How to market your business on social media

In today’s digital world, businesses who choose to ignore social media are missing out on reaching new customers. Whether you’re new to the game, or have a following already, this guide covers tips to help you market your business on social media, including:

1. Choosing the Best Platform
2. Organic Growth vs. Paid Ads
3. Using content to increase brand awareness & consistency
4. The Power of Customer Reviews
5. Marketing agency insurance

Choosing the Best Platform:

In the rush to get onto social media, many businesses make the mistake of creating a profile on every channel they can think of. Being on social media is a form of marketing, and what is the point of marketing? To reach your target market.

This is why it’s important to be present on the right platform. So, to help with your decision, here is a brief overview of the top platforms:

Facebook: Arguably the most well-known platform. Here you can create a business page where you can share images, videos, links and updates with those who have liked your page. It’s also a good platform for interaction as you can run polls and interact with your followers directly.

Depending on your business, you may also benefit from creating a group. This will give you exclusive access to an audience that is highly interested in your company or brand.

Twitter: Twitter has been designed for short and sharp updates, as evidenced by its character limit (280 characters). This works for some businesses as you can link to content on another website, but is limiting for those looking to post longer pieces of text.

Instagram: Where photos and videos are king and queen. Instagram is a visually driven platform, which is why it’s popular with companies selling physical or digital products.

It has various functions, such as stories and reels, that allow you to share content about your business in creative and exciting ways.

TikTok: TikTok has taken the world by storm over the past 18 months, and shows no signs of slowing down. It is geared towards young people, with a large majority of users under the age of 24.

TikTok does offer a business service that allows you to advertise with analytics on the platform. It only has video content, so keep this in mind if you’re considering the platform.

YouTube: YouTube is where video creators call home. This platform is ideal for businesses that believe they will benefit from sharing longer video content. If you choose to share videos on YouTube, make sure they are high quality and offer some form of value to your audience.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn serves as a platform for professionals to network, find new opportunities, and conduct B2B (business to business) conversations. Depending on the nature of your business, having a presence on LinkedIn can be very beneficial – especially if you serve other businesses. If you are looking to acquire talent, we recommend having a presence on this platform.

Choose your platforms carefully, as effective social media marketing requires a lot of time. If you’re struggling to decide on which platform is best for you, follow these steps:

1. Start with just one platform that you believe would be best. Then, give this platform your full attention. This way, should you make mistakes, you’ll only make them in one place instead of all over the internet.
2. If you’re uncertain which channel you should choose, look at what your competitors are doing. If they are present on the platform, it’s fair to assume that your target audience is using this channel.

Organic Growth vs. Paid Ads

Once you’ve chosen your platforms and created your accounts, it’s time to generate some traffic. There are two paths you can choose; Organic growth or paid.

Organic growth is when you increase the engagement on your accounts through activity. Organic growth is the slower of the two, but it is much friendlier on the back pocket.

Paid Ads typically have a more immediate return on investment and actionable data. Most commonly this comes in the form of pay-per-click ads, where you’re charged based on the number of clicks your ads get.

For the best results, we recommend a balance of both methods. This will allow you to generate regular results without blowing your budget. Your aim should be to grow the engagement of your platforms (more likes, comments, follows, shares etc) and more traffic to your website.

Using content to increase brand awareness & consistency

Content is king, queen, and everything in between on social media. So, the number one rule when it comes to content is quality. If your content is of low quality and/or isn’t offering any value to your audience, you simply won’t get the ROI that you’re looking for.

Publishing high-quality content, however, will help to grow your audience and boost your leads, sales, and brand awareness – all of which are great for your business.

The second rule of social media (a very close second) is consistency. Sporadic posts on social media, regardless of the channel, can be very harmful to your brand. So, when you start using social media, we strongly recommend creating a content calendar or planner.

When populating this calendar, do so with your audience in mind. Aim to post when they are most active on the platform to give your content the best chance of success.

The Power of Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are massively influential in today’s online world. If you don’t believe us, you may be surprised to learn that 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product.

Having strong customer reviews will get you a higher search engine ranking, increased consumer trust, and an edge over your competition.

Social media plays a role in this as you can reach out to customers directly through the platform to address their concerns and answer any questions. The more you care for your customers, the more likely they will be to leave you a great review.

Marketing agency insurance

Should you be working as an agency, you not only need to look after your own business but the clients that you work with as well. The more clients you have, the more risk you will be exposed to.

This is why it’s important to have comprehensive agency insurance to protect you, your business, and your clients as well! Don’t let unforeseen events jeopardise your business’s future. Secure it with the right business insurance from Brisco Business.

Dean Laming

Dean is a Chartered Insurance Broker with more than 25 years insurance experience. Through various underwriting, operational and management roles, Dean has built up extensive knowledge of how to run a business and is now Managing Director of Brisco Business, part of the wider Henry Seymour Group.

All articles by Dean Laming