Considering the 5 best ways to advertise a new business, we have presented a whole list of benefits of SMM promotion for any Internet project. Well, almost anyone. Exceptions may be, except that, highly specialized B2B projects and business instant solutions. And then, this is very controversial. For everyone else, the presence of a promoted business page on social networks is definitely a big plus to the efficiency of the enterprise. BUT provided the correct choice of site for promotion.
And there is something to choose from. Today, both online and offline projects are successfully promoted in:
- Facebook;
- Instagram;
- Pinterest;
- Twitter;
- LinkedIn;
- YouTube;
- TikTok;
- Telegram.
Analyze the site and make a portrait of the target audience
Your platform is the one in which your target audience is actively “hanging out”. Therefore, determining the identity of the buyer, compiling his portrait is the most important step towards choosing the most useful social network. Once you understand who your customer is, why he chooses your product, brand or company, you will be able to decide on a platform for advertising and promoting your brand.
How to make a portrait of the audience:
- Use analytics systems, and analyze the site.
There you can get information about gender and age, language of the user, country and city in which he lives, data about the browser, OS, devices used, user behavior, deeply analyze your target audience, identify intersections. - Conduct marketing research: interview customers or the sales department. The option is suitable for those who do not yet have an active site.
- Learn the characteristics of your site’s users from a Google AdWords advertising account.
- You can get detailed information about your customers in the Facebook advertising office if you have their contact information.
The next step is to raise the statistics of social networks and compare the data of their audience with your own.
Conduct a survey among your customers
If you are not a newcomer and already have a customer base with numbers and/or e-mail addresses – use this!
Make a mailing or call customers and ask in which social network they most often share information and communicate with their friends, family and colleagues.
Analyze the site
Site analytics systems will help not only to make a portrait of the target audience, but also to suggest which social networks it prefers.
Pay attention to the sources of conversions to your site. Even if you haven’t created business accounts yet, traffic can come from social networks.
Analyze competitors
Make a list of your direct competitors in the niche and conduct research. In it you must specify:
- Where they get traffic
With the help of special services such as Similar Web. There you can see from which specific social networks they receive traffic. - Understand how they attract an audience
To do this, use services such as FeedSpy, JagaJam, or Popsters. In the latter, for example, you can find different metrics for posts, volume, and activity of the audience, as other data for all social networks in which your competitors are active.
Explore social networks
At this stage, we advise you to pay attention to the following factors:
- Compare the average age and gender of social network visitors with a portrait of your target audience;
- Investigate the main specifics of the social network, features of optimization of business pages;
- Learn about formats and opportunities for placing advertising creatives, texts and other information within the network;
- Explore the possibilities of placing targeted advertising within the network.
In general, research all the questions that will help decide whether this social network is suitable for the implementation of marketing strategy.
This social network provides businesses with free and paid opportunities for comprehensive promotion: advertising of goods and services, brand promotion, reputation management, building effective dialogues with the target audience, etc.
Therefore, absolutely any company can promote on Facebook. However, the greatest benefit of the social network will bring:
- organizations in the luxury segment;
- offering high quality goods and services;
- those who have a carefully thought-out marketing strategy.
According to research, most of the active audience of Facebook is people with good incomes and prospects. Those who prefer good service.
Facebook is suitable for those companies that are willing to spend money and time on promotion, position themselves as experts, and their products and services – as high quality, unique, effective.
The visual content here generates excellent engagement. In addition, Instagram has many advertising increments – from built-in and Facebook targeting to automated promotion services.
Instagram is best for businesses:
- with the target audience of generation X and Y (from 13 to 35 years);
- services with low and medium price tag;
- businesses aimed at female audiences.
First of all, artistic niches thrive on Instagram. If you sell clothes, cosmetics, accessories, handicrafts, photo services, you can use this site.
Pinterest is interesting for retailers and small businesses, as well as blogging organizations (articles can be presented in the form of pictures with texts).
The best progress:
- clothing;
- beauty and health;
- various accessories;
- handmade;
- small goods.
The main feature of Pinterest – “warm”, set to buy the audience. Mostly female.
To promote on Pinterest and Instagram, you need to create quality visual content.
The vast majority of users belong to the B2B sphere. LinkedIn helps to expand the circle of partners to take place in the world market. The average age of social network users is 44 years. The audience is experienced professionals.
What you can do on social media:
- create groups to communicate with customers and partners;
- create highly specialized communities;
- publish expert materials.
LinkedIn is suitable for companies that position themselves as professionals, looking for customers among business and like-minded people in the niche.
The social network is suitable for companies that include fast interaction with their audience in the strategy of Internet marketing. The social network will not help to sell. However, a well-thought-out strategy will build the reputation of the expert.
But! It is believed that Twitter only works for big business. Startups and small businesses have nothing to do here.
Telegram
This is a messenger, but with social functions in the form of channels.
Its advantages:
- Instant audience notification and quick feedback.
- High coverage. On average, the post in the telegram is viewed by about 60-80% of subscribers. For comparison, in Facebook this figure is about 10%.
- Advertising available. If the site is chosen correctly, the conversion will be higher compared to social networks.
However, Telegram offers fewer advertising opportunities, and the risks are high: rejection of advertising “in the forehead”, high competition, etc.
Youtube
The reach of the Youtube audience and the possibilities of advertising integrations do not allow to exclude video hosting from potential social platforms for business. Promotion on Youtube is suitable for those who have a creative idea and opportunities for its implementation. Do not engage in video marketing if:
- you do not have time for regular shooting;
- you are not ready to allocate funds for equipment, advertising and staff for filming;
- you are not sure that you will be able to create cool content and you do not have a charismatic presenter;
- you are not going to optimize videos for search engines;
- not ready to wait long for the result.
TikTok
Tik-Tok on the hype. Experts advise to catch the wave! Today you can integrate your business into Tik-Tok. The main thing is to find a super-creative specialist who will be able to beat the specifics of your business as spectacularly and dynamically as possible and will be able to create spectacular video creatives.
And remember that TikTok has the youngest audience. Almost 70% of users are Generation Z, people aged 16-24. It turns out that only a third of TikTok’s audience is over 25 years old.
Social networks summary
An appropriate social network for business is one in which your target audience “hangs out”. It is worth starting with the compilation of a portrait.
There are several ways to get to know your customer: analyze conversions to the site, conduct marketing research, “spy” the audience of competitors.
We recommend using all methods at once, comparing your audience with social media statistics, and choosing a platform to promote based on facts alone. Intuition in this case is a bad guide.
For example, you heard that the future is for TikTok. They came up with cool content for it and even got the first hundreds of likes and subscriptions. How useful will it be for business if your audience is 35+?
The second thing to pay attention to is the purpose of marketing promotion. What do you want to do: increase brand awareness, build an expert reputation or attract customers? Study the specifics and capabilities of the social network and determine whether it is suitable for the implementation of your marketing strategy.
And third, evaluate your strengths and capabilities. What content format can you create, and where it will “come in” best?