The world of entrepreneurship is in constant flux. What worked yesterday either won’t work today or will need significant augmentation before it’s a viable strategy, and what works for one entrepreneur isn’t going to work for another one.
Some businesses get by on unconventional strategies, while others follow the playbook to the letter and still see results.
There’s no cast-iron way to guarantee business success, but there are things you can do to increase your chances, and one of those things is to sign up for social media. It’s a free tool that, if used right, will give you extra exposure, increase brand awareness among your core demographic (they’re on social media, even if you think they’re not), and generally boost your standing within the public sphere.
How should you use it, though? Which social media apps should you sign up for? We’ve put together a guide on which platforms to aim for as a business and what benefits they’ll have!
As one of the most popular social media platforms in the world right now, Instagram is pretty much a must for any business worth its salt. It’s not just about pictures; Instagram also lets you upload videos, and if you take a snapshot of your notes app (as has become a popular pastime), then you can technically post text as well.
The benefits of Instagram should be pretty obvious from a business perspective. They’ll let you demonstrate what your product or service does firsthand; even if you’re not a particularly visually-oriented business, you should be able to find some way to leverage the unique strengths of Instagram to put a message out there. Even just taking a shot of your offices or of a particularly happy or engaged employee can be a good way to publicise yourself.
Of course, an Instagram account is nothing without followers, and at first, you might find your growth pretty slow. Competition is fierce, after all. That’s why you should consider picking up some ProfileFollower Instagram followers, who can boost your presence on the app and give you a guaranteed audience for whatever crazy, creative content idea crosses your mind next. With that boost under your belt, you’ll feel unstoppable.
TikTok
Yes, despite the fact that TikTok has a reputation as a homegrown platform that only Gen Z uses, it’s actually an incredibly valuable tool for businesses. Why is that? Well, TikTok ad campaigns have a proven track record of effectiveness, increasing sales and awareness significantly among businesses that use them. The potential for TikTok ad campaigns to return real benefits for you is immeasurable.
Even without paid ad campaigns, though, creating content on TikTok is easy, straightforward, and high in potential. TikTok users love it when brands engage with them on an organic level; many of TikTok’s most popular hashtags derive from brand campaigns and challenges, and users will flock to the ones that they feel are most fun to join in with. You can even design your own filters and stickers to help them with this, making it even easier for them to create branded content that refers back to you.
That increased organic engagement comes at a cost, though. More so than anywhere else, appearing too sales-focused on TikTok is going to work to your detriment. You need to make sure that your approach is organic enough without drawing focus away from your products. People won’t forget that you’re a brand on TikTok, so trying to hide that fact won’t work well. Like many other aspects of your business, this is a delicate balancing act, but it’s one you’ll have to try and get right.
You’ve probably heard a lot of doomsaying about the direction in which Twitter is headed. After Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform in late 2022, the changes he made, as well as reports seemingly leaking out of Twitter HQ, suggested that there was no clear strategy regarding Twitter’s direction, and that made a lot of Twitter users very nervous indeed.
Despite all of that noise, though – and many users admittedly ditching the platform for pastures new – Twitter is retaining a pretty high monthly active user base. It remains to be seen whether those numbers will remain high beyond 2023 and even further, but for now, the platform’s future is safe, so signing up to it as a business should definitely be on your itinerary. The free boost provided by just one tweet that finds an organic reach would be immense.
Twitter now charges for a blue tick next to your name, but if you’re an officially-verified company, you’ll get a gold one instead. You don’t need to pay any money for that (yet), and it lets users know that you’re not just a random person posing as a business, so you’ll have some security that your identity is protected on Twitter. All in all, it’s a good platform to sign up for if you’re a business, but you may want to prepare a contingency plan just in case.
Last but not least in the “Big Four” of social media, we have what is arguably the originator of the modern era, Facebook. Debuting not long after MySpace (in the court of public opinion, at any rate) and offering a more streamlined, less cliquey experience, Facebook has managed to stick around in the public consciousness, despite its founding company Meta arguably making a lot of rookie errors in terms of PR.
Is it still worth signing up for Facebook if you’re a business, though? In short: yes. To elaborate: while Facebook may be providing diminishing returns for businesses, it’s still free to sign up and own a page, and doing so will help your SEO, because people will be able to find you online when they search for your social media presence.
Facebook may not be the hottest or hippest platform around anymore, but it’s still got plenty of users, and it’s still the first place a lot of people go when they want to talk to a brand, especially if they’re older folks. Facebook ad campaigns aren’t quite the golden ticket they used to be, but they’re still highly prized by many businesses, and it’s still well worth your while to create yourself an account and build a campaign on this perennial platform.
