In Part 1 of How to Choose the Best Social Media Networks for Promoting Your Business, we outlined the first 5 steps to take prior to choosing which social media networks to invest your time, money and resources in to promote your business.
In this final portion of our 2 part series, we’ll outline the final 3 steps to take in choosing the best social media networks for promoting your business:
#6 Consider Each Social Media Network‘s Paid Advertising Possibilities
Paid Content:
Business owners shouldn’t approach social media as being “free.” Even if you choose to manage your own social media marketing, and slowly grow your social media audience “organically,” you’re going to make much better progress by supplementing your unpaid social media activities with the occasional (paid content): Promoted Tweets, boosted posts, Facebook Ads or sponsored content. Doing so will get your content in front of a lot more people. This again should be outlined in your content plan for each quarter.
Targeting Capabilities:
Consider the targeted advertising possibilities of each network. Facebook, for instance, is well-known for its in-depth interest-based and behavioral targeting opportunities. Twitter’s options, on the other hand, are much more limited. Either one may be suitable depending on your goals.
Influencer Marketing:
In part 1, we mentioned Influencer Marketing. Identifying ideal industry influencers to approach is only half the battle. Appealing to them to review, mention or promote your products to their enamored followers can prove very difficult—or expensive. Unless you’re already a big name, don’t approach influencers expecting them to push your products for free. Most influencers will expect either free product, money, or a combination of both in exchange for mentioning your products in their posts. While there are no guarantees the move will pay off, it could prove extremely effective. The key here is to identify the right influencer for what you have to offer, and be willing to remunerate them fairly.
Dedicate a percentage of your overall marketing budget to social media advertising and influencer marketing. Doing so usually doesn’t require nearly as much budget as more traditional advertising alternatives.
#7 Consider Your Resources, Time and Money
How much time and money will you invest in each? Finally, it makes sense to compare the time it will take to manage your social media presence on a given network with the resources you have available to do so. Simply put, an inconsistent strategy with infrequent posts will not succeed long-term in growing your business.
Your familiarity with each potential network should be far from your only consideration. It does make sense, however, to consider it as part of your deliberation over choosing the best social media network for your marketing efforts.
The reason is simple: the more you already know about the network, the faster the transition will be. Twitter, for instance, is well known for its use of trending topics and hashtags. Only marketers with a pre-existing familiarity in this type of content can succeed in jumping into creating relevant, readable content from the time they start.
That means understanding exactly how often you need to post on a network you’re considering in order to receive maximum engagement. If you don’t think you can post that often, you might want to look elsewhere, or hire a marketing team that can manage your social media marketing on your behalf.
Similarly, look at the response time your audience expects if they are reaching out to you. On Twitter, for instance, the expected response time to questions and complaints tends to be less than 60 minutes. On other networks, such as LinkedIn, expected response times are less demanding.
#8 Consider Hiring Social Media Marketing Professionals to Help You
If you want to get your social media marketing right, you first have to identify the best social media networks for promoting your business, and then make a plan for how you’ll utilize each network you choose. Generally speaking, it makes sense to start with a single network, and only expand to the next once you have established good momentum on the first.
But even managing a single social media network takes time—and doing it well takes a lot of time. Social media marketing, done well, requires consistent participation and monitoring. This is the number one reason why many business owners hire an online marketing professional to best assist them with their social media marketing, and ensure they are getting a good ROI on their invested time and resources.
Ready to Proceed?
Do you need help in executing your online marketing and social media strategy? If so contact our social media marketing experts now at McAllister Marketing. We’re a full service marketing team that specializes in online marketing tactics that help you attract, convert and retain more customers to grow your business. We’ll help you identify the best social media networks for your business, and custom design a content plan that ensures your social media activities are working cohesively with the rest of your marketing .