3 Key Elements of Social Media for Beginners

Introduction

The majority of us are familiar with at least one social media platform, whether its Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter. For many of us being familiar with a platform is different to being confident using it as a business tool.

This article aims to help you understand Why Social Media is a useful business tool, What decisions you need to make before you start and Who you are aiming to reach. Along the way we’ll share a few tips to help you understand more about the bigger picture of social media in a business context.

Please note that the information contained in this article is a brief summary of information about the social media industry and figures will be historic.

Why

Social Media as a Business Tool

Many people who have a profile, or two, on social media see them as a means of staying in touch with friends, family and business contacts. However, there are also many individuals and businesses that are using all platforms as successful marketing and sales tools.

Maybe you have never considered using social media for your business promotion, but you may be missing out on promotion and sales as a result of this. So here are some solid reasons why you should give social media consideration as a marketing tool for your business.

Visibility

There is a fear amongst users of social media for business promotion about spreading the word – the wrong person might see it; people I know might laugh at me; people might be rude or vindictive and how will I cope with all of that?

Whilst there are never any guarantees that any of these fears will not come to reality, it is very rare that it happens. When, and if, that happens, most social media platforms have measures in place that enable you to report online abuse and there are ways of blocking anyone that does not behave with respect.

Used properly as part of a planned strategy, Social Media will help you avoid being a “best kept secret”. You know how great your business is … but how many others do? Do you even know that number – even at a guess?

With that in mind, lets have a look at the potential for spreading the word to people who might be looking for your type of service/product.

As at January 2023 the UK was home to 57.10 million social media users, equating to 84.4% of the total population, with the majority using their mobile phone rather than a laptop or desktop. What other marketing method gives you the potential to reach even a small percentage of that volume of the population?

Social media is a hefty tool in your toolbox for building your reputation as the person to go to for what sell. There is a statistic that suggests you are only 6 people away from the next person you need to meet. Social media enables you to promote your brand way further than just your immediate network of contacts. Remember, they know people you don’t and those people know others. That’s how posts, etc, get to go viral.

Credibility

Sharing your profile on social media does very little to “sell” your concept. Sharing articles and blogs written by yourself, or others, can make the world of difference. Sharing useful and informative content for your target audience to read is a powerful way of raising your credibility in the eyes of potential clients or customers.

Think about the brands you know, like and trust. How do you know they are trustworthy? It could be word of mouth, sheer volume of customers, personal experience. However, before you knew them what research did you do? There are many more new small businesses today than there were, say 10 years ago. Not all of them are trustworthy and the general public are far more cautious in their purchasing now than they were then.

Presenting proof that you know what you are talking about in your industry segment will reassure your potential clients that you are worth giving a try. Your valuable content, coupled with your testimonials, are key to delivering a credible image of you and your business.

To help you with reputation building you might have considered (or gone ahead with) a testimonials page on your website. Social media can build your reputation of quality and skill far more quickly. It is easier to ask people for a recommendation and far quicker for them to respond o a social media platform. You need make them aware that their words will be made public and let them know where they will appear, however, most people that have been happy with your product or service will be happy for you to do this.

Recommendations are the single most powerful way of building your reputation and credibility. They can be given on Facebook pages and LinkedIn Profiles. If you use YouTube as part of your social media strategy, the comments other people leave are visible to anyone who reads through your page comments. If your website includes a Testimonials page, any visitors who might be interested in using your product or service are undoubtedly going to visit that page.

Website Traffic

Social media posts are an effective way of directing traffic to your website. As part of your website structure, we recommend you include a page for blogs and articles.

These can include articles written by others, as long as you give the author credit for the work. However, we would recommend that the majority of articles and blogs are those that you have written, or have paid someone to write for you.

Once written and published you can post snippets of either your articles or blogs to your social media profiles. By including a link back to the full article or blog, you will be driving traffic to your website. Increasing traffic means that there is a greater likelihood that you will have an opportunity to engage further with your visitors, depending on the navigation tools and techniques you have included to enable this to happen.

Engage Your Audience

The use of social media platforms to promote your business enables you to start to “engage” your audience. What do we mean by that? Encouraging people to interact by liking, commenting or sharing your posts is what we mean by “engagement”. You see them all the time if you use Facebook … like, share and comment invitations, for YouTube viewers “like and subscribe” is the common invitation as well as “subscribe” for blog posts.

Responses to these invitations will all help to promote brands, products and services – which could be yours! Next time you are on your favourite social media platform, imagine what message, relevant to your business, you could share that would attract attention and prompt action. Take notice of what other businesses share and how they encourage engagement. Once you have someone’s attention, the next challenge is to maintain that engagement.

What

What is a Platform

Our friend “Google” tells us the definition is “any internet based system for the creation, exchange or sharing any user generated content for information, advertising or any other purpose.

In other words a “platform” is the word used to refer to the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc. It is a “place” online where members can come together to share their interests and stay in touch.

Platforms to Choose From

There are many different platforms to choose from. You may be a big fan of one of the lesser known ones, however, to avoid information overload for novice readers, we are looking more closely at the appropriate use of the five most well known platforms, those being Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. We will look more closely at the attributes of each platform to help you in your choice.

