Use Social Media in Your Business

Identify the benefit of using social media platforms in your business and learn how you can increase the visibility for you and your company.

Using the social media platforms require tactics and strategies, and finding your target audience that is willing to listen to your message or interaction. Answer the identified questions below to help you decide which platform you should use in your business.

Social Media Is Just That – Social!

And its main purpose is to connect people with similar interests and build long-term relationships that are giving value to both parties.

As a business owner, you are looking to interact with social media with your customers and potential customers. You want to offer valuable information that triggers their curiosity enough so they want to know more about you. You want them to start to travel the “digital” journey to your website where you give more information about your offering or services.

The aim here is to have them come to connect with you and look for your solution when they are ready to make a purchasing decision. The customers come to you, not the opposite around.

When I am talking about social media, many small business owners automatically think about Facebook. It is important to know that Facebook is only one of many social media platforms out there. If you should or should not be interactive on Facebook is really up to your audience location. It is where you find your audience that decides where you want to be interactive.

So I said tactics and strategies.

There are different ways to interact with different social media channels.

First of all, locate where your audience is. Try to answer the questions below:

• Where do they look for information?
• What kind of information are they looking for?
• What are their pain points?
• What are they laughing at?
• What are their inspirations?
• What do they talk about?
• Who do you want to target?
• What problems can I provide a solution for?
• What does your audience need help with?
• Are people searching for your solution?

Depending on your audience, you can find them in a variety of channels. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and much, much more.

Pick the one where you see they are located the most.

For example, if you find them on Facebook, join groups that have the same interest that you have identified from the questions above. Give value and start conversations through your choice of platform to answer these questions. Interact with these groups and help your audience. Offer your help. You can deliver a lot of value in these groups or even share your own content from your own business Facebook page to these groups. But the key is to interact and make conversation – digital networking.

One tip is to carefully choose 2-4 groups where you decide to be interactive. Remember, you need to keep coming back on a regular basis.

At YouTube, people are looking for answers since it is the world’s largest search engine. It is important to give information there that is related to a search, using videos. (Your own recordings are smashing it at the moment, it doesn’t have to be smashingly great!)

LinkedIn usually has groups where you can interact with articles and white papers and usually, businesses talk to businesses here. (A great inspiration also if you need to know more about your competitors.)

So what shall I write about to get my audience´s interest?

Another great tip to know is that not all information need to be your own. You can share valuable information that others have created that could be of value for your audience, both in writing and with videos (TED Talks are fantastic).

But since your aim is to build long-term relationships you should also strive to deliver value from your business point of view and how you could be of value for your audience to offer a solution to their problems. Most important of all, don’t forget to share your area of expertise!

For all social platforms you can build your postings around these areas to offer value every single day:

• Education
• Inspiration
• Entertainment
• Information
• Promotion (take them to your website)

A mix of the above-mentioned areas is what keeps your audience alert.

Here is a checklist for your postings to assure that you are giving your audience great value:

• Is it adding value?
• Is it going to inspire people?
• Is it going to motivate?

I hope that I have given you lots of value so that you can start to use some of the tactics and strategies in your business right away, using social media in your business.

All the best,

Carina Asp
Marketing Coach