If you own an online business then you know you need to grow your brand. You need to harness the power of social media to tell a story, and also demonstrate your product or expertise on a global scale in real time.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are all free platforms that businesses can use to directly engage with their audiences. Ideally, there are so many opportunities that a well-managed social media campaign can bring.

Research shows that there are over 3 billion internet users, and over 2 billion of them have active social media accounts. With this in mind, any business owner or aspiring entrepreneur who has not tried out the power of social media needs to start thinking about creating one for a stronger online presence. In fact, in some years to come social media for business will be no longer optional but a necessity.

We have outlines some key points how social media can help you run running your business.

• Find your target audience

Any business is made up of two types of target audience: there are the existing customers and your potential customers also known as your target customers. A successful business should have a social media marketing strategy that can make the existing customers feel appreciated and at the same time reach out to the potential customers to grow the business.

Do your research and find out what kinds of social media platforms your customers use. Find out what they are talking about, where they share their ideas, and listen from there. Finding the right place to find your target customers on social media takes time, and it will involve searching for people who are discussing different topics that are important to you.

• Sign up for social media accounts

With the right target audience for your business, you can now sign up for a social media account. These accounts are free and they are easy to manage, but it is important to check out for each platform’s guidelines and user terms especially for the business accounts.

The most popular social media platforms are:

Facebook is the most popular social media platform that can be ideal if you want to reach to a wide audience across the world.

Twitter is another popular platform but it’s popular with the younger generations. It supports different communities online which can be of great help to your business.

Google + is a platform from the giant search engine, Google. It’s the best platform for increases search engine optimization (SEO) results for businesses. Google + for business will make it easier for people to find your business online.

Instagram is a social media platform that allows users to share images and photos. It can be a great resource for a business where they can share images of products and services they are offering.

LinkedIn is the most common career networking platform. It allows you to reach a wider audience and it’s very effective for reaching wealthy customers and generate leads for businesses.

Tumblr is an active platform to reach potential customers who are less than 25 years. The majority of the people in this platform are college educated students and they are aggressive on this platform.

Pinterest is a social media platform that features virtual themes that work best if you have relevant images of your product to share. It’s a perfect platform to target those individuals with a high-income bracket.

• Look for a social media manager

When the word social media manager comes up, many people tend to think that the task requires the hiring of additional staff to manage a business online accounts. But the truth is that managing multiple social media networks is tiresome. So, a social media manager can help you improve your social media presence and also track your online outreach.

Some of the major online social media manager such as HootSuite and Ping.fm makes it easier for any business owner to manage all their social media accounts on a single website. You can also review the trend and success of your tweets with just a click-through statistics. You can try out the free version first, but as you get more involved in social media, you can upgrade to the next version.

Also, you can get a paid service like SproutSocial to help you create contacts from all your social media followers and track how you are engaging with them. It also has a single inbox for all your messages coming from all networks.

• Start posting content on social media

The content you post on social media should be more than the normal self-promotion pieces. Make sure to include relevant information about your business, the industry you work in and post your own pictures of customers enjoying your business.

Takes pictures of your product and post them on your social media account. You might want to include a picture of satisfied customers showing the work you have done. You can also random deals for your followers. It can be either a weekly or monthly raffle where users need to share something to qualify for a draw to win. Make sure to include special offers in your posts and keep your customers updated on what is happening in your business. Remember, your social media platform represents your business. So, keep your posts professional and keep your target audience in mind.

• Maintain your web presence

It’s one thing to be on social media, and it’s another to be consistent with your online presence. Building an online presence takes time and it may vary depending on your target audience and the amount of time and effort you put in. The important thing is to be consistent and try to post every day. Take some time to respond to, and share your customer’s posts. Lastly, be patient, at the end your business will have a good online presence.

• Listen and engage your followers

The best way to engage with customers online is by listening to what they say. Start by reading the feedback that your customers leave and take the time to respond to them. Make sure to leave a positive comment on every comment, even the negative ones.

Don’t forget to thank customers for their honest reviews. If you find several customers talking about the same things, consider implementing those changes. At the end, you need to build a strong relationship with people so that they can trust you.

• Use search engine optimization (SEO) for optimal results

SEO is very important for any business. It involves altering your social media platforms and website to promote your business. SEO helps your website and social media pages to pop up higher once a customer searches them on Google.

First, identify the keywords that most customers search for. Try to use fewer keywords to find the exact thing you’re looking for. Then include the keywords in your business name or title so that customers can find you easily. Create appealing Meta tags on every page to your website using your keywords. You will also need to learn how to use HTML code to do this. Make sure you check your SEO effectiveness regularly. You can do this with the help of auditing tools such as DeepCrawl or Search Console.

Conclusion

Social media has a lot of benefits especially when you want to grow your business. Although it’s free, it will take time and effort to build a strong online presence for your business. The interesting part is that once you get started you will learn a lot using these tips. It’s time to start reaping the benefits of using social media for your business.

My Bio: Kerrie is a freelance blogger who navigates through the labyrinth of the Internet, hunts for the nuggets of knowledge to bring to her readers. Using her procrastination time to enlighten internet surfers. Her website https://myessaywriting.co.uk