Social media is used in all aspects of life these days. Even those reluctant to embrace social media find themselves leaning on information found on social media from time to time.
From an online business standpoint, social media is a unique tool. Darren and Mike, a Canadian marketing mentor duo in the online business industry, believe that there are still so many business owners out there not leveraging social media the right way.
How can social media help grow a business and maximize the opportunity for the average person? With some knowledge and effort, social media becomes more valuable than just something to check when work is going slow or to pass the time.
How Popular is Social Media?
Social media went from curiosity to one of the most popular interacting methods. People are online more than ever, as it’s estimated that four out of every five people in the United States have a social media profile.
The social media profiles aren’t just sitting around collecting dust, as more than half are checking their profiles at least once daily.
Darren and Mike understand these numbers and how to leverage social media interactions and networks to help grow your online business presence.
The audience is there for online businesses to thrive. The next step is using the popularity of social media to find a target audience willing to engage. The younger demographic remains much more likely to engage, but that doesn’t mean that businesses can’t attract people of all ages to their social media to find success in the end.
If a person already loves a brand, they are likely to check them out and give them a follow on social media. As soon as they are connected, it gives a company a chance to engage more personally than they ever could imagine through other methods.
For example, instead of hoping that a person opens an email, they are now showing up on the feed. People are more likely to ignore promotional emails.
If they see a product integrated into a funny TikTok video or perfectly placed on an Instagram photo, they may not even realize it’s a promotional post.
Using this popularity makes a huge difference when done correctly. Keeping these tips in mind helps maximize social media value for any business.
Engagement Matters
Setting up a social media profile for business and making posts is just part of the process. There needs to be actual engagement that goes on.
This is where many companies come up short, making posts and providing updates without doing much to encourage followers to take action. Darren and Mike’s dream team can help with your social media engagement because they have grown their own social media profiles.
Engagement can be anything from asking questions to doing giveaways. Posts should highlight what’s being sold. They should also encourage people to comment or share.
This is all done with the assumption that the business is optimized properly so that when someone visits from social media, they have the opportunity to find what they want and spend money.
One of the best ways to find out what works in a particular niche is to see what successful competitors are doing. If they find ways to get engagement by following a specific pattern, doing something similar will yield the same results. At the same time, coming up with a little bit of creativity can make a difference.
Finding The Right Platform
It helps to have social media marketing goals with every business. That means giving the audience value and not just coming off like a cold salesperson. If post after post reads like an advertisement, it becomes a turnoff.
Business owners early on should be looking for the right platform for what they sell. Different social media platforms offer better opportunities than the competition, depending on a business.
For example, many businesses relying on visuals will do better on Instagram than they would on Twitter. Once all that gets figured out, it’s staying consistent with posting on social media without appearing too desperate.
Hiring marketing coaches like Darren and Mike, who have proven social media marketing skills, can help you learn and make the right posting decisions to build your brand and business.
Leveraging Metrics
Everything from a social media standpoint is measurable with metrics. That’s great news for online marketers, as they can see what campaigns have the best response rate. Not only that but there are ways to identify problems quickly and get everything back on track.
Brands behind the scenes have been using metrics for marketing tactics. These numbers are a lot more out in the open these days, so it’s much easier for even a small business owner to have access.
Keep it Fun
Except for LinkedIn and other professional social media platforms, this type of marketing should always remain fun. Come across as too stiff, and consumers will read through that immediately. Brands need to show personality and not make it look like a robot is posting everything.
Don’t be afraid to have some fun with posts and even step out of your comfort zone. It can be intimidating to post videos of yourself, but creating a spokesperson for your brand that your audience can learn from and engage with will help your business boom.
Most of the time, businesses get the best results from the more lighthearted posts. Plan and strategize how you can create content that highlights your products and business but allows you to have fun and be yourself.
Is Social Media Here to Stay?
It’s impossible to predict too far into the future, but the near future shows social media only getting stronger and stronger. Whether it’s on a computer at home or checking on a mobile phone, the average consumer is afraid to miss out on anything by not being on social media.
Perhaps the best advice from Darren and Mike’s MLM experience is that people join social media to stay connected with the people and brands they enjoy most. It’s up to the business owner to hold onto that trust. Start posting too often or failing to engage quickly turns people off.
Online businesses rely on social media marketing, making billions and billions of dollars. Mike and Darren feel that a person doesn’t have to be an expert to start leveraging social media and benefiting in a big way.
Darren and Mike have social media experience and love creating content for their customers to enjoy. They plan to cover more on social media through the Darren and Mike YouTube channel.