saying about your company. Additionally, customers often leave service enquiries at these places, so you can easily locate them and respond to their queries as quickly as possible.
According to research done by Convince & Convert, 42% of consumers expect a response to a complaint on social media within 60 minutes, and nearly one-third expect a response within half an hour.
- Handle Critics Privately: There are occurrences when angry or irritated consumers write harsh or negative comments on a company’s social media handles like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. If this happens to you, the first thing you should do is not ignore these messages. Reply to the initial comment as soon as possible and request them to take the conversation privately where you can directly focus on their issue.
- Use Chatbots and Automated Replies: If you worry that you will miss out on a DM or comment, you can use AI tools to solve this problem. This will assist you in providing fast customer service 24/7 as well as give a more personalized experience. You can train these bots in such a way that when a certain word is written, a certain response will be generated. And with this, you can keep different responses ready in your stash.
- 3.Use Social Media for Hiring Purposes
With the increasing use of social media by youngsters, you should take full advantage of the platform when your company is hiring employees. You might find amazing, talented individuals for your company without much hassle. Some of the best social media platforms that you can use to recruit are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These platforms give you access to a broad range of prospects and also effectively sort out the best ones.
Tip: When hiring through social media, keep in mind that it is most likely that the applicant will go through your social media handles. So, ensure that your profiles reflect your brand values and company as a whole so that the person gets eager to join your company.
4. Use Social Media for Sales
- Increase Sales by Advertising: The best way to increase sales through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram is through paid ads. This can help you reach your target audience easily and monitor your results as well.
If not advertisements, you can choose the option of shoppable posts. Then, you can share these posts as much as possible and encourage your customers to do the same, making it easy for your business to start selling products online.
- Use Influencer Marketing: Most businesses online work with influencers to increase their sales. The famous personalities on Instagram act as your brand ambassadors, and their word of mouth is considered worthy, and their fans purchase from you, thereby boosting your sales.
- 5. Social Media Practices for B2B Marketing
- Don’t Just Jump on Trends Without Evaluating Them: If you use social media, you might know the time period of a trend staying viral. Every day, there is a different trend which comes up. Do not make posts on trends that do not align with your company. But for example, if a particular trend is going pretty viral then you can mold it into something that fits with your brand and then share it.
- Pre-book Your Usernames: Even if you are not using a certain social media platform, you should make your company accounts on that. This will prevent misuse of your company’s name by someone else and if you want to use that platform in future you will already have a profile ready.
- Analyze Your Accounts Daily: Even if your social media calendar permits you to post weekly or monthly you should always check your social media handles on a daily basis. This way you will never miss out on replying to comments and messages and as mentioned in the above pointer the majority of your consumers will want a response within hours.
Benefits of Using Social Media for Businesses
Below are some ways through which social media can benefit your business:
-
- Increases Brand Awareness: Did you know that around 4.89 billion people use social media worldwide? So it is obvious that if used correctly this can immensely increase your brand awareness. People use social media to buy products and get to know about new ones so it will benefit your brand if it is in front of the audience.
- It is Cost-saving: Social media marketing is extremely cost-effective when compared to traditional advertising techniques. You can create free profiles and run paid advertisements. The budget can be decided by you and you have the option to stop it anytime. Due to this even small businesses with less investment can advertise on social media.
- Better Customer Service: You can promptly respond to your customer’s enquiries and doubts through social media giving them much better service than before. It is much faster than emails and your business can receive real-time feedback from the masses. Additionally, your consumers can easily get in touch with customer care executives through social media rather than calling them up which saves them time.
- Helps in Crisis Management: Social media can be an effective tool for damage control during a crisis. You may control public opinion and rebuild trust by being transparent and truthful when handling challenges. When your business is in a crisis, being open and accommodating might lessen the effects on your company’s reputation.
- Gives Your Company a Global Reach: Who will not love it if their small business gets orders from abroad? Social media can help a business with that as it has no geographical boundaries. If your product is good it can reach people globally and you can increase your sales and make a name for your brand all across the globe.
- Helps in Geo-targeting: Social media sites can give you user data in abundance, allowing you to precisely target your advertising campaigns. You may target the ads to certain demographics, hobbies, and behaviors, ensuring that your message reaches the right people. As a result, conversion rates increase and the return on investment improves.
- Gives Valuable Insights: You can find out a lot about your target market by using social media. You may learn about your audience’s tastes and wants by tracking real-time user activity like comments and shares. This data can help you with content strategy, product development, and general business decisions.
Best Social Media Tools for Businesses
Below are various social media tools that you should use for your business:
1. Tools for Social Media Advertising (Facebook Ads Manager, Twitter Ads, and LinkedIn Ads)
The majority of the famous social media sites provide advertising tools that enable organizations to design and manage paid advertising campaigns. Through this the platforms provide comprehensive targeting capabilities, allowing businesses to target certain demographics and interests with their advertisements. These platforms offer vital advertising features whether you want to boost website traffic, create leads, or raise brand awareness, you can select your goal accordingly.
2. Tools for Social Media Analytics (Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, and Twitter Analytics)
Each major social media platform has its own analytics tools, which provide businesses with useful information on post-performance, audience demographics, and engagement metrics. Businesses can match their strategy in tune with their audience’s interests and behaviors by examining these data on a consistent basis.
3. Tools for Social Media Scheduling
Apart from the more general social media management tools like Later, SocialPilotdiscussed, businesses can also benefit from specialized social media scheduling platforms to efficiently plan and schedule their content. Additional features like content curation, hashtag suggestions, and content previews are frequently included in such platforms to make sure posts appear their best when published.
4. Tools for Social Media Monitoring (Brandwatch, Sysomos, and BrandMentions)
Social media monitoring tools provide advanced statistics and sentiment analysis for businesses that intend to delve deeply into social media data. With the aid of these technologies, companies can track and gain insight into how their brand is perceived by the general public, as well as spot new trend patterns and fresh challenges.
Takeaway
Having an active social media presence is of utmost importance for any business now. With this article, you might have understood the key benefits of social media for business and the best strategies you can use to optimize your social media posts in the best way possible. What are you waiting for? Go and create the best social media posts for your business today.
Author Bio
Sankalp Uprit is a digital marketer at SocialPilot who specializes in content strategies. Beyond work, he loves gaming, anime, and reading business books. He’s also a nature enthusiast. In the digital realm and the beauty of nature, he finds his true passions, combining them seamlessly in his journey.
