Social media is a powerful tool for any business but it can be especially effective for the small business. Because social media allows us to target a wide audience it can be highly effective when it comes to growing the interest in your business.
Get it right and social media can be incredibly influential on the success of your business. Here is a guide to the various different forms of social media and how to use them to your advantage.
Facebook is thought of as the pioneering social media platform although prior to Facebook there were the likes of ‘Bebo’ and ‘Myspace’. Facebook was the first social media site that people really took notice of and sites like Twitter soon followed after the booming popularity became apparent. Despite competitor social media sites launching Facebook is currently still the leading social media site and is brilliant for marketing your business.
Facebook marketing can work for almost any business in any industry. It can be used to build followers and interest, offer deals and promotions, build your brand and in turn increase sales. Set up a business Facebook account today and start seeing the benefits, chances are you’ll really enjoy running it too.
Twitter is often thought of as a way to snoop on celebrities but it’s a whole lot more than finding out what your favourite celeb had for dinner last night. With millions of users online every day it’s a great way to reach your target market and let them know you exist. Twitter started the infamous hashtag (now also active on Facebook) which means you can target specific words and people that are interested and looking for tweets containing these words. Hash tag your tweets to start gaining relevant followers and people who are genuinely interested in your business.
Pinterest is fairly new in the world of Marketing and we are still learning how exactly it can help businesses but it’s certainly something to look into for your start up business. Like Twitter and Facebook hashtags help us find things we might be interested in and so is great for marketing. Pinterest consists of ‘boards’ which you create in order to ‘pin’ images of interest. Users can follow your boards and if they are really interested follow through to your site driving more traffic.
Create boards that are relevant to your company but also that will interest others and encourage them to ‘re-pin’ your images and follow you.
Instagram is well worth considering to help build the brand of your start up business. This photo sharing app lets you build a profile displaying all your images which are of an iconic shape and size to Instagram. Once again you can hashtag images to generate interest. Instagram is also great to create beautiful and professional images to use on your own websites. There is a huge Instagram community, get marketing on Instagram right and it can be a highly effective way to generate interest and build brand awareness.
Eilidh MacRae is writing for New Business who offer advice for start up businesses. She belives social media can be a powerful tool for marketing any business.
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