Social media is a boon and a bane. It is a powerful tool and can be used to build one’s business successfully. People often misuse or under-utilize their social media prowess because they don’t understand how to use social media marketing for business.
We see so many advertisements and sponsored pages or posts on social media nowadays. It is a clear indicator of the fact that social media is invested as a critical tool for marketing, whether it be a personal brand or a business. But we haven’t been able to crack it yet, which leads us to ignore the importance of social media marketing for business.
How to use social media marketing to build a personal brand?
Sharing your content online is a stark indicator of your skills and talents. If your online persona is well-conducted and strategically built, it could easily land you your next job or make you an influencer. Your online persona is your narrative on social media.
Today, there are approximately 3.48 billion profiles as of 2019, which is 9% more than last year. You can use this for your gain and grow your reach.
Social media measures your progress in branding, leads, and sales, offering great ROI to the marketers and enabling them to engage a large number of people, for less investment.
You can also use applications like Agora Pulse, OptinMonster, Followerwonk, etc., for analytics and to keep a check on your competitors. This is how to use social media marketing for personal branding or business.
How to use social media marketing to grow a business?
A frequent mistake business make is being unclear about their target demographic. Once you know what kind of leads you want, target that audience.
If your content is engaging, relatable and approachable, you will fair better in people’s minds. They are more likely to refer you to somebody else in such a situation.
There is a reason people want to know how to use social media marketing for business. Social media has significantly reduced the cost of marketing by 45% for businesses and has increased revenue by 45%.
Find out where your target leads are, and pitch on that platform. Facebook ads are cheaper than AdWords by 2 USD, so it is much cheaper to use Facebook for ads. You can also generate leads by conducting contests on Facebook using Shortstack (a tool) or create events on Twitter. You can offer free products on LinkedIn, and this is sure to generate a lot of leads. You should use inbound marketing along with LinkedIn. Inbound Marketing is known to increase sales or lead generation by a booming 54% as compared to sales and ads.
How to use social media for social use?
Social media is one of the best ways to express your opinions on matters that speak to you and rally support. So many people have voiced their concerns on social media websites or come out with their tragic stories and gained respect, support, and appreciation.
Social media has also helped raise money for causes such as areas hit by droughts, floods, or hurricanes.
But social media hasn’t always been used correctly. There are laws built to prevent the misuse of social media, and yet, such misuse happens every single day. A lot of cyberbullying, photo-morphing, sexual degradation, slandering, etc. is still prevalent even after vigilance is maintained. Social media provides anonymity, and there is a lot of strength as well as safety in being anonymous. With due awareness, one can only hope that social media will be a positive place.
