The ever-changing world of marketing and promotions can seem very daunting. What was popular and engaging one minute is old news the next. Posters, flyers, ads in the local paper or the local shop – this used to be the way to promote your own business to your local area. This can still be very useful, especially for those sole-traders and small company’s that are just working in their local areas. Yet these days there are so many more online options that can help put you in front of future clients. So what is the best thing to do, especially if you’re just starting out?
Who you are aiming at will determine what to focus your attention on. It can be wise to have some form of presence on most platforms to increase exposure, but more often that not, it’s not worth putting equal amounts of effort in to each one. Different demographics tend to use one or two more than the rest. So who is it you’re aiming at?
Key things to consider are –
Once you have a clear idea of who your audience will be, you then need to look at what each social platform offers and how that links with your future customers. There are so many options, with new ones being created (it seems like) every five minutes. Here’s a few of the most popular, but it’s always worth doing your own research, especially as there may be a specific one for your industry
As you can see there are many options available to you. If you’re a business that’s already up-and-running with some success behind you then you may already have a specialist employee/team in place to manage it all. For new starters, sole traders, or small businesses you may well be having to do it yourself, so it’s worth understanding which platform will work best for you so you can use your time most efficiently (which is so important for the self-employed). LinkedIn is always beneficial for any business, but the rest is then up to you to consider. For example, if your target audience is 18-24 then you probably won’t want to put too much effort in to Facebook as it won’t hit the same amount of potential customers compared to say Instagram. So although it may be wise to have some information on Facebook, you won’t want to put all your time and budget in to that platform.
There is so much more to consider when setting up social media accounts and running campaigns which we will go through in future blogs, but hopefully this gives you an idea of where to start off.
