Social media is an inescapable part of modern life, with over 150 active platforms and more than 3 billion daily users. Whether you’re a seasoned user or just starting out, it’s clear that social media is here to stay. Initially personal, these platforms have evolved into useful tools for digital marketing. Savvy businesses use social media to connect with audiences, market products, and enhance their online presence. In this guide, we’ll explore the various types of social media platforms and delve into essential social media etiquette for businesses.
Social Media: A Powerful Tool for Your Business
“Social media” is the collective term for the interactive technologies that drive communication, information and idea sharing, common interests and expression across the digital world. These platforms allow users to create web content and share it with others instantly. Social media engagement is vital for any business that wishes to grow.
Social Media Marketing Goals For Business
Social media allows businesses to achieve four key goals:
- Brings new customers to your business
- Helps you discover new ideas and trends that can grow your business
- Connects you with your existing customers in more meaningful ways
- Enhances your brand
Understanding Social Media Platforms
When you think of social media, social networking sites come to mind, but there are more types, each serving a specific function. Blogs, instant messaging platforms, podcasts, photo-based sharing platforms and video-sharing sites make for a kaleidoscope of options for connecting with your audience. They also create common dilemmas: What should you post, or not post? When should you post it? When should you like, share, or retweet a post? Which platform is best for your business? By laying out the basics and recommending free online courses that will teach you how to utilise this magical marketing tool, we will help you become a confident social media user.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Popular Social Media Networks
The top networking sites include:
- LinkedIn (primarily for business)
- X (formerly Twitter)
Social media platforms for businesses encourage users to share thoughts and ideas. You can create groups, have discussions and market your business through targeted posts. Through advertising, you can further enlarge your audience reach. You can also harvest data through them that allows you to know your customers and cater to their needs. Rough estimations put Facebook at 3 billion users worldwide, LinkedIn at over 1 billion users, X at between 200 and 500 million users so the potential benefits are enormous. Threads, which benefited from the migration of Twitter users following Elon Musk’s purchase, has an estimated 130 million users.
Discover how to begin with free online courses:
- Facebook Advertising for Beginners covers launching a campaign, reaching the right audience and avoiding common mistakes.
- Using LinkedIn as a Business Tool explains the platform’s features and industry-level best practices.
Leveraging Discussion Forums
Forums like Reddit and Quora spark conversations where people can ask questions and attract like-minded people to sub-communities. As a business owner, you can set yourself up as an industry thought-leader by answering questions and drive the audience to your business website. The free marketing course, Basics of Social Media Marketing, includes teaching on using Quora and X to drive traffic to your website.
The Power of Consumer Reviews
Leverage consumer review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and TrustPilot to build brand reputation. Here, customers are encouraged to review their experience of a product, place or service and advise potential consumers on whether it is worth the buy. Businesses following best practices for using social media for customer service use these to track customer feedback, resolve problems and improve customer experiences. In these digital days, consumers are more inclined to check online reviews before making purchase decisions, including on Google and Facebook. Businesses benefit most when they engage with their reviews. Brightlocal’s Local Consumer Review 2024 found: “88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews, compared to just 47% who would use a business that doesn’t respond to reviews at all.”
Engaging Through Media Sharing Networks
“A picture is worth a thousand words” – and countless opportunities to showcase your business on image-sharing platforms like Snapchat and Instagram! Businesses curate content that will attract audiences and customers and use this to sell their product. Social media content creation can enable your business to grow your audience organically and engage users through lifestyle posts, product offerings or other services shared on the page.
Using Video Hosting Sites
YouTube and increasingly, TikTok, have changed the way we think about and consume video content. While previously, video was limited to skilled professionals, today, anyone can become a ‘YouTuber’. With 2.49 billion users worldwide, YouTube is well worth a little social media content creation. Videos can be any length and the platform is a cinch to use. TikTok has 1 billion users, approximately 50% of them aged 10-39 years, according to Search Logistics. TikTok videos recorded in app range from 15 seconds to three minutes. Uploaded videos can be up to ten minutes long. Daunted? Don’t be. Discover how to create eye-catching videos can maximise your social media engagement with expert tuition on Alison.
Photo by AQVIEWS on Unsplash
Creating an Engaging Blog
Blogs enable you to lay out your stall and explain your offering in more detail. Alison’s Blogging courses will teach you how to set up a blog, usually using WordPress. Discover how to create content that achieves your aims, whether that is increasing links to your website or simply sharing your passion for travel, fashion, or in our case, empowering people through education and skills training!