How to Choose the Right Platform for You

There are several factors to consider when choosing the right social media platform for a business. Considering your target audience, business goals, and the competitive landscape, you can choose the social media platforms that will best support your business objectives and effectively reach and engage with your target audience.

Here is a brief insight into each platform’s credentials to give to early food for thought (we will be sharing a more detailed approach in a later blog):

Facebook

46.1m¹ users in the UK alone, 2.9bn² globally. 46.1m is 70% of the UK population. Stunning statistic right? Imagine having your branding viewed by that volume of UK residents! Down to earth, rational thinking will lead you very quickly to the supposition that it will take time to reach this number – and you’d be right … quite a long time, especially if you rely on organic reach³. However, being realistic, you are unlikely to want to reach all of them as not everyone will be interested in your product or service (we will explore how to identify your “target market” in a different article).

This will be an ideal platform for you if you have a product that is linked to the social side of people’s lives, for example (but not exclusively), fashion, food, children, health, holidays, day to day necessities, etc.

What to share: special offers or short term deals, information about a product, its uses or new innovations; tips and techniques for self development, hobbies, personal care, educational or inspirational blogs or articles. These are just a few suggestions for you to build on. It is easy to share links to other places on the internet that you want users to visit, for example, your website.

YouTube

2.5bn global users, of which 25m are UK based. This is a relevant platform for you if your product or service relates to anything that benefits from the sharing of information in video form.

What to share: “How To” instructions for vehicle maintenance, photography, making or repairing things. Links can be easily shared in the description of the video blog (or vlog).

Instagram

40m users in the UK, 1.4bn globally. The perfect platform if your business has a product to sell that is photogenic and photographs are used to help share news and sell the product.

What to share: Images relating to product use or new innovations, images that will help to promote your services. Posts do not contain links to your website, however, you can include links in your user profile bio.

Twitter

20m UK users, 436m users globally. The perfect platform for you if you are in the business of sharing news, or doing so is relevant to an aspect of your business.

What to share: News of new products, social or world events, celebrity gossip, information to increase your brand awareness.

LinkedIn

605m users globally, with 17m UK users. LinkedIn is the preferred (92%) platform of businesses and professionals. The perfect platform if you have a business to business product or service.

What to share: Business news, for example, business achievements – your own and congratulations to partner businesses, clients or suppliers, articles of interest to employees or businesses, personal development and management tips and techniques. Sharing articles about your industry news and knowledge will help to increase your credibility and business reputation.

Who

Knowing who you want to reach is key to using the right platform, the right content and the right tone.

In this article we are assuming that you have already prepared a customer profile (or avatar) and have an idea of who you are aiming to reach. However, the following suggestions may help you to refine this. We will be covering customer avatar creation in a separate article.

Your clients will follow a journey to become clients. They will start out as “one of many” suspects. When you are able to communicate with them (for example you are connected on a social media platform or have an email address) they become a prospect, once they make contact with you about buying from you they become a lead and finally, when they buy from you, they become a client.

Your aim is to understand what people need to know or what they will engage with at each of those 4 steps and tailor your content to attract their attention and get them engaged to enable you to develop the connection further and nurture the relationship.

Understanding “What’s In It For Them” (I call this my WIIFT) will help you immensely in putting together material to share that will be informative, educational and shareworthy.

A major element of their WIIFT will be how they, or someone they know, will benefit from your product or service. Your content should include this type of information. If you’re just sharing technical information you may not reach the people who need to buy your product or service.

When first venturing out in the world of social media marketing and promotion, many people think it is just a matter of just letting people know what they’re selling. However, more often than not, what you are selling is the associated benefit(s) of the item or service your business sells.

Lets look at an example. If you are selling vases, you are not actually just selling the vase – you need to include information about how easy it is to clean – will it be damaged by a dishwasher, how it will be used (a full bouquet of flowers or just a single stem), what type of “look” category will it fall into (country kitchen, glamorous or chic living room, retro décor, etc), who will it be bought for – as a gift, for themselves because they don’t have one. Notice in all that’s been mentioned nothing appears about how “cheap” it is. If you’re selling a vase – you’re actually selling a designer effect that will complement what they currently have. You’re selling the “sizzle” not just the item.

“But I’m selling a service” I hear some of you say. Its not really much different. You’re still selling the benefits, to the person buying or who they’re buying for. A window cleaner is selling a beautifully clean looking home and the convenience of the homeowner not getting wet and dirty, rather than soapy water, ladders and leathers!

The final element to consider when you are designing your material is – what type of device will your potential customers be using to look for the product or service you are selling? Nearly 55% of the population now use their mobile devices (mobile, tablet) to look for purchases; only 42% use a laptop or pc. The material you share needs to be legible and look just as good on a mobile device as it does on a pc. There is a growing move to develop material (blogs and websites) on a “mobile first” basis – checking the look and ease of use for a mobile device before that on a laptop or pc.

Final Word

Thank you for reading and we hope you have some food for thought and some ideas to help you step into the world of social media marketing.

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1 Provided by You.Gov research

2 Statistics provided by Statusbrew.com

3 Reach that is acquired by allowing simple sharing of your posts by others without any significant gain for each individual.