Social Media Platforms for Optimizing Business Growth & Development

In today’s rapidly changing world, keeping up with the latest social media trends, tools and best practices can be overwhelming. Type in ‘social media for business’ into Google and it renders enough results to make your head spin. However, there are several social media platforms which, when used strategically, can transform your small business into a growing movement. 

Let our team at Digital Eclipse provide you with five tips to garner the audience you are looking for and put you on the path to business growth. Throughout this article we will cover the following:  content creation, the various platforms, setting goals, coming up with a strategy, and selecting the best tools to manage social media. 

FINDING THE RIGHT PLATFORM

With so many options, it can be hard to choose the right platform to extend and grow your social media presence. Since going public in 2012, Facebook has dominated the digital landscape. There are thousands of networks that generate views, likes, and a social media presence. The platform(s) you choose to promote your business will depend on your goals. 

As the largest platform, Facebook has more than 2 billion active monthly users. The site is ideal for businesses to establish connections and build relationships within the same industry. LinkedIn is another valuable platform, as it hosts B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer). This builds rapport and engages your audience. Twitter is yet another platform, known for its rapid pace content sharing and dissemination of time sensitive information like breaking news, announcements, and trending topics. 

SETTING A GOAL

What would you like to manifest on your social media journey? What is your company trying to actively pursue through social media? Being goal-oriented when seeking a social media presence will make the transition effortless and bring ease of use. Whether it is customer service, engaging customers, generating leads, expanding your audience, driving sales or increasing web traffic, social media can plant the seed for growth in any of these areas. Most importantly, along with setting a goal one must also create a strategy to get there. 

BRAINSTORMING A STRATEGY

Now that you have set a goal, the next part of increasing or introducing your social media presence is coming up with a strategy.  Planning ahead can save time on your journey to building a presence within social media. For instance, creating a content calendar can be a good way to organize your content. Plan ahead so that you do not miss opportunities. Content calendars assist with strategy by laying out foundations, such as: 

  1. Finding your audience. 
  2. Managing topics and subjects that your audience is interested in. 
  3. Using content that will support your goal. 
  4. Researching the content that you will need to create or curate. 
  5. Choosing when and on which platforms content will be published. 

CONTENT CREATING FOR A TARGETED GROUP

Determining your audience is a critical aspect of achieving success on any social media platform because their interests and needs of will determine the type of content you will create. This will also engage your followers. Important factors to determine your audience and gear your content in the right direction are age, location, gender, goals, likes, needs, behaviors, challenges, and pain points. It is extremely important to ensure you are creating and posting high-quality and relevant content in order to facilitate a large following. Visual content can also add quality to your posts. Video and images are popular across all demographics and audiences. 

SELECTING THE RIGHT TOOLS

A significant part of maintaining a social media presence are the tools you use to stay active on the platforms you utilize. Managing social media takes time and dedication, but there are tools that assist with this process. Through automation software, you can ensure posts and content are readily available up to a month in advance. Digital Eclipse coordinates with these hands-on tools to bring a selection of posts that will keep your social media page fresh with the latest news, images, products, etc. Check in with us for more tips and tricks to boost your digital presence on social media platforms.