Last week we were looking at your website as the core part of a Digital Strategy. This week we are looking at how to get your message across via social media.
Using Social Media in your Digital Strategy
Social Media can be harnessed as a marketing tool to interact, share and exchange information with audiences across the globe. According to Nielsen, internet users spend more time using social media websites than any other kind. The benefits of using social media have gone far beyond simply social sharing to building an online reputation for your business and brand awareness. In this day and age, It is essential to have a social media presence. There are hundreds of different social media sites. We will be looking at the main players: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Linkedin.
There are 1.8 million people on Facebook in Ireland Alone. That is 40% of the total population. It doesn’t matter if you are a large corporation or a small local business, Facebook is a great marketing tool. You can keep your customers informed, develop your brand and broaden your networking reach to both local and international markets. It is an easy way to share images, video and posts to your audience. If people like your content they can easily share it with more people.
YouTube
There are over 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. It is the second biggest search engine, owed by google which is the first. Using video is a great way for people to learn about your message. People are entertained and informed by video. It puts a face to your brand. Video marketing can lead people to your site and potentially become clients of yours.
There are many other benefits to using video. Check out our previous blog on this here.
Twitter has over 145 million registered users worldwide. Of this, 51% of active users follow brands and companies. It is a short message communication tool that you use to send out messages of up to 140 characters long. These tweets go to people that have subscribed or follow you. Your tweets should focus on how your products or services can benefit your audience. Like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is a powerful method of driving traffic back to your website.
Linkedin is seen as social media for professionals. It’s main function is networking professionally for promoting your product and services. It is a platform based on professionalism and credibility. Potential leads are going to look at your profile and or your company’s page. People can review your background and credentials of your company before engaging. If they see a page where the products and services have been recommended by other people, this can only help.
Creating content for Social Media
Your social media pages are simply useless without content. If you don’t have up to date Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin pages, it could possible do your company more harm than not having them. It can seem overwhelming to have to update each profile even weekly. You have places to be and business to be done. However, there is a simply way to update these sites all at once.
Going back to your website as the core to a Digital Strategy, this has never been as relevant as today. In the previous instalment, we discussed how writing a blog on your website is useful for keeping it fresh and up to date. Why not update everything at once? Your blogs can all be linked to your social media pages automatically. Rather than posting on each individual profile, write a blog on your website.
There are plugins such as ‘Publicise’ for WordPress than does this for you. You simply tell the plugin what social media sites you want the content to be on, then whenever you write your next blog, they will appear on them. So you don’t have to write a seperate blog on each individual platform. It will be done for you!
Of course, content on these sites should not be limited to just your blog posts. However, it is a great starting point. Next week we will look into greater detail of how having video content on your site will benefit your Digital Strategy.
