Hey Guys! Hope you’ve enjoyed our recent COVID support series, and met the newly formed editorial board. Today on the blog we have the lovely guest contributor Pauliina Rasi (a writer and a content strategist) who talks choosing the perfect social media channel for your business/blog/freelancing assignment. This is especially useful for someone who is an entrepreneur or someone who is a full-time content creator.
Social media platforms are a great way to boost your business – but they can also end up taking a big share of your time. This guide helps you to choose one(s) that serve your business best.
Social media platforms offer endless opportunities for us as entrepreneurs: they create a space to showcase products and services, to improve visibility, to connect with customers, to ask feedback, and to learn from others. But especially in the beginning, many entrepreneurs find that it takes a lot of time to manage several channels – and they struggle to see the benefits. So how can we make these platforms work for us and not the other way around?
You’ve got the answer!
The first step is to choose only one or two channels and focus your time there. It may sound impossible but look at it this way: In order to create authentic relationships and grow a following, you need to engage with your audience and also other users every day. Ideally several times a
day. And this is in addition to the time you spend on content creation! So managing several channels quickly becomes a full-day job (which you probably already have with your business). To start choosing your channels, ask yourself these questions:
- Which channels do you like?
- Where do your clients hang out?
- What are your resources like (time, skillset, budget)?
Then, with the answers in mind, let’s look at a few channels and for whom they are the perfect
fit.
Do you have a visual business?
If you have a visual product, such as a natural cosmetics line or an arts and crafts boutique, Instagram may be the perfect fit for you. It’s the place to showcase your product. It also allows you to illustrate the whole lifestyle around your business and suits well for anyone who has got
a keen eye for details. Many bloggers use Instagram gorgeously, but it suits as well language schools (show the confident faces of your clients when they pronounce words correctly, like begrudgingly), event businesses, or companies offering kids’ activities.
Especially Instagram live is a fun and easy channel to show a glimpse of your life “behind the scenes”. On the other hand, it might not be your choice if you don’t like taking photos or showing up on them or on video every now and then.
Are you a coach or consultant?
Another platform that works well for visual businesses is Pinterest. But it’s not only limited to artistic people or the D-I-Y genre. Pinterest is the place to be for expert-based businesses, such as coaching and consulting. Pinterest works because it brings tons of traffic to your website. Get started with these three steps:
- Define your keywords. Pinterest is a search engine of its own, just like Google, for example. So adjust your search engine strategy and define the keywords that people are looking for in Pinterest.
- When you are clear with your keywords, create visual content that revolves around those words. Take for example a blog post that you’ve written and created a beautiful design of the title – may be slightly modified to match the keywords.
- Link the pin to your blog posts or other content. Every time someone finds that gorgeous design, they click the link and end up on your website.
Pinterest can be a tremendous lead generator, especially for evergreen content. And it allows you to stay in the background, attending to your clients.
Do you want your clients to connect with each other?
Does this sound like you: you feel confident to show up on video and manage to create content regularly but you still feel something is missing? Something bigger than you. That special spark. If you are looking for a deeper impact and want to bring people together, Facebook is maybe the choice for you. It has amazing group features, which makes it possible to create and nurture communities on the platform. And with a community, you can bring people together and have them support and help each other – in addition to the content that you create for them.
Many online entrepreneurs use Facebook groups as a tool to add value to their membership or group programs, but Facebook’s power isn’t limited to online marketing. It can be extra to your neighborhood knitting circle or your pilates studio. The downside of Facebook is popularity. Because there is so much content created and shared every single moment, it is hard for a new business to cut through the noise and get in front of your audience. Even your own subscribers don’t necessarily see your content if you don’t pay for it. So prepare to spend some budget on promoting your content.
How to choose?
Every social media has its pros and cons, don’t they? We’d love to hear which ones you love most in the comments below. If you are still hesitating with your choice, give yourself time. Try out one or two for a couple of months and see what kind of results you achieve. Remember: once you have one channel settled and have time and energy for more, you can always add more platforms to the mix.
Pauliina Rasi is a freelance writer and content strategist, with a mission to empower value-driven business owners to take their communication to the next level without stress and strain. She shares her best D-I-Y tips for entrepreneurs and content creators on her blog, Pauliina With 2 “I”s, on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Are you enjoying our content? We would love to hear your opinions in the comments sections. Stay tuned for more resources, our expert editorial panel is talking about – summer vacation ideas, life post lockdown, social media tips, packing, recipes and activities for children. Stay well and stay with us!
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