Social media is an important part of any website’s marketing efforts. There are thousands of social networks out there, so it’s essential to figure out where to spend your social media time before spending too much wasted time. If your business is business-to-business (B2B), then there are already social networks that are better suited for your business. Knowing that, the same goes for business-to-consumer (B2C) oriented businesses. Another factor in what works best, is the niche that your company falls into as well as if your business uses partners to increase sales.
Social Media Audiences
In the examples below, I will use photography as the niche.
Twitter can work for B2C, but for many photographers Twitter serves as a B2B tool. Twitter is often used for networking with partners and gathering inspiration.
Facebook is best suited for B2C for photographers and most businesses. That is because of Facebook’s business model and platform already being oriented towards personal accounts.
Pinterest can work for both B2C and B2B, depending on the type of photographer. For example, wedding photographers have a much greater chance to use Pinterest for consumer reach whereas corporate photographers would use it for business reach.
Google Plus is like Twitter when it comes to its potential audience. While it is possible to use it for B2C, it is more likely to be used as a networking and inspiration tool. There are also more photographers on Google Plus than any other niche.
Reddit is an underdog in the social media game (at least for photographers) and is best for B2B or partners, mainly because it is rare to find a consumer looking for a photographer there.
YouTube is in a league of its own when it comes to audiences. This tool can be use for both B2B and B2C, and has proven itself over time.
I like to call LinkedIn the Facebook for business. It has a similar business model and platform, but oriented towards business accounts rather than personal ones. That makes LinkedIn one of the ultimate B2B social media tools.
As mentioned before, there are thousands of social networks available. Wikipedia contains a list of some of what you will find on the Internet.
Social Media Strategy
The next part of the social media equation is figuring out what to post on your newly discovered networks. On Facebook, using fill in the _____ posts work very well. (yes, I just did that) On Twitter, asking for a retweet (spelled out instead of RT) will tend to work better than the abbreviated version.
There are many strategies that you can find by doing Google searches for each social network. For example, on ProBlogger, Georgina Laidlaw published an article sharing 15 social media mistakes to avoid. In addition, as you learn and grow within these platforms you might discover your own strategies worth sharing with the world.
Social Media Time Management
Now that your strategy is compiled, it is time to figure out how to manage your time on the sites. It would be nice to have endless time, but there are only so many work hours in the day. That is where many helpful tools come in the picture. My favorite tools are IFTTT and Buffer App. Together, I can efficiently schedule and manage what posts where and when.
IFTTT is the perfect tool to get you back to blogging. Blogging still isn’t overrated, so make sure you’re still writing and publishing fresh content to educator your visitors. Here are some other tools that could be useful in your social media time management:
Digg Digg – Let other people share your content
HootSuite – The most popular tool of its kind
JetPack Publicize – Automatically shares your articles when published
Social Media Tracking
Another important aspect of social media is tracking so you learn how you are doing and how to improve. Think about this… You decided to market your content on Reddit, but do not track your website’s social media efficiency. Two months after your Reddit push, you wonder if it made any sense to try.
By using a social media Google Analytics dashboard, you can track and review your social media efforts and see how much traffic it brings and what converts the most. You may not know what I mean when I said “converts”, so I’ll explain. Google Analytics goals are specified steps that are taken by visitors and tracked by website owners. A goal could be a visitor commenting, filling out a form or clicking the “buy now” button. The act of completing the goal is what I meant when I said “converts”.
In Conclusion
I have talked about finding the right social media channels to share and promote your business. I have also discussed using strategies and tools to better manage your already limited time. I finished the article with a small piece on tracking your efforts in social media. These few things can help you to improve business, so I urge you to get going today.
About the author:
Scott Wyden Kivowitz is a NJ Photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati, developer of the WordPress themes for photographers, NextGEN Gallery and the Photographers SEO Community, teaching other photographers on how to increase business with their website.
For photographers here’s a best resource for there social media presence. Equally useful for all other niches too