Diversify Your Social Presence

According to Michael Stelzner’s 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 93% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Social marketing can also improve your sales, generate leads, cultivate dedicated customers, and increase traffic to your store.

In today’s marketing world, it’s important to boost your business by creating and maintaining a social presence. Leveraging social followings into actionable business isn’t a new concept. But with so many options, how do you know which platforms to dedicate your valuable time and efforts towards?

Go Where the Followers Are

Social media is an ever-changing landscape. While Facebook continues to dominate as the lead platform to engage with customers, an increasingly diverse array of options are emerging as viable supplementals. In particular, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all experiencing growth in organic marketing activities. 

When Stelzner polled small business marketers across a variety of industries, most indicated that they plan on further diversifying their efforts. Nearly seventy percent of all marketers plan on increasing their organic Instagram efforts next year, while 62% are interested in learning more about organic YouTube content marketing. Business-savvy marketers should always try to stay on top of social trends in order to efficiently reach their customers.

Interestingly, Twitter has been trending down recently. Over the last five years, marketers have gradually scaled back their Twitter presence and prioritized other platforms, like LinkedIn. That doesn’t mean you should abandon ship – but it serves as a reminder to watch your analytics and ensure that your profiles are working for your business. More on that later. 

Which One is Best for Me?

Each platform offers different ways to engage with your customer. Does your business generate a lot of interesting visuals? Instagram is geared towards attention-grabbing graphics that draw potential customer’s eyes. Do you sell craft items? Consider a business Pinterest profile, which can showcase your merchandise and instantly leverage followers into purchasers. 

Ultimately, you are the most qualified person to assess your business. You know your core clientele, what products they’re interested in, and so on. Use that important demographic information while you’re researching platforms. For example, if you sell clothing popular with a teenage audience, then the current statistics indicate that you should consider Snapchat. Choosing your platforms is just like store displays. You want to position your brand where it will be seen by the largest number of viable customers. 

Be Productive and Efficient

Before you waste valuable time creating a large number of different social accounts, take some time to review your current platforms. You need to see where you’re concentrating your efforts, and how those efforts are paying off. Consulting the Google Analytics for your social sites will give you actionable intel on where your efforts should be concentrated. It will also give you some advice on where to expand. For example, if your Pinterest account has an active following, you should consider expanding to Instagram – the image-heavy platform could prove equally visually-stimulating for your audience.

As always, make sure your content is focused on quality over quantity. Ideally, you should maintain at least 3 active accounts that creatively engage with your followers. Don’t create a platform for every social platform just to “get your name out there.” Empty or sporadically updated accounts are worse than no accounts at all, as they portray your business as half-hearted and uninterested in customer engagement. 

Take Away

In order to keep pace with the rising popularity of different platforms, it’s increasingly important to diversify your social media presence. Keep a close eye on industry trends and your analytics to maximize the efficiency of your social efforts. Maintaining a robust, diverse digital presence will boost your company’s profile and generate more business.