#Aryxe Talks: Social Media visibility for small and medium-sized enterprises
7 min read
7 min read
by Teodora Atanasova
The ability to stand out from the crowd is crucial when running a business. Social media helps by providing you with the visibility you need. We can’t say that working with Social Media is not complex, but it doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Choosing the right social media channels for your business and sharing valuable content with the right audience is a vital part of building strong and long-lasting customer relationships.
I had this wonderful opportunity of picking Julia Toepfer’s brain on the topic. Julia is one of our team members at Aryxe Group and she takes care of social media channels for our clients. We sat down and chatted a bit on the topic of the successful growth of the audience, and the proper ways to keep them engaged and happy with the content.
Check out our interview below to see her tips & tricks!
Julia, what would you advise business owners when they ought to select appropriate social media channels pertinent to their business goals?
Well, a good place to start is picking a platform that is popular and has a big audience. This will help with raising brand awareness. Remember, though, that simply having a huge audience won’t suffice. You need to have access to an audience that’s specific to your business. For instance, although Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram are extremely popular among certain age groups, these channels may not be a good fit for your business. Or it could go the other way around; it all comes down to tailoring your social media approach to your business needs.
Suppose you have a B2B type of business. In that case, you may consider using LinkedIn, which will help you generate leads via ads, advanced filter searches, or by holding open discussions where LinkedIn users can pitch in and participate. Whereas if you had a business specializing in beauty products, you would probably want to build your Instagram and TikTok presence instead.
The bottom line is, when selecting your key social media channels, you ought to know your target groups and where you can find them. If you are struggling to define your target groups, you can turn to Sprout Social. And you can always check out insights and analytics on your existing social media to find out more about your followers and engagement rates, and thus define your key audiences.
The journey doesn’t end there; that’s where it all gets even more interesting! Defining your target groups and realizing which social channels are the most suitable for you is where the fun begins. Now you have to figure out what content is appropriate for the chosen channels and how to create, schedule, and consistently share it while monitoring your insights and analytics to understand what does or does not work.
Another essential tip is not to neglect to check out the competition now and then. By doing so, you will understand your advantages and shortcomings and use those insights to further develop a social media marketing strategy to get ahead of them. For example, with a helpful tool such as Buzzsumo, you could see which of the posting ideas of your contenders were shared the most and have the best content format and length.
It appears that among the biggest challenges for businesses on social media is the inability to grow their follower base. Do you have any strategies up your sleeve that would make the process easier and more efficient?
I would start by defining your SMART goals, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and TimeBound. Once you list your goals, you’ll commit to realistic time frames for their realization. Structured growth is crucial when it comes to well-planned and steady growth. Next, consider your desired brand voice on social media, what you want to represent, and how to position your business. Finally, analyze your audience and see what they like on social media, and then cater to those desires, ensuring it all makes sense and is part of your brand’s presence.
I recommend throwing in some personalization, company events, get-to-know-our-team posts, client testimonials, and some behind-the-scenes stories.
This may seem overwhelming at first, but there are so many tools that you can utilize to make the process smoother, such as content calendars where you can automate and schedule your posts, pick times that are most suitable for your audience and let the tool do its job while you focus on yours. It’s pretty nifty, and it works!
Agreed, proper planning is the key! But what happens when business owners need to deal with negative comments and reputational crises on social media?
Having an immediate plan of action is imperative in these cases. Shift Communication compares it with extinguishing a fire. The flame is the opinion of your audience, and what causes the flame to burn more is the brand’s responsibility. The oxygen is the reply of the company to the issue. The reply can be anything from deciding to write a public statement, or an apology, deciding to go with a product recall, opening up your customer support channels, and inviting everyone to reach out openly. Eventually, it will all come down to how quickly and efficiently you’ve managed to put the fire out.
After resolving the issue, the good reviews should come back again. Statistics show that around 90 % of the people read roughly ten reviews to shape their opinion about a company. Only then will they decide to place their order. That’s why having a quick and appropriate reaction is imperative in situations like these.
Speaking of proper reactions, it’s quite challenging to stay up to date with ever-evolving social media features and functionalities. How can one manage to keep up?
This is a terrific question because it’s crucial to be aware of the latest features or changes on a platform you use for your social media marketing. Many pages allow you to keep up with the newest updates, such as the Facebook Meta Newsroom, Instagram Blog, and many other pages that focus on Social Media and Digital Advertising, such as Shuttlerock and Sprout Social, do it, too.
Last but not least, what do you think about TikTok as a channel in a social media strategy?
TikTok is an excellent channel reach-wise, and the numbers back that up. The adoption of TikTok advertising increased by 500 % in 2020. According to Shuttlerlock, this is still the case in 2021, when the audience’s exposure to ads almost doubled. Many regard TikTok as an inspiration for their business. Compared to other platforms, the said inspiration aspect is significantly higher on TikTok. We could say that TikTok is now as important as Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
If you decide based on the analysis that TikTok is a suitable channel for your brand, I’d recommend exploring the always-on strategy where you are regularly releasing both paid and organic TikTok content in order to keep audiences engaged.
Be creative, have fun, use music, stickers, and emojis, and experiment tagging along on existing trends – trend hopping is a thing there, and you shouldn’t miss out on it.
I know we have a great article published recently on this topic, so I’d recommend anyone thinking about TikTok as their potential new channel to check it out on our blog.
That’s a wrap when it comes to our talk with Julia, and if you want to learn more about Social Media marketing and how your business can benefit from it – make sure to check out our XaaS product page. Social Media Marketing doesn’t have to be a pain point for you and your business – reach out to our team of experts and unleash the magic of social media marketing potential today.
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/building-social-media-presence/
https://reputation.com/resources/articles/brand-crisis-management-done-right/
https://blog.shuttlerock.com/how-to-advertise-on-tiktok-in-2022
