How to Choose the Right Social Media Channel to Promote Your Business
Social media is all the rage in 2021. It seems like there’s a new social media channel popping up every month or so. This leaves many business owners wondering if they should be getting on every trend.
Should you get more involved with Instagram Reels? Is Twitter Spaces the right place for your brand? What about TikTok or Clubhouse? Social media is pretty much an inevitable part of business at this point, but is it the right course of action to be active on each and every platform? Probably not.
Instead, strategically choosing the right social media channel for your particular brand is the way to go. Creating a social media strategy will be a crucial step in this process.
Thankfully, we have friends at a prominent New York web design company, and they’ve helped us understand what it takes to be successful on social media.
In short, there are several questions you need to ask yourself before creating an account on any social media platform. We’ll take a look at each of these questions and their potential answers in this post. Let’s begin!
Question #1 — Does My Business Need Social Media?
Yes. Next question!
Jokes aside, several factors go into deciding if you should put your brand on social media at all, but in all likelihood, this is the right thing to do.
If your KPIs, audience, and goals align without the use of social media, you might be fine without it. However, even one social media channel can increase your brand exposure and help you reach new customers while staying in touch with existing ones.
A Sprout Social report recently uncovered that customers use social media more than any other channel when reaching out to customer service with issues or questions and sharing product feedback.
The same report confirmed that marketers use social media to collect various bits of data. In fact, 90% of survey respondents reported that social media helps them stay ahead of the competition, while 88% agreed that social media positively impacted their sales.
So, if you want to keep tabs on your competitors, generate leads, increase brand awareness and build a community, creating a social media channel is a good idea.
Now that we’ve got the critical question out of the way, let’s consider a few things you should consider when choosing the right social media channel to promote your business.
Question #2 — What Am I Trying to Accomplish?
Even if you’re not particularly well-versed in the social media game, you’re likely aware that different platforms come with different sets of advantages. So, once you’ve decided that creating a social media presence is the right course of action for your business, it is time to think about your goals.
Your social media goals will most likely align with the overall goals you have in place for your business, and there will probably be a few platforms that stand out as the best ones to reach these specific targets.
The goals that most marketers have when it comes to social media include:
- Growing the brand’s audience
- Increasing community engagement
- Increasing website traffic
- Generating leads
- Increasing brand awareness
Once you’ve identified the top few goals for your social media strategy, come back to reference them as you consider your choice of platform.
Question #3 — What Resources Do I Have Available?
Like any marketing strategy, social media takes effort and time. Between scheduling posts, creating content, and keeping up with new features, there’s much work involved. To answer the question of your resources when it comes to handling social media, you may need to reflect on a few sub-questions, such as:
- Are there enough people on your team to manage all the channels you may be interested in?
- Is there room in your budget for a dedicated social media team, and if not, which members of your current team could potentially handle the added responsibility?
- How much time can you dedicate to each platform, including the time needed to learn the ins and outs of a new channel?
Obviously, resources aren’t just about people or time, either. The software you plan to use to analyze metrics and schedule posts is a massive part of the cost calculation when it comes to your social media ROI.
Ultimately, although there’s a wide range of marketing management tools available, you may choose to outsource your social media management to a company specialized in this field. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll need to factor the cost into your calculations.
Question #4 — What Type of Content Do You Plan to Share?
You may already have a media library and visual content that you can repurpose on your social media accounts. You may also already have a few blog posts that you can share. This is all content that can get you started on social.
Take a closer look at your existing content and think about your overall ability to create more content for your social channels. Consider who will be creating this content and how? Get specific with questions like whether the social media manager would also be responsible for your Instagram photos and whether your YouTube and FB videos or Instagram Reels would need to be outsourced.
Before you can answer these and similar questions, you need to know that social media content can be divided into five main categories:
- Images
- Video
- Live Video
- Stories
- Text
The content that you are able to create should be a massive influence on your choice of social media platform and channel.
If you’re able to create lots of video content, you should probably focus on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. TikTok may also be a tempting option, but the content featured on this platform is quite specific in form, so you should think twice before making the leap.
When it comes to content creation and curation, it is best to be realistic about your abilities. Starting on a new platform, you want to make sure that the type of content you’re sharing is just right and that you can produce enough of it to be able to post consistently.
Closing Thoughts
There are so many social media platforms out there for you to choose from. While on the surface, this may look like a great thing, as the choice is abundant for every type of content, it can get overwhelming very quickly.
The four questions above should help you narrow down your selection and ultimately pick the few social media channels on which your brand will flourish.
Consumer social media use increases across all generations every single year. It is no longer a question of if but how you should invest in this thriving marketing channel.
If you’re hesitant, start with one platform and work your way up from there, but don’t take too long to get settled in. Social media usage and spending are more than likely to continue to rise, and by not taking immediate action, you run the risk of getting left behind by your competitors.