Billboards, door knocking, fliers, and cold calling are all effective means for generating business. Well, at least they were when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Ok, maybe not that long ago, but marketing today’s businesses have evolved rather quickly.
Jumping into a new career at the age of 38 has produced challenges for me when it comes to marketing. Prior to my career in Real Estate, I only used social media to stay connected to family and friends. Now I need to jump in and figure out how to get with the times…in a very timely manner.
Social Media VS Door Knocking
With the world’s population of 7.8 billion more than 53% of the population is active on social media. This is a huge opportunity to market to a much larger audience, in almost record-breaking time, when compared to older avenues of marketing. The average Canadian spends 6 hours and 26 min daily browsing social media platforms. To think that in the same amount of time, using the more historic methods, I would have only reached 30 to 40 potential clients on a good day.
What platforms are best to market your business?
According to Campaign Monitor, the top platforms for marketing are:
• Snapchat
Which platform do you focus on?
Your target market and type of business would most likely reflect which Platform you might decide to focus most of your attention on. For example, as a Realtor® I feel most of my marketing would be better applied to Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. As opposed to someone who may be selling handmade skincare products they may want to focus their marketing on Pinterest and Instagram. Choosing which platforms to promote your business may seem like a daunting task and slightly overwhelming, which I can fully relate to.
In my opinion, it depends on your target market. Knowing the demographics of who is actually using each platform can assist in choosing one to suit your product or service offered. As a Realtor® my target market is anyone who wants to buy or sell a home. So if I take a look at the age demographics of different platforms I can see that my efforts would be viewed mostly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Tailoring your market strategy for your audience will allow for the best outcome. Below are a few Social media platforms showing the age range of their most active users. Depending on your product or service offered you may want to research different social media demographics.
Facebook 25-34
Instagram 25-34
Twitter 30-49
LinkedIn 46-55
Pinterest 30-49
Tick Tok 18-24
Snapchat 13-34
YouTube 15-25
How many people will I target on these platforms?
Statistic.com reports that Facebook sits at the top with an astonishing 2.797 billion active users compared to Instagram’s 1.287 billion. Now that is a big difference, when you see the numbers beside each other, but realistically, in either category, that is a huge number for marketing potential. Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat’s active users range from 396 million to 528 million. If these platforms best suit your social marketing plan your return can be just as rewarding.
How can I be effective?
Melanie Dodara, a LinkedIn and Social Selling Expert, published 7 Social Media Content Writing Tips on May 31, 2019. She has some great advice on how to connect with your audience, staying positive, and how to make a great post. Social media posts should hold quality and value well above posting in quantity. Posting too often can be overwhelming to your audience.
I have learned that creating relatable posts, celebrating my clients, behind the scenes of a Realtor®, and asking questions to my target market seems to generate the most responses. Putting yourself in the shoes of your audience is an easier way to have an objective view of the content you are posting. Would the post make you want to comment? Is the image included attractive? Does the image relate to your post? It wouldn’t make much sense to post a photo of a train and write about the weather, or in my case images of trains instead of homes.
Like I said before social media marketing may be slightly overwhelming. Be patient with yourself and take it one post at a time.
Sources:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/7-social-media-content-writing-tips/555805/
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https://www.hootsuite.com/pages/digital-trends-2021
https://search.creativecommons.org/search?q=Looking%20at%20phones
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 