The number of people using social media throughout the world has been rising for the past decade, and it is expected to reach about 4.4 billion by 2025.
Social media platforms are no longer simply for having fun with your friends or keeping in contact with your family. They’ve expanded their influence and are now a prominent player. One of your company’s most successful marketing platforms might be social networking. Social media marketing is an excellent method to raise brand recognition. It communicates with current customers and generates new leads to help you fill your sales funnel.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Before we look into some of the important social media platforms for businesses, let’s first understand what exactly is social media marketing.
Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that makes use of the popularity of social media networks to reach marketing and branding objectives. There are over 200 active social media platforms. This makes it difficult for companies to maintain an active presence on all of the major social networking sites. Even if a company simply wants to use a few social media networks (the top five), it’s still a major task. As a result, marketers often use social media platforms to market their business. You may make it more efficient and lucrative with the help of one of these tools without sacrificing your own social life.
With over 200 social media networks to choose from, how do you know which one will provide you the best bang for your buck?
We’re going to answer that question today. We’ll go through the top social media platforms that can help you with your business. Then we’ll show you how to use those platforms to help your firm achieve its growth objectives.
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Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has received a lot of bad publicity in recent years. There’s no doubting that he created the (overall) best social networking platform for business currently accessible. It has become a vital tool for B2C enterprises since its launch in 2004. It delivers powerful advertising solutions as well as organic opportunities. It’s no wonder that it’s become one of the most effective methods for identifying your target demographic. This helps you build an email list and gain new clients. But that isn’t all it can do.
Once you’ve captured their interest, it’s also a good place to connect with them. Many businesses use the platform to build private groups. This is where paying consumers can join, connect, ask questions, and have a more personalized experience with the company.
Since organic reach on Facebook is limited, Facebook advertising should be your choice if you want to create leads or reach new audiences.
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Youtube
Youtube has around 315 million daily active users. Youtube is an excellent video-sharing site. YouTube has become the medium for sharing information via video more than any of its competitors (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok).
Youtube currently has a monthly user base of 2 billion people. It has evolved into a place where people go not only for entertainment but also to learn new things. You might not think of Youtube as a social media marketing, but it is a great platform for business. You can start a video channel on YouTube and communicate with your followers in a way that is unlike any other social media site. You may use video lessons to support your text-based material (such as blogs), visually demonstrate product details, or provide personal news releases to your audience.
In addition to being a very popular network, its users prefer to stay on it for more extended periods because it primarily includes long-form content, making it the ideal medium for sharing instructional content.
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Instagram
Despite the fact that Instagram was only created 12 years ago, it has taken the globe by storm. Even though Instagram came after Twitter and LinkedIn, it swiftly overtook them and, in 2018 topped one billion monthly active users.
Instagram began as a photo-sharing site, and it still serves that purpose today. However, in a feature known as “stories” it has grown to include videos. As a result, Instagram has become a fantastic platform for firms to show (rather than explain) their products, beliefs, and style.
Instagram advertisements are often more expensive than Facebook ads, but the good news is that organic reach is also better.
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Twitter
Twitter is a beautifully tangled web of brief thoughts, valuable information, and energizing debates. You should be active on all social media platforms on a regular basis, but it’s especially important here. Every day, businesses, journalists, celebrities, and, for better or worse, even Presidents use Twitter to communicate tales, news pieces, and funny anecdotes.
When it comes to utilizing Twitter for business, there are plenty of opportunities to make money. Standing out from the crowd, connecting with your audience on a regular basis, and including quality material in all of your posts are all part of the process.
Twitter is a strong tool for growing brand recognition and communicating directly with other customers. It also depends on your dedication to social media marketing (not to mention other influencers). Remember that Twitter requires its own marketing approach, and you’ll need to plan many tweets each day.
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LinkedIn
LinkedIn was one of the first contemporary social networking platforms to gain popularity and stay relevant. It’s evolved into a professional networking tool that’s changed the way we look for, discover, and get recruited for employment.
It’s also a useful tool for sharing information. However, bear in mind that LinkedIn is more likely to help you identify business partners than new customers (unless your market includes B2B). People don’t often go to LinkedIn for entertainment or online shopping. However, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. They attend to learn more about their industry, check-in on their professional contacts, and hunt for fresh job opportunities.
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Reddit
When it comes to social media networks, Reddit is a unique breed. It’s less about connecting and interacting and more about true sharing and learning. The explanation is simple: most Reddit groups have tight guidelines about what you may and cannot post for business purposes.
In reality, using a forum to brazenly self-advertise will almost always get you kicked off of a group.
However, several businesses have achieved great success by participating on Reddit. A little imagination, a lot of engagement, and a genuine desire to teach or learn are all that are required.
If you primarily use Reddit for personal purposes, it’s a wonderful social media site for your business. Users will likely explore if you are contributing to a community or only there to attract people to your website since they can look at your posting history.
Reddit, on the other hand, excels at a crucial part of eCommerce: market research.
To put it another way, use Reddit to ask questions and gather feedback on various aspects of your company. This includes ad campaigns, web design, new products, and more. Many businesses pay a lot of money to acquire data from their customers without realizing they can do it for free on Reddit.
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Tiktok
TikTok is the fastest-growing social media network of all time, with one billion monthly active users in just five years. While it is most recognized for dance, the site has a slew of other popular genres that are constantly growing. Businesses are figuring out how to utilize it as a marketing tool, but keep in mind that TikTok is mostly used for enjoyment, so make sure your videos reflect that. TikTok can be used to:
- Take part in popular challenges
- Post entertaining and motivational videos
- Be relatable
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Whatsapp
WhatsApp is the most popular social messaging application, with over two billion monthly active users. The closed messaging app may not appear to be the most apparent solution for businesses, but with a 98 percent open rate compared to 20% for email, it’s evident that it has a lot of potential. Furthermore, unlike SMS, WhatsApp messages are completely free to send.
You’ll need a user’s cell phone number to contact them on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a wonderful tool for customer service and retention since it is personal. With Whatsapp business, you can establish a customized profile, add a catalog, website URLs, shop locations, promotional data, automate conversations with a chatbot, etc.
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Telegram
Telegram is a popular social messaging software that is known for user privacy, message encryption, and quick delivery. It now has 400 million monthly active users worldwide, thanks to WhatsApp’s privacy failure in 2020.
Brands may use Telegram in a variety of ways in addition to offering one-on-one customer service. Telegram chatbots, for example, are excellent for automating promotional messages and mediating groups. The site also permits groups to have up to 200,000 members, which is more than other messaging networks allow.
Elevating Your Brand
Due to differences in functions and features, certain platforms are more suited to one brand than another. Your next social media campaign will be significantly more likely to achieve the results your company deserves if you can obtain a solid understanding of all of these aspects.
Do you want to boost your sales through social media marketing? Then make the right decision! Choose social media platform that suits the niche of your business.
