A smart phone social media channels.

Are you suffering from social media channel FOMO?

Social media executed well will help your business extend reach, grow a community of advocates and convert. But too often people suffer from “social media fear of missing out”. They sign up to a social channel without identifying why their business should have a presence or planning how to use it and then fail to get results.

As a digital marketing freelancer helping startups and SMEs to maximise their social media marketing strategy, I’m often asked which channel should I focus on? 

Want to choose your social channel(s) strategically rather than joining (and neglecting) the latest social network? Read on…

Where is your audience on social media?

The audience is at the heart of all our marketing communications. Therefore identifying where your potential customers and community are hanging out on social media is the best place to start. Be driven by strategy rather than choosing the latest trend in social.

Where are your competitors?

It’s also vital to know what the competition is up to. Pick 3 to 5 top competitors and analyse their social media output. Where is their social media presence? What results are they getting? You should not just follow their lead, but it will give you a good indication of trends and good practice in your field. 

How much capacity do you have?

You don’t want to spread yourself too thin. It’s better to focus on one channel well rather than have multiple social channels that are neglected. What is your capacity internally? Can you hire a social media freelancer to help?

What do you want to achieve?

Your strategy will impact on the social channels which you choose. Ask yourself what your business needs social for. What do you want to achieve?

  • Customer service
  • Build a community
  • Generate leads
  • Become a thought leader
  • Drive visits to a website
  • Social commerce
  • Brand awareness

Which channel is good for your business?

For my freelancing work, I use Twitter and Linkedin to post about social media and marketing tips as well as areas that interest me such as writing, tech and the environment. Then on Instagram, it’s more personal but I also use it for inspiration for my clients. For me, Facebook and Pinterest tend to be for personal use. 

Do you recall the Dolly Parton meme? It playfully encapsulates how the different channels’ personalities work.

Let’s dive into the key features of the primary social media channels.

Twitter

Quick Stats:

  • 16.7 million in the UK can be reached by advertising. 
  • 44% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 have used Twitter in the last month.
  • 41.5% are female and 58.5% are male.
  • For any sector, and both B2B and B2C.

What it’s good for?

  • Customer service 
  • Reaching press and influencers
  • Targeting both local and global audiences in real-time
  • Curation 
  • Poll your audience
  • Gifs and short videos

What’s tricky?

  • Cutting through the noise.
  • Targeting specific demographics

Facebook

Users:

  • 37 million people can be reached by adverts.
  • 54.1% are women, 45.9% are men.
  • This is a broad audience, mainly B2C – but it can be used effectively for B2B too.

What it’s good for?

  • Customer service through instant messaging 
  • Show brand personality 
  • Chatty, conversational style
  • Build communities with Facebook Groups
  • Highly targeted advertising
  • Customer feedback via reviews

What’s tricky?

  • Increasingly difficult to obtain organic reach

Instagram

Visual brands need a presence here especially fashion, entertainment, lifestyle, food, health and wellness, but B2B brands can make use of it too to show personality. 

Users: 

  • In the UK as of March 2020, 24.46 million users.
  • 31.9% are between 25 and 34 years of age. (Statistica)

What it’s good for?

  • engaging a like-minded community
  • developing your brand visually
  • connect with influencers
  • social selling.

What’s tricky?

  • building a consistently high-quality visual identity.
  • do you have enough relevant content to post regularly?

Linkedin

Users:

  • 28 million in the UK can be reached by ads 
  • 44% are female, 56% are male

For any sector, but focused on the “business” side of things: think hiring, company news, thought leadership, marketing tips, research findings and team highlights. 

What it’s good for?

  • Showcasing your business as an employer
  • Attract talent
  • Thought leadership 
  • Showcasing new products 
  • Asking and answering questions

What’s tricky?

  • Don’t overshare – it’s not for posting your holiday pics.
  • It’s beneficial to encourage your team to share your company posts to extend reach.

Pinterest

Users:

What it’s good for?

  • Share high-quality vertical images
  • The lifetime of a pin is going to be higher than that of a tweet or Insta post. 
  • You can easily connect with your niche audience
  • Posts have a link back to your site, so it’s great for driving traffic

What’s tricky?

  • It’s high volume. Do you really have the time to keep it updated?
  • Copyright can be an issue on repining
  • Ensure that you have high quality, repinnable images.

Snapchat

Users: 

What it’s good for?

  • reaching the under 30s
  • adds brand authenticity
  • collaborate with influencers and creators
  • get creative with geofilters
  • offer exclusive events
  • less competition than the other channels

What’s tricky?

  • you wouldn’t just rely on Snapchat, so this needs to be in addition to other broader-based channels.
  • it can be difficult to grow your audience without hashtags so you need to promote on other channels too

Brand consistency

Once you’ve created your social media profiles, aim for brand consistency across the channels. The account names should be as similar as possible with logo and messaging across all. 

Create an editorial calendar

Scheduling tools are a must for small businesses to manage their social media. Create an editorial calendar so that you know what you’re posting, when and on which channels. This frees you to add content on the fly too. Currently, with my clients, I use Hootsuite, Buffer, and Later for Instagram. (They all have free options available).

As we’ve seen each channel has a different personality so don’t just copy and paste the same content on each one. Adapt it to the particular strengths of the channel. 

Do you feel that your social could be working harder for your business? Fill in my nice ‘n easy form or give me a call and let’s get your social strategy sorted.

  • 07747 807735
  • hello@carolynhair.com