The list of Social Media platforms today is endless. But for a small business, it may be unwise to spend time and resources on all existing social media platforms. This article helps you to pinpoint the most important social media platforms, where you can allocate time and resources in order to grow your business.
Before going further, it is necessary to emphasize two words from this topic that shape the direction of this article -“Important” and “Small Business”.
As mentioned before, there are too many social media platforms today but in this article we’ll focus on the most important ones. Also, please note that the ultimate goal of highlighting the important social media platforms is to help grow a small business (not big ones with a huge budget).
Now let’s get to the real deal.
Facebook is arguably the biggest social media platform today. There are over 2.7 billion active users on Facebook every month. Also, more than half of all social network users can be found on Facebook. What’s the point here? Facebook is a perfect place to launch, develop and grow your small business. But you may wonder how. Follow the key steps below to get it done.
Create a Facebook Business Page
The starting point is creating a Facebook page. It is pretty easy to create a Facebook page for your small business. Follow these simple steps to create a perfect Facebook page for your business.
Why do you need to create a Facebook Page for your small business? It helps your business to reach a wider audience and adds to the perceived value of your brand.
Publish Engaging Content
The keyword here is engaging. Posting just any content will not get your business enough attention on Facebook.
As you may know, the Facebook algorithm is limiting the organic reach of link posts or branded content so you can spend money on ads. So, you need to outsmart the algorithm by posting the best engaging Facebook content.
Also, avoid always sharing links to your business website or blog on Facebook. It can turn your audience off. Although, you can do this once in a while.
It is also important to have a social media content calendar so everything is organized.
Run Contest or sweepstake
One of the best ways to drive engagement on your Facebook page is by running sweepstakes or contests.
To run a contest that adds value to your small business, make sure your contest aligns with business goals.
Plan and run your own successful Facebook contest now.
YouTube
Any business that really wants to grow should be active on YouTube. Why? About 5 billion videos are watched on youTube every single day. This is where you should be as a growing business.
Apart from creating branded entertaining videos on YouTube, you could publish informative and educational videos about your products or brand. Then you can embed these YouTube videos on your website instead of uploading them directly. The latter slows down your website.
So, if you are confused about how to start your YouTube for business, you can follow this guide.
Twitter is the home of hashtags and the best place to get trending news. Although it is a social media platform, businesses have taken advantage of Twitter to connect with their audience.
Twitter may not have mighty stats like Facebook and YouTube but its Total Number of Monetizable Daily Active Users is 199 Million. This is why you should learn how to position your brand properly on Twitter.
Getting followers on Twitter is not so easy especially if you do not have a budget for ads. However, you can apply some proven methods to get more followers on Twitter organically.
If you are rendering service or selling a product, you need WhatsApp for Business to develop your small business.
WhatsApp for business is so important to improve communication between you and your potential customers. Moreover, it is easier for potential customers to make an order after building a relationship via WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is an important Social Media App you don’t want to miss out on. Over 69% of internet users communicate on WhatsApp (excluding China) and it is the most popular instant messaging app on mobile.
So, how best can you use WhatsApp for your small business? Consider some helpful tips to grow your business with WhatsApp.
Final Thought
Although there are many more Social media platforms existing today, I’ve narrowed them to the 4 most important platforms that will help your business grow.
Being a small business, it may be really challenging to manage your business on more than these 4 platforms. The big brands can afford to outsource this service to an agency, hence, it is easy for them to be active on almost all social media platforms.
It’s up to you to choose which of these 4 platforms you want to focus on. That choice may depend on your type of business or service. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with being active on all of these 4 platforms.
So, if you are ever in doubt about the most important Social Media platforms to grow your small business, remember; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter & WhatsApp.
Stephen Oyelabi is a full-time online Entrepreneur. He has immersed the last 5 years of his professional career in Digital Marketing with 3 different brands. If he’s not doing SEO, it simply means he’s busy with Football because he’s a die-hard football fan. Stephen is the founder of Soofootball – the most innovative football content platform for football fans around the world.
