Social Media: Where To Start?

When it comes to social media it can be confusing. Simply due to the evolving landscape of the platforms.

So trying to get started in an evolving industry can be confusing.

This post involves an overview of several topics that someone should need to know about setting up.

Firstly, social media has transformed from being primarily a networking industry to entertainment industry as well.

This has then opened more doors online, allowing more diverse content to be produced.

Keeping to their roots, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are seen as the three sites that are big networking platforms due to the vast amount of ways users can interact.

Other than just being seen as a networking platform.

Social media was designed so that users could:

• Express themselves
• Discuss their interests
• Connect with friends and family 
• Promote themselves, could be their career or business for example.

From a more business point of view, social media can be used to:

• Increase brand awareness
• Generate leads
• Improve website traffic
• Provide engagement with said audience

Taking into consideration the many ways it is used means there are plenty of users:

• 2.89 billion monthly active users on Facebook
• 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram
• 303 million monthly active users on LinkedIn
• 330 million monthly active users on Twitter
• 1 billion monthly active users on TikTok
• 444 million monthly active users on Pinterest

Each and every user takes part in using social media for these said purposes; either on a personal account or business.

To try and help you have a better understanding of which platform to use let’s go through processes you should follow to help decide.

Knowing your audience on social media

There’s no good focusing all your efforts on a single platform that doesn’t reflect correctly to the right audience.

If you don’t know your target audience or are unsure please follow Finding your target audience and why it’s important to help!

Continuing on, since they’re several platforms- here’s an overview of who uses which platform:

By looking at these figures you can start to apply your audience to a platform that’ll target your audience the most.

Communicating through social media

They’re different forms of social content that you can communicate through.

It’s about thinking about what type of response you want to achieve, that’ll help decipher which form you should participate in.

In aid of this, here’s a quick summary of different forms that you can use:

Each form can be used in a personal or business way.

Blogging

Personal:

• Write a snippet of your life or of any experience you want to share.
• Talk about a hobby you have.
• Write a review on a product you might enjoy.

Blogging on a personal level is about engaging with your audience inspiring a conversation or relationship.

Business:

• A brief overview of what your product/service is.
• Educate your audience on subjects surrounding your business.
• Establish yourself as an expert.

These subjects will educate and inform your audience alongside offering a space for your customers/clients to give feedback.

Photos

Personal:

• Share images of what you enjoy.
• Post pictures of friends and family, memories.
• Keep others up to date with what you’re doing.

Adding images just is a fun way of sharing yourself!

Business:

• Share images of your product or service.
• Add announcements like sales or discounts in a creative way.
• Keep customers/clients up to date with what you’re doing.

Photos are a brilliant way of sharing any updates as audiences like a visual representation over text.

Videos

Personal:

• Share funny videos you find.
• Re-post any content you support.
• Post videos of any event you’re attending.

Videos just go that extra length of showing your personality, values etc

Business:

• Share videos of products/services.
• Re-post any content you support.
• Post videos of any event you’re attending.
• A good way of sharing any advice.

For businesses, video content is a good way of showing a more in-depth side of the business.

These are just a few examples of content you can take part in, there is so much more!

Simply just expanding some of the activities is a way of generating more content ideas.

To have a go at any of these activities you’re taking part in trying to communicate with your audience.

To start a conversation on social media you’re working towards a presence, that ultimately acts as a face to the business online.

Evidently, it’s all about experimenting till you find what works best.

Don’t forget there is a purpose for all the content you produce. This could either be to educate, entertain or engage.

It’s the same as having 1 goal for an email; you want a purpose for your social content. You can mix it up and involve engagement with most social content by adding a question or call to action.

At EMS we tend to use education as our purpose for most content. We like to inform you on subjects that we think will be helpful and useful for you, a business owner.