How to Decide Which Social Media Platforms to Use

Many of the business owners and professionals I speak with have the same question: “Where should I be spending my time on social media?”

Because time is such a precious resource for so many people, most opt to invest in only two or three social media platforms that are going to be the most relevant and impactful for their businesses. Makes sense, right? Right.

That’s why I wanted to put together a simple guide to help you identify the places you should be spending time on social media.

Let’s look at each platform.

Facebook

Facebook is a powerful tool for businesses selling a product, for non-profit organizations, and for those who are interested in building general brand awareness. This platform is becoming increasingly a place for sharing information—a bulletin board of sorts—for older users.

Pew Research found that Facebook is used by:

• 71% of adult Internet users
• 58% of entire adult population
• 56% of Internet users age 65+

Not best for: If your organization is B2B based or geared toward teenagers, this might not be the best option for you.

Try this: Share info about upcoming events, promote new products, and highlight the ability of your business’s product or service solve customer pain points via Facebook ads.

Twitter

Twitter’s quick-moving stream of activity is intimidating for some, but when you participate actively, it can be a great place to jump in to relevant conversations and share your two cents while promoting the content you’ve created as well.

Pew Research found that Twitter is used by:

• 23% of adult Internet users
• Men and women under 50 with a college education
• Households with incomes of <$50,000

Not best for: Twitter is great for building personal relationships, but it might not help you sell oodles of product.

Try this: Use Twitter to track keywords and participate in relevant conversations in your field to build brand awareness and to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Instagram

If your business is geared toward all things aesthetically pleasing, Instagram is somewhere you should be investing time and energy. Again, it might not always lead to direct sales, but can help project the lifestyle you’re trying to connect with.

Pew Research found that Instagram is used by:

• 26% of adult Internet users
• 53% of young adults age 18-29
• Women in suburban/urban areas

Not best for: Older demographics with high incomes

Try this: Show your products being used in real life on this platform, but through an artistic lens. A picture really is worth a thousand words here.

LinkedIn

If you’re a professional or a business owner, you should at least have a well-updated personal LinkedIn profile. This platform can be used to share content in different active groups, connect with your business network, and to recruit new hires as well.

Pew Research found that LinkedIn is used by:

• 28% of adult Internet users
• 23% of the entire adult population
• College graduates
• Adults age 30-64

Not best for: This is not the platform to use to make the hard sell or to market your products—it’s all about personal resume and content sharing.

Try this: Share your blog content here within relevant, active groups to gain a following and increase profile views. You may get a new lead just by consistently posting here.

Important Note

The second half of that initial question about where to spend time is usually followed with a second part, which is: “Which one will help me make the most sales?”

In the modern state of social media marketing, these tools are best used as a way to build trust, gain a following, and earn sales over time. Unless you’re advertising, social media often isn’t a direct source of profit.

It takes time to understand your social media audience—what they want to hear, what their pain points are, who they trust—and it’s not until you fully discover where you fit in to that niche that you can make the ask that really follows through with your audience.

The Bottom Line

If you have to choose selectively, opt for the two or three best platforms that your target demographic uses. Study your competitors to see what they’re doing. Watch the research that shows what tactics are working effectively. Test out ads on those platforms.

Don’t just pick a few and give a half-hearted attempt—dive in and be an active participant (or hire someone who can do that for you.)

A/B testing for Highly Effective Facebook Ads

One of our recent assignments was to take the lead on a Facebook advertising campaign for a client who wanted to drive brand awareness, boost website traffic, and increase email sign-ups.

Using A/B testing, we did just that. Take a look at the month’s reports through Hubspot that prove it:

Website visits jumped 58%.

Lead generation (email contacts collected) went up by 162%.

So what’s A/B testing?

A/B testing is the testing of different versions of a piece of content to see which one is most effective with the target audience.

With this Facebook advertising campaign, a clear winner was the version that got the highest engagement levels and the most website clicks, as these were our objectives for the campaign.

