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Every business needs an online presence. More specifically, it needs a social media presence. That is because most of your business’ potential customers are using various social media platforms to consume content daily. Granted, not everything they do is directly related to your product or service. However, you shouldn’t miss a chance to be in front of your customer whenever you can.
There are different social media platforms, and they all serve your business for the same goal. Still, each of these platforms has a more predominant user base and content type. Very few of them allow for all kinds of content types, such written content, images, videos, etc… And those which do, they have a different user base that may not always fit your ideal buyer persona.
Snapchat
The short videos and images sharing platform has only been discovered as a marketing tool recently. According to the stats, 76% of Snapchat users, which are around 200 million, are also online shoppers. These users are mostly young people under the age of 24 and are considered the hardest to reach. If your content can be put into short videos or pictures, you will see your brand dominate the platform. All you have to do is follow a good Snapchat Marketing Strategy.
Quora
This a question-answer platform that has around 750,000 active monthly users. All people have to do is ask a question and expect to have many answers. You can represent your business on Quora by answering questions that are directly or indirectly related to your industry. The purpose of the platform is to add value and answer questions to the best of your knowledge. This shouldn’t be hard for you since you are the expert in your industry.
Facebook
Of course Facebook is included in the list. How can the most used social media platform not be? The platform has an active membership of around 2 billion users. That’s a lot of people! Although your content won’t be reaching all of them, you can be certain that your target audience has a few groups where they connect on the platform. If you stay away from spammy behavior, you will have tremendous success without spending any dime, as sharing your blog content in groups is completely free. Or, you can use Facebook Advertising to reach your potential audience for a few bucks per day.
LinkedIn
This social platform is strictly for B2B. If your content has what it takes to interest business people, then you will have a massive audience looking to connect, discuss, and maybe even hire you. The secret to success on LinkedIn is to always provide value first, and pitch services later. If you are on this platform, then everyone knows you have something to sell, but you have to wait for the right moment to do so. That is why sharing your blog content on this platform will increase your followers and connections, which eventually means leads and customers.
Pinterest
Only use Pinterest if your content is visually appealing. If you can have awesome pictures, either taken or designed, that represents what your product or services is about, then go ahead. Always try to look for a way to turn your blog content into “instructographics” that are easily pinned. Pinterest is a social media platform that is driven by interesting photos only. There is no other way around it. Although the demographic is mainly female at this point, the male demographic is growing rapidly. If you can get the attention of your audience using these high-quality images, don’t shy to use Pinterest for more exposure.
Twitter
Twitter is unique as it is the one platform that only helps your business if you are actually being social. You can share, promote, and drive leads all day using Twitter. However, most branding success comes from retweets and replies. You can use this platform to reply to your (potential) customers and referring them to useful content on your blog. You can join industry chats, or start one of your own, to increase engagement with your brand as well.
YouTube
Not only it is the second largest search engine, but YouTube is the biggest video-sharing platform. Considering that whatever your blog posts are about, there is always a way to turn them into videos, there is no reason why not to use YouTube to promote your blog and repurpose your content. Therefore, not utilizing YouTube as part of your content marketing strategy is a missed opportunity to reach your potential audience.
Reddit
“The Front Page of the Internet” is where marketing is super-tricky. That’s because redditors aren’t allowed to promote anything without permission and high-relevance. Still, if the content on your blog is actually helpful and you are not presenting in a spammy way (clickbait, short URLs, …), you will have more success than any other brand on Reddit. Furthermore, it has been reported than Reddit Advertising drives more traffic than either Facebook or Twitter. You should also know that 87% of the redditors are under the age of 35, and the platform has a subreddit for almost everything you can imagine. While self-promotion is a big No-No on Reddit, paying for advertising to a specific audience can bring more leads than any other social platform.
Recap
- Share short videos and images related to your blog content on Snapchat.
- Use Quora to answer questions related to your industry and refer to your blog for more details.
- Use Facebook to reach your potential audience by sharing your content in groups or advertising.
- Connect with business owners and industry leaders using the blog section of your LinkedIn page.
- Turn your blog posts into infographics and share them as high-quality images on Pinterest.
- Use Twitter to respond to your potential customers directly.
- Create both long and short video format of your blog content and share it on YouTube
- Use Reddit to drive well-targeted traffic to your blog.
Conclusion
As you can see, each of these social media platforms has a different use, different demographic, and requires a different marketing strategy. There is a lot to gain if you use them for their intended purposes. Always be careful not to be too spammy as the community guidelines usually prohibit such behavior. It may take a long time to reach the full potential of these platforms, but the return will help your brand achieve great success.