In our previous blog, we had talked about How Search Engine Optimization, and hence the organic growth is a long term strategy for any business to excel well in their domain. In this blog, however, we will talk about the source of good back-links and generally well and Sure-shot customer engagement i.e., Social Media.
Now, when we talk of social media optimization, we have often seen that people think that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter would be great. Quora and LinkedIn figure sometimes in the marketing strategy, and Google usually remains untouched. So, we thought that through this blog, we would try and clear out a few misconceptions while also pointing out the major factors one needs to consider while developing their social media strategy.
Diving into the aesthetics of Social Media Marketing
To help you glide through the reading better, we have divided the content as per the probable industry type. So, you can directly skip to your relevant parts and start working.
B2C-Product Based Firm
The firms like these would include gifting solution providers, online clothing firms, stationery sellers, etc. Now, we could have well included them with the service category, but the thing is that Instagram works best for firms like these. About 60% of the product based firms have their traffic from Instagram, and surprisingly, 75% of those who see the ads on Instagram, click back or fill the forms.
Plus, especially for the more visually appealing products, Instagram is quite an artistic place- not just with its images but also the multiple influencers who are vying to associate with some brand or the other.
Next in the series of Good platforms for such firms come Facebook and Twitter- a totally unparalleled source of lead generation and good traffic for the website. And yes, go for image ads (preferably carousel) given their success rate for your adverts, and if it is just engagement or brand awareness that you are focussing on, try video ads. And why we say so- well because Image ads have a receptivity about 75% higher than others while Video ads give an engagement at least 40% better than the usual ones.
B2C-Service Based Firm
The firms like these would include hospitals, hospitality, skin clinics, personal care service providers, courier services, grocery shopping services, etc.
A plain and simple verdict for firms like these would be- Twitter, followed by Facebook and Instagram. The approach and results would be quite the same as the product-based firms. It’s just that, a simple click cannot ensure a footfall for you- something that your marketing campaigns will have to guarantee.
Through both Twitter as well as Facebook, you can engage in meaningful conversations that can then be converted into footfalls. Quora could be one great option for you to consider as well.
Influencers|| Individual Personalities
Well, depending upon what you would want to portray yourself as, choose the social media platform. We are giving a brief go-to for you though
- Beauty and Lifestyle Influencers: Instagram and a bit of Facebook should you wish to have your store too!
- Writers: Facebook and Quora
- Domain Experts: Quora- that is where the focus has to lie
- Humor/Meme Makers: Twitter and Facebook. Twitter should be the major focus, though. And btw, if you speak, then Youtube would work well too.
B2B-Technology Based Firm
This section would include all the IT firms which have either products or services to provide. Now, a lot of times, when the IT firms come up with a solution, there is this ambiguity involved in the utility of the product. The sales pitches are sales pitches after all, and hence the clients know that not every word needs to be trusted. How about having detailed, well-written blogs on LinkedIn and then promoting them as ads? That could be a good source for revenue generation as well as establishing the prowess as the domain leader.
For such firms, however, we feel that you could steer clear of Facebook or Instagram because the audience intent isn’t going to match well with your target audience. However, Twitter can be a boon here. The stats suggest that every blog with over 1500 words to it receives 88% more retweets than its counterparts, and since Twitter is always buzzing and trending, it could be a great outlet for your marketing ventures too. Your Twitter strategy can, for the matter, include one blog and about 10 odd tweets a day. Why we say 10? – well, because Twitter is all about doing more and being active.
B2B Firms in General
Be it a product based firm or a service-based firm, when it is B2B, the categorization for the social media channels to be used would remain more or less the same.
Let us take the case of B2B product firms first. It would be surprising, but 74% of the people say that a lot of their B2B product choices come from Facebook i.e., for them, Facebook isn’t just about personal networking but some professional value too. Not surprisingly enough, 7% of the good leads for a business comes from Facebook as a platform.
While LinkedIn is always the source for the best quality leads with over 80% of the good leads coming from it, Facebook solves the purpose of brand awareness in general. One can look at it from the long-run cycle perspective where even the buyer or the B2B client firm would prefer to use the brand which their clients i.e., the eventual B2C customers know of.
Secondly, LinkedIn has a great role to play in effective backlinking, given its supremely high domain authority. So, if someone backlinks to your website from LinkedIn, Google will definitely rank you high up.
A bit about Quora and Google
As a concluding bit, we wanted to throw special light on these two platforms, given how effective they are both for a B2B and B2C perspective. You might not have observed or maybe observed but never paid attention too, but Quora results are usually the first ones to come upon the search engine page. Thus, it would be a disaster not to include that into your Marketing Strategy. While if you are in a niche, it would take some time for you to build on the traffic for your keywords on Quora, but if you are a B2C firm, you simply cannot afford to ignore Quora for marketing. With Quora ads now live and functioning, you can easily build on the traffic too!
Next and finally, a little bit about Google. Yes, G+ is going to be no more soon but never ever think of not having an id there. Remember how a sidebar pops up when a firm is searched- that is essentially an active G+ account pushing your details to Google. And while Google will never really say it out loud, yet it will always push those who maintain their Google Business accounts well!
Finally, Youtube deserves its own special mention too. While it makes more sense for those who want to have video content specifically, yet, it doesn’t harm to have your video content optimized too. And then, you can share it across your relevant social media handles!
I hope all of this will help you look at your marketing strategy from a different, clearer angle now. And for any detailed discussion, should that be required, well we are just a call away!
