The use of social media for either personal or business purposes is inevitable. Social media platforms have mushroomed the world since the emergence of Web 2.0 in 2004, and today, there are approximately 4.62 billion users globally [1]. It means that more than half of the world's total population uses social media! People can connect in just one click, and any kinds of information are ubiquitous.
If your business is not part of the social media game, you muff opportunities to attract those half populations to know your brand. Social media affordances bring about opportunities for your business to grow. You can engage with the targeted customers anywhere in the world efficiently. When customers have used your products or enjoy your services, and they love it, they can be your (voluntary) ambassadors in their social network. You then can reach more potential customers!
However, managing social media for business is not that simple easy. You have to compete with other modern businesses that use social media, especially those who have been "senior players" and market leaders in the space. And the fact that social media users are exposed to lots of information in social media every day, your business should stand out among your brand competitors to gain attention from your potential customers and make them follow your brand.
1. Be active
I am always excited to check Netflix Indonesia's posts on Instagram. They regularly promote new movies to watch and share movie updates by creatively relating some movie scenes to our daily lives. For instance, Netflix Indonesia usually makes memes or light jokes like the below screenshot. They took a scene from Manifest and made a meme about Indonesian people's expression when running out of money at the end of the month, with the caption "Still surprised even though it's my own money." The post attracted 92 comments sharing their same experience and discussing the movie. Netflix Indonesia also continuously provide a mix of content to engage its 1+ million fans.
From Netflix Indonesia, we can learn that fresh content and active engagement with our customers truly matter.
Social media is always about presence. Being active will make your potential customers remember your brand, and you should keep your existence, so the customers always get updates about the brand. In fact, in Australia, brands gain consumer trust by making content engaging and relevant and keeping it updated regularly (Yellow Social Media Report 2020) [2]
2. Be interesting
Don't ever post content that you only want your customers to know. Instead, develop and post content that fits your customer expectations. The key here is to listen to and understand your customers – What they want to know? Why do they want to know about it? In what kind of content format?
An excellent example for this case is Spotify 'Wrapped' Campaign [3]. That popular audio streaming and media services provider gives each user a recap of their top songs in the past year – an all personalized year-end playlist that comes out every December. Spotify brings a new experience for music lovers to reminisce about their favourite songs in just a click (previously, people should wait for vinyl records or CDs a little farther back!). Spotify leverages social media, alongside paid channels like billboards, street posters, etc., to create a FOMO effect among its users, and it works! Millions of people (be it singers, podcasters, ordinary people) into voluntary Spotify influencers by sharing their playlists on social media.
3. Be humble
You may probably know the mistake made by Anthony Noto, CFO of Twitter [4]. He accidentally tweeted Twitter's new acquisition plan. The message was supposed to be sent through a Direct Message. The accident can remind us to learn about the social media platforms we pick for our business. Even when your brand has been on the platform for a long time (Anthony is not Twitter-savvy even he's the CFO!), it doesn't mean that you are an expert in the platform. Know the basic rules of each platform and discover the platform's new features so that you can optimize it perfectly.
4. Be unprofessional
Social media platforms are the communication tools between your brand and your customers, and the key to engaging with your customers is making your brand human! While you maintain your brand in a professional persona, remember that you speak to a human. Hence, you should avoid overly-professional content on social media. Instead, follow your customers' communication style and be nice to them. For instance, Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic Inc. and Co-Founder of WordPress. He leverages his blog to voice his opinions about WordPress with his personal attribution to display the kind of vulnerability and be relatable to readers.
5. Be honest
Being genuine to customers play an essential role in gaining trust from customers and maintaining your brand credibility. And as always, understand the rules of each social media you use.
Some examples above may not be necessarily relevant to your business, but I hope they can depict the way businesses play the social media game, and thus you should apply those five strategies to your business. So have fun in the infinity pools of social media!
References:
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
Hi Pheseline,
I would like to add something more to your blog.
Maintaining an active social media presence is becoming increasingly vital in bringing brand in front of desired audience, especially with 4.62 billion active social media users. This pandemic made small business learn a lot and we can agree on that. We've learned a lot about ourselves, our companies, and our consumers, but most importantly, we've learned to roll with the punches. The most important lesson small businesses learnt in 2021 was to adapt and prosper.
As we look ahead to 2022, we can use the lessons we learned to help us adjust and keep our business strong even in unpredictable times. Small businesses may learn a lot from…
Hi Pheseline, I agree with your premise that social media may be a key marketing area being missed by some businesses. On top of your listed suggestions I also think its important to reiterate that brands should keep consistency in their communications across channels (while adapting where necessary dependant upon platforms) and know their audience. It might be redundant for some brands to attempt to have a presence on TikTok for example if their target audience has nothing to do with the platform. I think social media marketing is a solid area to consider but that marketers should ensure it fits well with their wider IMC and brand identity before trying to fit themselves into the online space if it…
Hi Pheseline
I think your commentary on considering you customers and not yourself in you content strategy is such a good one to remember. Social media marketing gives a. great platform for businesses to show off by posting relevant industry news and by posting on topic and on trend. This is waaaay more important than trying oto align the businesses social media, marketing and busienss objectives with a fad trending topic. You can also compromise your professionalism in lapsing.
Hello, I'm your classmate Linghui . By reading your article, I learned how to make your business more social. You have five sub-headings, which further express your ideas by categorizing and summarizing them. In your categorization point of view, you also use examples of different companies to further illustrate your writing content, which makes it more accessible and specific. At the same time, to make the article more interesting, you inserted relevant pictures. In general, I am very glad to have learned these five steps through reading your article. I hope your content and views can provide reference for my future career and writing!