When a business decides to go digital and start using online marketing techniques such as inbound marketing, their first question is: Which social networks should I be on? This is when the social media dilemma begins, when the business owners (or the community manager) think that they must be on all possible networks: Definitely on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter too, Youtube… “I don’t make videos, but I’m going to be there too”, Linkedin of course, no matter if my business is a local fruit shop, linkedin is another social network and I must be on…
That is the way some entrepreneurs, who are unaware of the true power of these platforms, think. However, keep in mind that not all platforms are for all sectors. We do recommend that you register your name on all the social networks out there, because you never know if you will use it in the future and it’s great that you have ownership of the @ of your brand, but it doesn’t mean you should use them all.
Therefore, in Midnight Creative, we want to guide you on what social networks are the most used and in which ones you should consider being in when digitizing your business.
ANTES DE EMPEZAR EN LAS REDES, CREBEFORE YOU START NETWORKING, CREATE YOUR OWN NETWORK
I’m not talking about creating your own social network, that would be a waste of time and money that would change absolutely nothing in your business, the key is to create your own website.
No one questions the importance of social networks, but having your own website allows you to be independent. Yes, the post is about social networks, their advantages and disadvantages, but you should keep one thing in mind: What if a server crash happens again, like Facebook did a few days ago? You don’t want your prospects to be several hours without hearing from you, so it’s best to always have your own space on the network, and then we’ll talk about social networks.
ANALYSE YOUR SITUATION
Although signing up for Instagram is a matter of three minutes, before searching for your perfect user, you should carefully analyze your situation and goals.
WHAT IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
It is crucial to know who your audience is, because the clientele of a plumber is not the same as that of a contemporary gastrobar. Unlike the client of a gastrobar, it is not normal to see the client sharing on his Instagram the fantastic plumbing work he has received.
Their age, purchasing power, work and hobbies are examples for you to start taking references and create a buyer persona. Start planning and writing down this information because it will help you later on.
WHAT IS YOUR SECTOR?
Let’s say you want to follow pharmacies; do you know in which social networks they are most likely to be found on? The most normal thing is that they publish on Facebook and Instagram, since their sector has objectives that can only be met on these networks. Here you must be clear about your general sector and your specific sector.
An example of general sector and specific sector is that of a motorcycle workshop. Its general sector will be mechanics and its specific sector will be motorcycle mechanics. This data is crucial to know what will be the content that you will share on the networks and thus see which continent will be ideal for your business.
WHAT CONTENT ARE YOU WILLING TO CREATE?
It is very important to know what resources you have and what you are willing to do with it. Nowadays, we all have a smartphone with front and rear cameras, but not everyone is willing to record themselves, edit content, to perform live… We also have design apps that allow you to create images where you can add text and publish information, but not everyone has time or desire to get to consider it, so it is vital that you analyze your willingness to create content when choosing your networks.
SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THEIR OBJECTIVES
In this guide we have added the most important and most used networks. We haven´t mentioned some of them such as Pinterest, Twitch, Google business (we assume that you already have it done, otherwise, go do it NOW by clicking here) or Google Podcast. However, the ones on this list are more than enough to start creating your digital footprint.
More than 2 billion users make Facebook the largest horizontal social network today. This social network is widely used by businesses to share news and events, talk to customers and run advertising campaigns that target a very specific audience, which translates into higher profitability. If we add to that the fact that you can link it to your ecommerce, the opportunities for your business will be highly increased.
Facebook content can be:
- Text and links
- Photographs
- Carousels
- Videos
- Products
You can opt for Facebook if your goals are:
- Have a direct customer service channel
- Reach an adult audience
- Share links, news, images and videos
- Invite people to events
- Sell products from a website
La tercera plataforma más grande y de mayor crecimiento y una de las redes sociales verticales más importantes. Si tu The third largest and fastest growing platform and one of the most important vertical social networks. If your audience is young, you’re in luck, because 90% of Instagram users are under 35 years old. We are facing the social network with a huge range of possibilities:
- Images
- Videos
- Stories
- Carousels
- Reels
- IGTV
Your positioning is based on hashtags, shares and your relationship with the algorithm and how well the two of you get along. According to Forrester, interaction on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook and 84 times higher than Twitter, making it an almost sure bet for the success of your business. This social network is a favourite for companies to grow their community and strengthen their branding (if you still don’t know what branding is, click here).
You can opt for Instagram if your goals are:
- Having a channel of interaction with your customers
- Sharing press releases, attractive images, results of your work, tips…
- Selling products from a website (also links to Facebook marketplace)
- Developing your branding in an approachable and professional way.
