Building an Online Presence

Building an online presence is almost like creating a digital portfolio of your business. Having online profiles has many benefits for you business as it not only attracts customers, but it increases your presence beyond your local area. Social media platforms are particularly great to showcase your work, let people know what you do (or even get up to in the office!) and form connections with other nearby businesses.

Quick Tips…

• Ensure that yoru profile looks professional
• Post your best work that you created for your customers
• Add or follow local businesses to form connections

Popular platforms

Nowadays there is a humble amount of social media platforms that you are able to sign up on but which ones should you be actually getting yourself set up on? The rapid growth of social media and the power that it holds has changed the way that we approach people, meet partners & access information. Shall we have a little gander at some data and find out what platforms you should be integrating yourself in..

Currently there are 7.7 billion people in the world and of these there are 2.4 billion people on Facebook (Our World in Data). This is a massive number of people that are actively using Facebook everyday meaning that it would be a smart strategy to get yourself set up on this platform! Facebook is very easy to use & allows for you to create a business page, post pictures/videos and even write ‘statuses’ to keep users up to date on the things that are going on within your business. Moreover, 89% of marketers use Facebook in their brand marketing efforts meaning that despite it being such a popular platform which could provide you with high profit, it does however create massive competition between businesses.

Instagram is another elite platform that is foreseeing user count & engagment increase on the daily and businesses are getting themselves rapidly onto this platform. SproutSocial found that Instagram is continuing to be the most popular influencer marketing platform and 89% of marketers in a Mediakix survey say that it’s the most important social media platform for influencer marketing.

How to choose the right platform

This topic is quite subjective to you and your business as each industry is very much so unique and requires different functions/features in order to promote your business on social media platforms. Social media is one of the most effective marketing methods especially in the last decade and it continues to be on the rise. However, when you make the decision to invest in a social media platform in the efforts to promote your business and advertise your brand, there are factors that you should be considering hence why it is important to invest in the right platform for you. Popular platforms like Facebook & Instagram are great for creating ads and sharing them out to a large number of users which will prompt them to click on your advert, even considering getting in touch or purchasing a product. Platform like LinkedIn is largely business dominated and allows for you to connect with other business across the country. LinkedIn is ideal to create business connections and promote your brand to other fellow businesses.

Things you should take into consideration:

• Nature of your business
• Target audience
• Existing customers

The most important factor to consider is your target audience as you are trying to promote your brand in order to expand your customer base. Therefore if you are trying to appeal to younger audiences then Instagram is your guy! ‘What’s new in publishing‘ found Instagram to be largely dominated by the younger audience making it the perfect platform to reach out to that age group especially those aged 20 or below. Likewise, if you are more of a business to business company then Linkedin is much more ideal for you as it is a business dominated platform. Ensure that you take the three factors mentioned above into account before setting yourself up on any social media platform as this will ensure that you maximise your profit and engagement with your target audience.