Quick Tips to Using Popular Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Social media is a central part of a modern lifestyle. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube, every social media platform gets millions or even billions of engagements per day. And as a business owner or entrepreneur, it should be your goal to harness as many of those engagements as you can.

But for every social media platform, there is a different strategy for maximizing its potential to promote your business. If you’re trying to get a handle on using social media for growing your fledgling business, check out these quick tips for the four most popular platforms on the internet.

Facebook

It’s the most popular social media platform out there, and it’s one that every modern business should be on. So, if you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, make one. Then follow these quick tips (courtesy of HubSpot) to use Facebook as a promotional tool:

  1. Boldly brand your page. Upload a recognizable profile picture of your business’s logo, and an engaging banner that matches your brand style. Put your company’s style all over that page.
  2. Facebook gives you the option to add a call-to-action (CTA) button to your business page. Use it! If people are on your Facebook page, they’re probably interested in what you do. So give them an easy, one-click way to become a customer.
  3. Complete your “About” section. Flesh it out so that people know who you are as a business, and what you do. If it’s not clear, they’re probably not going to work with you.
  4. Post visual content. Images and videos get a lot more engagements, so use them as often as is reasonable.
  5. Set a posting schedule. If you don’t post enough, you’re not going to get a lot of engagement. If you post too much, you’ll annoy people. So set a reasonable schedule to stay active without spamming people’s news feeds.
  6. Monitor your page daily. Check for comments and messages, and respond to people. They need to know there’s a real person behind the business, who cares about what they have to say.

Twitter

Though not as popular as Facebook, this is yet another platform that virtually every business should be on. Here are some tips for business promotion on Twitter:

  1. Understand and utilize the four Cs: Consuming the right content by following the right accounts, creating interesting and relevant content, curating (or sharing) content that is important to your followers, and communicating with others on Twitter by responding to, retweeting, or tweeting at people.
  2. Use pictures in your tweets when possible. Tweets with images have significantly higher engagements.
  3. Consider posting important tweets multiple times. Most people aren’t on Twitter all day, and when they get on, they only see recent tweets. So if you have important news to share, tweet it out multiple times, with at least eight hours between each tweet.
  4. Stay on top of trending hashtags and use them when appropriate. Make sure you understand the meaning of each hashtag and why it’s popular before you try to jump into the conversation.

YouTube

YouTube can be a great way to tell your brand’s story to the public at large. Here are some good tips for leveraging this platform for your business:

  1. Keep the videos to just a few minutes. The most viewed videos on YouTube are typically five minutes or fewer. So keep things short and snappy.
  2. Tell a story. Don’t just promote your services or products. Use videos to establish your brand’s message, and show people who you really are. Making an emotional connection with your YouTube viewers will help them to identify with your business on a deeper level, and build loyal customers.
  3. Have fun. YouTube was made for people to share fun, personal videos. So have fun with it, and post some videos that show a lighter side of your company.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is extremely underutilized, but it can be an excellent tool for creating a more well-rounded online presence. Think of it as a way to broadcast your more professional side to the world. Here are some tips for using LinkedIn to promote your business:

  1. Use LinkedIn polls. This is an easy tool to let you get a feel for your customers’ or employees’ opinions on things. It also increases audience engagement.
  2. Use groups. Create them, join them, participate in them. LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to connect with others in your industry, or bring together all of your clients or colleagues in one place for discussion.
  3. Show your passion. As businessman and entrepreneur Tai Lopez once said, “[L]etting your passion show is what connects you with your readers.” So let your passion show in your company summary and status updates, and deepen that connection.

Every social media platform has its own tricks, but each one can be an excellent tool for business promotion, if you use it properly.