WHATSAPP BUSINESS
We are sure you are on Whatsapp, so it is nothing new to you. Some people do not consider Whatsapp a social network, since it is a private messaging app, but what is certain is that Whatsapp Business can become a very important communication tool for your relationship with prospects and customers. Whatsapp business brings the customer closer to your company, because it allows you to provide all the necessary information in the most instant and convenient way.
This app specialized in companies allows:
- Sharing commercial information (your opening hours, your products, website…)
- Optimizing customer service (by sending automatic messages, saving instant answers, facilitating communication…)
- Sending files (commercial dossiers, invoices, quotations…)
(The best point is that, if you have a corporate phone, you can have your business hours set, so when you’re not working, you turn your phone off and “see you on Monday”).
PueYou can opt for Whatsapp Business if your goals are:
- Having a closer and more effective customer service
- Making appointments or providing product information in a direct and easy way
- Facilitating the sending of documents
- Keeping your customers “in your pocket”.
The news network par excellence. With 280 characters, you can write thoughts, statements, reply tweets, link content from your website… More than 500 million tweets are sent every day.
It is a very useful resource to discover the trends in your sector and join the wave. It is also a perfect network to analyze what your customers think about your products or services, it is a network without filter or mercy, but it can certainly help you to improve. It is one of the most used social networks by service companies in Spain, as it allows you to create accounts specifically aimed to customer service. Many companies and businesses take advantage of the speed of this network to answer questions, suggestions or customer problems. The content, being easy to create, requires more quantity.
You can opt for Twitter if your goals are:
- Analyzing trends and join them
- Investigating how people talk about your business and what you can do better
- Having a more instant customer service channel
- Publishing important communications about your company
The most popular social network for the professional sector. If you are a company that provides products or services to other companies (B2B), you are already late in creating a page. Among many of its advantages, it’s a perfect network for networking and arranging meetings, it allows you to get to know your prospects better, it gives you the freedom to express your ideas, progress and projects, and it allows you to share content from your website through links. Its content, however, is not as casual as networks like Instagram or Twitter, and requires, like YouTube, study and review.
You can opt for Linkedin if your objectives are:
- Increasing the ratio of meetings with your professional prospects
- Getting experts in the digital sector to join your team.
- Making commercial agreements with suppliers, distributors and other companies.
- Giving your brand professional cache
YOUTUBE
The second largest search engine (and social network) in the world, with more than 1.3 billion users. Its data are dizzying, with more than 300 hours of audiovisual content every minute! and with almost 5,000 million videos viewed daily. It must be taken into account that the competition here is very big and that the editing must be professional and the content very polished, so it is normal to make one to two videos a week. It is not a network for daily publications, firstly because in terms of creation it requires more development than other networks, and secondly because subscribers prefer little but quality content to daily content of mediocre quality.
Among the benefits of YouTube, we can highlight:
- You can position yourself more easily than on other social networks.
- The content is perennial and has constant visits.
- Audiovisual explanations improve product purchase consideration
- Videos are profitable if they are well done
You can opt for YouTube if your goals are:
- Creating evergreen videos
- Positioning your content around your industry
- Recording and editing 6-15 minutes of content
- Creating one or two videos a week.
TIK TOK
The vitaminized snapchat, the fleeting Instagram, the vertical YouTube par excellence… that’s Tik Tok, a digital monster that has gained a lot of strength among the young people of generation Z. Although it may seem like a childish network without professional objectives, keep in mind that users do not consume news in the same way. The goal is for your company to be discovered in as many places as possible.
The former Musical.ly has had a growing boom, reaching ridiculous usage figures: More than 689 million monthly active users, 41% are between 16 and 24 years old, and 90% of those users use it at least once a day. So, it’s a great bet for those brands or companies whose branding is associated with informality and youthful fun (we don’t think a funeral establishment would work well on Tik Tok… but nowadays, anything is possible).
You can opt for Tik Tok if your goals are:
- Reaching a young audience
- For your brand to be associated with a fun, positive and informal personality.
- Creating challenges, trends or filters that can be viralized.
CONCLUSION
We recommend choosing three of these networks at the beginning, because the content load that you must support will be moderate and will allow you to have consistency in content and community control. Analyze your goals and then choose the options that best suit you.
If you need advice on this or you cannot take care of all the networks, do not hesitate to contact us, we will be more than happy to launch your brand to digital environments optimally.
