There are many social media tools to take advantage of these days. From Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to TikTok and Snapchat and more, businesses, and individuals have so many options at their fingertips. It is impossible to ignore the fact that businesses absolutely need an online presence now in order to thrive, or even just function and bring in profit. Even a decade or so ago, social media wasn’t as important as it is now. It is an integral part of a business.
This is because there has been a huge shift towards so many aspects of our lives being put online. Almost everything we see, learn about, read or hear is online now. So it is only natural for businesses, small and large, to seize the opportunity and build an online presence. This is important because it puts a face to the brand. You see an instagram profile for a brands image, and it immediately becomes more humanizing. Us as humans need to know there are faces behind these images. So that leads me to the next part: what tools should you leverage for your business no matter what it is?
Instagram is an important one because it is all about reels, pictures and stories. The two features combined, convenience and imagery, make it visually appealing to the audience. Its convenient because its quick. It doesn’t take up much if any time from the viewer to swipe through feeds, posts and stories. In the modern age, this is key. Quick easy to read posts. Also the imagery needs to be appealing. What helps make it appealing? Everyone has different preferences but the main key things are Sharp image quality, filters that aren’t too heavy and a consistency in colours in your theme on your grid.
Not a lot of people use twitter now compared to say Instagram or Tiktok. But a lot of companies and corporations still do. This is because there is a still an element of ease to it. There isn’t a lot of reading required and its made easy to contact the business and have them reply to you. Ive seen a lot of companies leverage twitter for using their own jokes or talking to customers in a casual way. Again, this puts a human behind the brand which in turn, its more likely to get the customer to come back.
Tik-Tok
Tik Tok is a fairly new tool to the social media game but its gained so much popularity over the recent years that business have begun to hop on the bandwagon. And for good reason. With the latest generation in our society using Tik Tok everyday, there’s a ton of exposure to be had. The short video based platform is a great way for businesses to connect with customers by showing more about the business such as behind the scenes, recipes, product closeups etc. Besides just putting your name on social media and calling it a day, there is more to it than that. The main thing being time. Time is required to maintain your online presence. A lot of success is to be had in a few main areas:
- Posting frequently such as once a day
- Giving a behind the scenes look on stories/reels
- Reposting other peoples posts about your business
- posting close ups of products
- Engaging with customers through comments, emails dm
As you can see these three main platforms are key in exposing your business online in the right way. They’re the best ones to use because of their ease of use and aesthetic appeal. The opportunities in this space cannot be ignored by companies and corporations these days. If you build a business, you almost have to be online too.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 