How to Utilise Social Media For Your Business

Just a Way to Keep in Touch or a Great Business Tool?

Whether you use social media to keep in touch with your family and friends, follow celebrity gossip or to watch endless videos of cats playing piano, it is no doubt that social media has taken over our lives. I don’t mean this in a ‘Terminator’ sense where social media has turned against us, ready to eliminate the human race (although, never say never…). I am talking about the constant use of these media platforms by billions of people all around the world, every day. With the fast paced world that we live in today, it is clear to see that when things go ‘viral’ they can launch anyone’s career into an overnight success. So, as a business how can you use that to your advantage and push your business marketing to its full potential using some simple online strategies?

 

Forget the build up

Back in the days where VHS presentation videos ruled, we had time to build up our customer’s expectation and create an atmosphere. Now, it couldn’t be more different. Due to such high volume of and saturation of videos on the net, we need to make sure ours starts with a bang. You want to make sure that the person watching the video doesn’t scroll past at first glance. Opening up with a bang will keep them watching on. This could be anything from an amusing image, shocking statistic or a rhetorical question that leaves them needing answers. As soon as they are hooked, you then have time to explain yourself in more detail.

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Don’t Patronize

When sending a message to your potential consumers, the last thing you want to do is to patronize them.  Especially when using social media to portray your message. Having a conversation with your consumers that makes them realise you both have the same goal and you have the means to get there will ensure people take more notice. Social media now means that everyone has the platform to express themselves, talking at people will only stifle their own creativity, belittle their thoughts and make them lose interest.

140 Characters or Less

Twitter may be onto something here. As previously mentioned, the sheer volume of information on the net can cause people to just keep scrolling out of boredom until they find something that hooks them in on first glance. Keeping your message short and punchy will be a sure fire way to grab hold of the viewers attention and remember it afterwards. Don’t leave the important bits out until the end or until you believe your consumers are hooked. Give it to them right away.

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Think in Images

Today’s world is a visual one. It is one that encourages us to look at get instant gratification from a simple image that illustrates a thousand words. Whether it is a thought provoking image of recent struggles within the world politics, luxurious goods placed in a grainy filter or, again, a cat playing piano, anything can be shared or liked by millions. Take sites such as Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. These social media platforms are used solely to share images with millions of people around the world: with some of the biggest names on sites such as Instagram having millions of people ‘following’ their business and/or every day lives.

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Sharing is Caring

Lets take a step back. Before you have hooked your audience with your short punchy message, eye catching image or thought provoking short video, it is time to think about how, you as the audience, would want to feel while watching this video and whether it is worth ‘sharing’ with your friends or colleagues. Ask yourself, if your video isn’t worth sharing on whichever platform you release it on, is it even worth making? Can it be represented clearly among all the platforms in which your business is relevant (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.…)? Before you release it, ask unbiased friends or colleagues how it makes them respond. Does it make them want to show their friends? Does it make them want to send it to their boss? Does it make them glance over it and go ‘meh, next video’?

Stay Pinterested

Whenever you have a bit of time spare in your working day, try scrolling through your own social media pages to see what people are sharing, saving and ‘liking’. It may open up your mind a little to how the people’s mind around you work and help you to develop ways to confidently put forward your business ideas. It’ll help you understand what is ‘trending’ and why, which is important when gaging interest as people generally want to share and keep up to date with the most recent piece of news or ideas. Ultimately, it will help you start to mould your own ideas in a way that relates to the type of audience you want to engage online.

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Using social media as a way to market yourself and your business is most definitely one of the most crucial ways to engage your consumers. If you would like more ideas and advice on how to use these tools to its full potential, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our experts today!