There are many social media avenues out there. Which is the best for your business to connect with leads and clients?
Any modern small business knows the importance of a strong online presence. With sites like Yelp allowing customers to comment and review their experiences, social media is not something that can be avoided without risking opportunities for connection (or at least opportunities to explain negative reviews).
Aside
from creating an SEO-friendly website, social media is one of the most
important and effective ways to build the online presence you’re after.
However, it’s not always easy to figure out which platforms are better than
others for your business’s size, industry, and location. Take in the following
information before deciding which outlet to hit the hardest with your outreach
efforts.
There’s no denying that Facebook continues to be a social media giant. According to the company’s info page, the user averages for June 2019 were:
- 1.59 billion active users per day
- 2.41 billion active users per month
These numbers just can’t be ignored by small businesses. More people are on Facebook than any other social media site, so there are endless opportunities to connect.
In addition, Facebook offers a variety of features for small businesses that can make your life easier. If you create a business page on Facebook (much like a personal profile, but with more features), your leads and audience can stay connected to your posts and updates just by liking your page. Some small businesses create a Facebook business page before launching their own websites.
Facebook’s messaging service also makes it easy and convenient to connect with customers. In addition, the platform has numerous tools that help you track, analyze, and market your business, including:
- The free insights tool, showing your engagement stats, page views, if an action was taken, and more.
- The ability to schedule your news updates for the future.
- Facebook Ads, which help get your message in front of your ideal audience, based on location, behavior, and more.
Creating a Facebook page is becoming a must for small businesses, so start here when you’re ramping up social media.
YouTube
Another social media platform that’s promising for vendors is YouTube. The site is actually the platform with the second-most users, after Facebook, according to data collected by Statista.
And vendors actually have a unique opportunity to showcase their work with YouTube. If you’re a landscaper or builder, take a video of an ongoing project to highlight some of your workers and finished products. You can interview current and past clients for testimonials, or you can produce original content that explains a topic related to your industry.
Video creation is a more creative way to connect with leads and clients, and because so many social media users are on YouTube, you know that your chances are pretty good for reaching someone who needs your services.
While LinkedIn doesn’t have as many users as Facebook, it’s no doubt the most popular social media platform for business networking. (And 310 million users is nothing to scoff at.)
As a vendor, LinkedIn is the perfect place to showcase your experience. Think of your LinkedIn profile like your business’s resume, listing key services you provide, key clients you’ve had, and other details that sum up the impressive things you’ve done so far.
LinkedIn also has a lot of groups where you can network and engage with potential customers. If applicable, you can also post job openings on the network.
Pinterest can be an especially effective platform for vendors that provide visual services, such as interior design, landscaping, or construction. Because the whole idea of Pinterest is to share images that users can save for inspiration, your actual products can be showcased and shared by those looking for the type of services you offer.
You can also share videos, share infographics with research and statistics, highlight impressive projects or clients, feature employees, and much more.
Pinterest is also a great place to repost blogs or images from your other social media accounts, so you’re connecting multiple avenues to better engage your audience.
Is there one social media platform that is better than all the others for vendors? While Facebook probably has the most pros (the most followers, page options, and marketing features), it’s wise to create at least a couple of social media profiles and connect them to each other and to your website. This will help you round out your approach to social media.
To better connect you with your community of management companies, VendorSmart offers a web-based marketplace that helps you get found. Community managers can see your company’s profile, read reviews, and invite you to bid on relevant projects. Contact us today to learn more.