This is a great question because chances are, your audience is already congregating on social media. So once you get a presence there too, you can communicate with them, share news and build your brand.
Sure, you might also sell products and build your list, but just remember that social media is more about engaging and less about direct promotions.
So with that in mind, here’s a step-by-step crash course in using to use social media to grow your business…
Step 1: Pick The Best Platform(s) For Your Business
There are plenty of social media platforms to pick from, including:
- YouTube
… as well as plenty of niche social media sites too.
But here’s the thing…
Your audience may not congregate on every platform. And not every platform may be good fit for your business and your goals.
That’s why you need to do your research to determine the which platforms are the best fit for you. Then focus on just using one to three platforms, as opposed to spreading yourself too thin.
Next…
Step 2: Create a Social Media Strategy
Once you decide on your platforms, don’t just wing it. Instead, create a strategy. Ask yourself these questions:
- What are your overall goals? (E.G., brand building? List building? Traffic? Sales? Etc.)
- What type of content do you intend to post? In other words, what type of content will best help you achieve your goals?
- How often do you intend to post on the various platforms?
Hint: Visit your competitors’ social media pages to see what sort of content they post and how often. Your initial strategy may be based on what’s working for them. But then you’ll also need to do Step 3…
Step 3: Experiment to See What Works
Your plan is just a starting point. What you’ll want to do is experiment to see what your audience responds to the best. When you’re on a platform where you can post a variety of content (like Facebook), you’ll have even more leeway to experiment. You can post:
- Infographics
- Videos
- Memes
- Comics
- Audios
- Articles
- Inspirational quotes (especially on graphical backgrounds)
- Promos
- Contests
And more.
When you’re on a platform where you can only post one type of content – such as YouTube videos – you can still experiment. For example:
- Post short, medium and lengthy videos.
- Post humorous, inspirational or other types of emotionally driven videos.
- Post talking head videos, slide presentations, or demos.
- Post tips, how to videos or “rant” videos.
Now, don’t just guess at what works. Instead, use real metrics – traffic, subscribers, and sales. If your goal is something like brand-building or creating a viral campaign, then look at onsite engagement stats such as likes, shares, and comments.
TIP: If you’re doing something like brand-building, you may want to survey your audience to determine if your efforts are working. Just because a lot of people see your content (or even share it or comment on it) doesn’t mean that they’re becoming more familiar with your brand.
Summary
Your social media strategy should be based around your goals, and then you should select platforms and a content strategy that are designed to meet your goals.
Of course social media is just one way to get traffic. If you’d like to really leverage the power of social media, then team up with other people in your niche to co-promote one another across your social media platforms.
Naturally, you can and should extend this strategy beyond social media. You can use partner traffic to drive targeted prospects directly to your lead pages, blog, and sales pages.