How to Utilize Social Media to Maximize Your Business’s Online Exposure

With the popularization of online photo and video media content, people no longer want to read long excerpts about what a business does. Instead, people want to see what you and your business are about without having to make the trip down to the office. Social media allows your business to garner an audience immediately and show them why they should trust you to provide them with a product or service. Think of it as an online handshake; in order to be an effective and modern competitor in the market, your business must have a welcoming online presence.

  As we all know, first impressions matter. With the world in our palms, this first impression is almost always online. The percentage of people that have access to a phone now is greater than the percentage of people that have access to a toothbrush (seriously). With all of these potential consumers gathering in one place online, how will you reach them? Here are some important things to consider when setting up your business’s social portfolio online:

Which Social Media Outlet Should I Use?

Deciding which social media outlet(s) to focus on depends on several factors. For example, the product or service your business is promoting, the geographic location of that business, and the demographic your business is trying to reach should all be taken into account when choosing the right platform for your business. Facebook has the largest number of active users every day around the world and is by-far the most well-known social media platform today. The majority of Facebook’s active members, however, are adults classified as “laggards”, or consumers who are late to catch on to online trends. For example, almost 80% of adults aged 30-50 use Facebook while only half of all teenagers in the same sample size used Facebook’s services. Facebook is great for posting long portions of text, high-quality videos, and for group event promotion. Instagram, on the other hand, is made up of mostly “early-adopters” under the age of 25 and is growing at a quicker rate than Facebook. In addition, Instagram is best used for sharing high-quality pictures or videos without large amounts of text underneath. If your business is trying to market a product to adults, it would fare thee well to utilize Facebook. However, if your business hopes to attract the next wave of adult consumers or a younger demographic, it would be beneficial to use Instagram. YouTube and Vimeo are also great social media sites that cater strictly to video content such as instructional pieces, video blogs, and everything outside and in-between.  Linking social media sites together by using URL’s is a great way to tie all of your content together and can direct your audience to additional resources. If possible, it never hurts to try all of them and stick to what works.

What Kind of Content Should I Post?

  Whether your business is using Facebook or Instagram, all content that is posted should be rendered at the maximum quality and resolution possible. The modern consumer would rather watch a minute-long video or look at a quick graphic than read something as long and time consuming as this (yikes). For this reason, the content that your business posts online should be well thought out and should appear professional. In addition to top-notch resolution, many successful brands maintain a specific color scheme throughout their profiles to add an additional layer of enjoyment for the viewer. Third-party apps such as VSCO are great for editing photos and videos and even include filter presets that can be used on all content that is posted to create a congruent flow throughout your online feed.

How Do I Drive Traffic to My Posts?

  The most popular posts today on sites such as Instagram and Facebook are always different, creative, un-forced, and often humorous. The most effective brands are able to reach millions of people by combining these ingredients to create viral content. After creating something that people want to see, social media will allow it to grow naturally through sharing. In order to create viral content, one must realize two things:

 1. No one cares about your product, brand, or service besides you.

 2. In order for a post to go viral, it must be free. Driving posts on social media is not about money, it is about reach.

  Although the odds of something going viral are slim, it is important to hatch 10 ideas at once and nurse the ones that appear to be the most successful. In addition to viral content, social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter utilize hashtags to help posts grow by adding them to a thread of related posts so that more people in your target audience can find your content easier. Hashtags act as a social media filing system of sorts that help to organize related posts. To find out which hashtags best work for your posts, try out up to 30 hashtags per post on several different posts to see what kind of accounts are responding best to certain hashtags. Online resources such as ritetag.com have lots of information on the most popular hashtags for certain industries as well.

How Do I Get Started?

If you’re falling behind the wave of social media domination or are confused about how to catch up, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Luckily, it’s not too late. First things first, you need to make an account for your business on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Instagram has a feature that will allow you to create a special business account that will notify you who is engaging with your posts and which areas of the globe they come from. The next step is to post something original and pleasing so that your page is not empty as you begin to follow other people or businesses. Finally, you need to work on getting your initial follower base started. To do this, it is recommended that you find similar businesses to yours and request to follow their followers. Once your initial following base is established, the rest is up to your creativity! To learn more in-depth tools, we recommend reading “New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Scott. 

Need Additional Help?

At Oak Film Co., we take pride in our media expertise and beautiful content creation. Our team-members are friendly and knowledgeable and would love to work with you on establishing your brand or business’s online footprint. If you have any additional questions, feel free to email me, Ethan Lynch, at ethan@oakfilmco.com.