The 7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing
Social media platforms are increasingly being used by businesses for the acquisition of new clientele. With so much variety currently on the market, it can prove challenging to select the right social media channels for your business needs. Social media is more than a fad; it is a viable solution to lead generation, higher ROI, increased CTR, and better engagement with customers.
The ROI (Return on Investment) of social media marketing is significantly high to warrant careful consideration. For example, some 92% of marketing professionals agree that social media marketing has generated more exposure for their companies. Even more impressive is the fact that some 72% of marketing professionals generate higher levels of loyalty from their clientele through social marketing. Some 50% + of marketing departments who have been engaged in at least a year of social media marketing indicate that new partnerships were achieved.
A little more than one hour of social media marketing work per day can result in enhanced lead generation with greater revenue streams, greater customer loyalty, and wider exposure. The issue is not so much whether social media is an effective means of engaging customers for your business marketing purposes, it’s which social media channels you should be using.
Social media is ideal for increasing lead generation, and enhancing brand awareness. You may wish to consider what your competitors are using, what type of content you wish to create, and how many social media channels you can effectively manage. For example, some 91% of retail brands utilize 2+ social media channels. It’s important to only work with what you can manage—any more will result in an inefficacious marketing strategy. Here are the top 7 best social media channels for business marketing:
1. Yelp
The ideal social media platform for businesses, with Yelp your customers will provide reviews of your business products and services. Since credibility is such a big part of a business’s image and its ability to sell its wares, it’s always a good idea to encourage feedback from your clients on Yelp.
The benefit of this social media platform is that any negative reviews can easily be minimized by the large number of positive reviews you can generate on site. To encourage customers to post reviews on Yelp, promotional offers may be provided.
2. YouTube
By all accounts, YouTube remains the most important audio-visual search engine and platform for social media use. It is second only to Google, but it is owned by Google. With respect to SEO (search engine optimization), YouTube offers maximum traction, and plenty of behind-the-scenes content optimization possibilities to boost your company’s rankings online. YouTube pre-rolls, dynamic video retargeting and remarketing initiatives are highly effective means of increasing your exposure on social media platforms.
3. Instagram
A picture is worth 1,000 words, and this universally popular photo-sharing platform does the trick every time. Customers, clients, delegates and attendees routinely love to post pictures of their experience on Instagram. The hashtag option is particularly useful, and customers can be incentivized with raffles, giveaways, prizes, and other promotional offers.
4. Pinterest
Companies that have high quality (HD) images will find Pinterest to be one of the most useful professional marketing channels for social media sharing. Owing to the incredible viral abilities inherent in Pinterest, your marketing message can reach millions of users in double-quick time. Adding URLs to your images can serve as the perfect redirects to your website to boost sales, ROI, CTR and engagement.
5. Twitter
Much has been made of the waning popularity of Twitter, but nothing could be further from the truth. The 140-character microblogging platform is hugely popular. Tweets that are catchy and exciting will go viral instantly.
Hashtags must be used to enhance the quality of Twitter posts, and retweets bring the message home in spectacular fashion. The goal is always to increase the number of followers, and enhance the levels of engagement on your social platforms.
6. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is great for business to business marketing. It is a fantastic social media platform that allows you to post professional content about your company’s achievements, goals and objectives.
Since you will be competing with a pool of skilled professionals, it all begins by building connections—not sales pitches. LinkedIn Groups is a great place to begin.
7.Facebook
Last, but not least is the world’s biggest social media platform. Facebook has a myriad of marketing features available to clients, including the Facebook feed, where updates can be posted. Dynamic video retargeting campaigns are highly effective on Facebook, and paid advertising is routinely used by thousands and thousands of companies around the world. With billions of users, Facebook is the most effective social media marketing channel of all, and it is growing fast.
Remember, it’s one thing using a social media channel like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn, it’s another understanding the list of the best social media tools that you should be using. This includes analytics-based tools, monitoring and engagement options such as Hootsuite and other popular social media tools. The should be used in conjunction with your preferred social media channels to hit home with the right message every time!