It is important now more than ever to stay connected with others online today. This does not just apply to family, friends, and the one to two co-workers that you actually like. Social media has expanded from private, chit-chat, and photo-sharing profiles to an extensive and publicly engaging online world.
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most popularly used social media outlets, to name just a few. As a business owner, it is important to have most if not all of these accounts under your business name.
In the past few years, Covid-19 changed everything for businesses around the globe. Some practices had no choice, but to close down permanently. While others chose to adapt to an exclusively digital workforce. Government contractors in particular had to transition from face-to-face meetings, conferences, and training sessions to online platforms.
During this time, consumers were no longer driving to their local shopping malls. Instead, they relied on a quick and easy Google search to do all of the work for them, leading them to various social media channels.
Having a company social media page increases brand awareness and customer engagement. The point of social media lies in the name alone, with the keyword ‘social’ being a crucial element. Gone are the days of sitting through endless phone calls blaring elevator music in order to connect you with yet another robotic voice. Being able to connect directly to the source of the product or service that you are seeking is incredibly valuable and necessary.
By creating an Instagram account, you should plan to describe your brand with imagery and a message that will engage your audience and provide value to their day. It is the value you provide that engages the conversation. And the subscribers and engagement with your posts are the rewards. Share the benefits of using your products with others through imagery, videos, text, and backlinks. You may be thinking that Instagram is used mainly by teenagers as a way to gain attention, or ‘likes’, but it’s not that transparent anymore. Businesses can showcase their brand and their skill sets through daily photos, blurbs, and employee spotlights to attract attention to their brand.
LinkedIn is a widely popular platform used for professional networking. This channel serves as a workforce hub to connect you with other professionals within your industry or expertise, and also as a recruitment center for job offers and job hunting. In addition, you can use LinkedIn as a center for learning valuable industry skills via LinkedIn Learning, a subset of the channel to gain certifications for various subjects.
Another popular social media site is Twitter, a micro-blogging site. Here, users would originally create and post tweets about their daily lives, their thoughts, or just a funny picture of a cat that they found online.
Today, Twitter is also used as a pipeline to gain new leads for multiple businesses. Larger corporations today are using Twitter to appeal to the youth. They use flashy clips and trendy hashtags, which are essentially markers for hot topics that are being discussed in a tweet. Here’s an example:
Build your brand by making successful social, and human connections that add value to the conversation. Learn how in this video clip with @alliefass and @garyvee https://inc.com/gary-vaynerchuk-allison-fass/inc-live-how-to-build-brand-integrity.html…#socialmediabranding#digitalmarketing
When clicked upon, the #hashtag will direct Twitter users to other tweets mentioning the same topics above. The goal of the hashtag is to bring your tweet up to the top of the page. The more hashtags the merrier, but keep in mind: You can only type up to 280 characters per tweet.
There are over 69 million users on Twitter alone, over a billion users on Instagram, 850 million members on LinkedIn, and a whopping 2.9 billion users on Facebook as of 2022. Needless to say, a robust social media presence is now a digital marketing essential.
Check out this video clip from Inc.com to learn more about building your brand through social media:
https://www.inc.com/gary-vaynerchuk-allison-fass/inc-live-how-to-build-brand-integrity.html