How to Promote Your Business via Social Media

It may seem strange to us now, but there was a time when the world was not blessed with the gift that is Social Media! Ever since its inception, social media has grown to become a massively integral part of any small up–and–coming growing business.

And while many entrepreneurs and start up companies still struggle with how to best make use of the utilities of social media and other famous social networking sites to engage their prospective audiences and promote their businesses, there are signs that their confidence in the social media tools is increasing.

And that is for a simple reason, that social media is the new frontier upon which business will do battle hence forth!
In fact, annual internet advertising expenditure overtook newspaper ad spending way back in 2013. And by 2015, it was almost thrice as much as all other forms of advertising… combined! Social media promoting has grown exponentially. The worldwide expenditure on social media is expected to be a figure in the ball park range of 190–200 billion dollars annually.

Benefits of Social Media Promoting

To entrepreneurs, social media is the “next big thing”. And rightly so! According to stats, 92 per cent of “marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80 per cent indicating that their efforts increased the viewer traffic to their websites exponentially. Moreover, according to the reputed journal, The Social Media Examiner, 97 per cent of marketers are currently participating in social media.” The statistics don’t lie. Social media has a plethora of advantages attached to it, and it would be called nothing less than folly to have a business and still now get on to the internet air space.

Some other advantages of Social Media are:

• Increased Brand Recognition
Visibility is one of the biggest aspects of a business. The more accessible and “in your face” an ad campaign is, the more customers it will invariably attract. That is how social media can help you. It is very highly possible that a customer can become better acquainted with your brand or business after seeing your presence on multiple networks!

• Improved Brand Loyalty
Social Media also helps provide a basis for loyalty. According to a report published by the Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels will have a better opportunity to enjoy higher loyalty from their customers.

• More Opportunities to Cater Customers
The internet is based on reactions. And that is why every post that your business puts up on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. This is because it gets users involved; it gives them a chance to react. And if the ad campaign is done right, then it can garner a lot of positive reactions and convert customers on to your side!

How to Utilize Social Media

To gain a relevant spot on a social media platform, especially like the ones listed above – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Instagram, Snapchat – is a very difficult task. There is a lot that is involved in making your business pertinent and wide spread on the internet.
But, if promoted right, you stand a chance to potentially be a millionaire overnightas the saying goes. So, to help you out we have compiled a list of ways to help you promote your business via social media.

Use these tips and put your seat belt on, because your business is about to sky – rocket!

The steps are as follows:

1. Assess your Assets
The very first step to promoting your business’s presence on social media is to asses your assets. As a business, the first action that you as the owner should take before you go ahead and engage in online marketing or social media marketing and engagement, is to look at what are you are trying to promote. You need to find answers to questions like; what are your assets? Who are your target consumers? Why should they pick your product over your competition? Once you get your answers to these questions and you have your asset data in place, you can start crafting your ads on social media platforms.

2. Track your ads
One very important step to building and strengthening your social media presence is knowing which ads work and which don’t. A very basic way to promote yourself correctly and comprehensively on a social media platform is by tracking your ads. Beta–test your ads on some free social networking sites and keep a tab on how many likes, comments, shares and reactions each are getting. After this, form a pattern or trend as to seeing which ad campaign works. Once you find that out, you can continue on that thread and garner more viewers, and so, invariably more customers for your business.

3. Take advantage of targeting features
In today’s internet driven day and age, it is not surprising that traditional ads are starting to get stale and inefficient. One very exclusive feature of online ads is their targeting features.
Social media advertising allows businesses to use the social networking platforms to offer a very effective range of targeting capabilities to address their audience in a very personal and individualistic manner- something that traditionally ads can not do and hence need to heavily rely on mass generalization techniques.

Businesses can tailor make ads for their customers based on their search trends, their cookies, their search history and even based on how much time they spend on a web page and correlate that to the type of product that they may find themselves interested in. So, you can promote coupons only to the targeted set of audience and expect a higher conversion rate from those than ordinary.

Making use of this, a business can target audiences specifically interested in the product of service they are offering and have a greater chance to carry out a business transaction!

4. Frequent repetition and rotation of ads
How many times have you ended up being frustrated at seeing the same ad pop up on a web site or played on your TV? A hundred? A thousand? We understand that seeing the same ad again and again can be a nuisance, but if science is to be believed, then repetition has some serious impacts–especially when it comes to advertising and marketing! It is an incredibly effective way of hammering home a message using one–way communication.
But, it is also very important to rotate and regulate your ads because overly repetitive ads can cause more harm than good. The trick is to find the balance; that fine line between when to repeat an ad and when to change it up. The best practise as found, is to rotate your ads between every 3 to 5 days!

5. Design ads with a mobile in mind
Reports show that “More than 80 per cent of social network users are accessing social media on a mobile device (in the year 2016). This means most social media ads are being viewed on mobile devices as well.” This information is worth its weight in gold to a person wishing to promote his business via social media. Or at least, should be!

While making an ad, you should keep it mind that when scaled down to a portable mobile screen, it should look good and appealing there as well. This is because, if the ad does not fit, or spills out, or asks the user to scroll around or across it, then it ends up just hampering the user experience. This will not only stop attracting new customers, but businesses will run the risk of losing the already converted customers!

Your ad should be specifically designed for a smaller screen, incorporating images that are easy to view on a pocket-sized device. Another way users can promote their business is by using the technique of geofencing. This technique enables businesses to use the mobile phones geo – positioning system and cater ads based on his locality, zip code, or even which store or restaurant he visits.

Tip: Find a social media manager

Most of the tips above require at least a basic level of competency in the social networking realm. This may not be a way to promote your business via social media, but it is a tip that you should head if you want to employ the above 5 tips in an effective way. Managing multiple social networks is daunting. There is no doubt about it. So, before you start uploading content about your business, requesting friends to join or attracting followers, it is imperative that you hire a social media manager. Leaving social media promotions in the hands of a competent professional will help you a lot in the long run!

And so, as we saw above, these were the best ways to promote your business on social media platforms. There are 5 basic suggestions given above and one tip to tie it all up!

Social media has a lot of real – life applications, and it can prove to be a very lucrative platform for businesses, start – ups and other aspiring companies.

So, if you have a company then do not wait any long. Get on a social media platform and start promoting!