To find our winner, we created 4 different versions of the same ad, but with slight variations. It looked like this:

Version 1: Standard copy/standard image

Version 2: Standard copy/different image

Version 3: Different copy/standard image

Version 4: Different copy/different image

Testing different combinations of copy and images allowed us to see which one was most effective with the target audience and helps up learn how to create better ads in the future (based on those findings.)

Variations

The different image and different copy we used offered something distinctive in comparison to the standard versions.

For the test copy, we took a different angle and spoke to a different motivator than we did in the standard version.

The test image was more zoomed in and had warmer tones than the standard image.

Findings

Through our testing, we found that one version in particular was far outperforming the others (Version 4) at the end of one week.  It had 3x the amount of engagement and website clicks than all other versions.

Elimination

Because our testing pointed to a solid winner, we then turned off all three other versions and let the rest of the ad budget run through on just the ad that was most effective.

This ensures that the best possible version of the ad is the one that gets to use up the remaining ad dollars.

Results

Thanks to this successful campaign, the client was able to see a dramatic increase in website traffic and in their list of email subscribers just in the first 10 days of the campaign.

With these new email addresses collected, they can continue the conversation in email communications and move their new contacts down the sales funnel.

Therefore, these people who initially discovered them through a Facebook ad and filled out a form can become sales (and even repeat customers!)

Want help with your next Facebook ad campaign, too? Let's talk.

How to Write Autoresponder Emails That Make Customers Adore You

If your business sells products online, autoresponder emails are a great way to keep your customer in the loop (without tying up a bunch of your time.)

Once set up, these messages are automatically sent out through your email client (like Campaign Monitor or MailChimp) after certain actions take place.

In this situation, that might be:

·      When a purchase is made

·      When the product ships

·      When the product is received

As long as you enter the proper timing gaps for when these actions will happen, your email provider will handle the legwork and send these messages straight to your wonderful customer—without having to have you there to hold its hand. Nice, don’t you think?

We recently were on the receiving end of some fantastic email copy within an autorepsonder campaign and had to take the time to point out what it does well (so you can leverage this tool, too.) Here it is:

“Thanks for your order. We mean it. Your support of our family-owned business and sustainable farming practices allows us to do what we love, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

Right now, your peaches are waiting for you. No, they’re not on your doorstep (yet). They’re waiting- taking their time soaking in the hot Georgia air, flavors sweetening and colors blushing to that perfect shad of peach we all know and love. Once they’re ripe and read (and not a second before), we’ll send them your way. We promise it’ll be worth the wait.

Thanks again,

The Peach Truck”

Yes, we just mentioned The Peach Truck in our last post. And no, they’re not paying us or sending us free peaches to sing their praises (although we are totally open to the free peaches idea.) Kidding. But seriously.

So let’s talk about these simple eight sentences and what they do so well.

1.   They Express Gratitude

Thanking customers for making a purchase is a step many businesses forget about. This email goes beyond the standard “Thank you for your order”, and instead reinforces the passion they have for their business and offers a more sincere thank you to customers who’ve taken the time to place an order.

2.  They Inform

Because their peaches only ship once a week from Georgia at the peak of freshness, some customers who order online have at least a six day wait time before the peaches even hit the mail truck. Because of this significant wait, The Peach Truck uses autorepsonders to keep customers informed about the shipping process and let them know their order hasn’t been forgotten.

3.  They Create Anticipation

Did you read that part about peaches “soaking in the hot Georgia air” and “flavors sweetening and colors blushing to that perfect shade of peach”? Strong imagery and words that evoke the senses make the customer even more excited to get their purchase. Until they arrive, they’ll be dreaming about that first bite into a fresh, juicy peach.

4.  They Reinforce Quality & Value

Because customers are paying a premium to have this fresh produce shipped to their doorstep, the business wants to make them feel good about their purchase (so they’ll do it again and again.) They do this by reinforcing their commitment to quality and ensuring that the final product will be top notch.

So how can you use autoresponders in your business?

Think about the effective elements in this very simple autoresponder and how you can tie in some of these same strategies for your products.

Whether it’s a new watch or a download of an eBook, every online purchase deserves a follow up message.