Social Media Strategy for Businesses
The list above is by no means exhaustive. With so many options, it is easy to get lost in the social media maze and try to juggle all of them. However, this may not be practical, necessary, or beneficial for your business. Discern which platforms are best-suited to your business and will help you achieve your social media marketing strategy goals and objectives. Without a clear strategy, you can get caught up in the virtual world and end up performing cardinal sins which can be detrimental to your digital reputation.
Social Media Etiquette for Business
Social media etiquette refers to the set of guidelines that individuals and organisations adhere to, to maintain their online reputation. It is an often-unspoken set of rules that govern online activity, and gain the respect of fellow users. Being on your best behaviour as a business is as important as maintaining personal etiquette on social media.
Social Media Etiquette: Business Do’s And Don’ts
Whatever you post may live online forever – even if you delete it. In a split second, someone may have seen and “screengrabbed” your post to share with the rest of the world. If it was negative, it could have a disastrous effect on your business. Knowing and following social media etiquette could be your company’s saving grace.
Do
- Separate your personal and business accounts. You don’t want to accidentally share memes on your business account that belong on your personal page.
- Fact check. Before posting, be sure of the facts. You don’t want to go viral for sharing fake news as a reputable business.
- Create content suitable for each platform. Research, know and understand which platforms are the best fit for your business. Tailor your content to the specific platform and audience.
- Retain the human touch. There are several social media management tools to help businesses plan calendars, manage workflows and conversations, measure ROI and gain user insights. It is possible to automate many posts, but always leave room for the human touch with live responses and user engagement.
- Have a social media guide and policy. This empowers your employees with knowing what to share, guarding your online safety, being your business representative, compliance, and best practices for each platform.
Image by Alexa from Pixabay
Don’t
- Engage with trolls. These users thrive on antagonism and provoking reactions from others. Don’t take the bait.
- Overshare. Too many shares and updates can clog your audience’s timeline. If what you share is irrelevant to your business, you run the risk of losing customers and followers.
- “Overpromote”. Find a healthy balance between organic and paid posts across all your platforms.
- Complain, be negative or abuse hashtags (#). These online behaviours won’t endear your audience to further engage with your account or your business. Instead, adopt a positive response and reactions to criticism, post positive news and content and be moderate in your hashtag use. Find out more with a course like Instagram Marketing Using Hashtags Promotion Strategies.
These are just some of the practices to adopt to ensure you post on the right side of the constantly changing social media landscape. Ready to learn more about social media engagement? Check out our vast and ever-growing selection of free online social media marketing courses!
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are some of the biggest mistakes businesses make on social media?
There are a few key blunders to avoid:
- Losing the human touch: While scheduling tools are great, rely on live responses and genuine engagement to build connections.
- Overpromoting: Strike a balance between organic content and paid promotions. Don’t bombard your audience with constant sales messages.
- Negativity: Maintain a positive presence. Respond to criticism constructively, and avoid complaining or negativity.
- Lack of fact-checking: Spreading misinformation can damage your reputation. Double-check information before posting.
- Inconsistent branding: Tailor content to each platform and audience, but ensure your brand voice remains consistent across all channels.
- How can I choose the right social media platforms for my business?
The best platforms depend on your industry and target audience. Here’s a breakdown:
- LinkedIn: Ideal for B2B businesses and professional networking.
- Facebook: Great for reaching a broad audience and building brand awareness.
- X (formerly Twitter): Excellent for real-time updates, news, and customer service.
- Instagram: Perfect for visual content and connecting with a younger demographic.
- YouTube: Ideal for video content tutorials, demonstrations, or behind-the-scenes glimpses.
Consider your target audience’s demographics and online habits when making your choices.
- How can I deal with negative comments or reviews online?
Respond promptly and professionally to negative comments or reviews. Acknowledge the customer’s frustration and offer solutions.
- Thank them for their feedback.
- Apologise for any inconvenience.
- Explain what steps you’ll take to address the issue.
- Maintain a calm and courteous tone.
By addressing concerns publicly, you demonstrate that you value customer feedback and take complaints seriously. This can turn a negative experience into a positive opportunity to showcase your customer service skills.
