Nowadays we all know the value and power of a strong social media presence. Most brands are on social media, and it is a great way to quickly reach a wide audience with targeted communications. There are many times when owners of brands or even marketers will get on a platform simply because it is popular or trending. It is important to remember that you need to be creating targeted communication messages to your audience, and if you are on a platform where they are not, it won’t help you in the long run. So, let’s talk about how brands pick which platforms to use for their social media strategy. 

Let look at top 5 social media platforms and how they can help you and your business! 

Facebook 

Facebook is still the largest social media platform to date. It is a platform for brands and businesses to connect and build relationships with their audience. According to Statista (2020) 79% of 18–29-year-olds and 30–49-year-olds use Facebook in the US. Pew Research estimates that 74% of users visit Facebook daily. There are 2.7 billion users globally (Statista, 2020). Understanding which demographics are on Facebook will help you build a strategy that targets these audiences. 

Facebook could highly target its users since users add their personal details to the platform. When building advertising campaigns, you can set your target audience and easily manage your budget, nice features for a first timer! 

Here are some tips and tricks for Facebook! 

• Know when your audience is online – are they viewing Facebook on their morning commute, maybe they eat while scrolling Facebook? 
• Post videos and graphics to increase your engagement rate 
• Go Live and build a relationship with your audience 
• Create a Facebook Group to build and nurture your community 

Facebook is a great platform for any business in any sector! 

Instagram

Instagram is normally considered the “pretty” platform. Here you will see highly edited content with Instagram influencers. It is a visual platform used to share moments and communicate one’s point of view to the world. Instagram has one billion monthly active users (Statista, 2020), so figuring out what your audience wants to see can unlock a world of new viewers of your content.

Instagram is mostly used by women the age of 13-29. They like to see images that they can relate to or aspire to be. Instagram has changed its algorithm which means it can be somewhat difficult to reach your audience. Ways to avoid this are by increasing your ads on the platform and using a wide range of hashtags. Great sectors for Instagram are travel, restaurant, fashion, make up, food, motivational, and so on. 

• Share unique business POVs and the face(s) behind the brand
• Make sure to edit content to fit your audience 
• Find Influencers who fit with your brand (Macro and Micro) 
• Use hashtags to the best of your abilities 
• Use stories, reels, and highlights

Any business who has a target audience within this demographic should be on Instagram.

Twitter

Twitter is a great platform for real time conversations. It enables users to send and read Tweets on a global scale. For many users, Twitter is the platform for live updates for news, sports, or brand information. Most users follow brands on Twitter than on any other social media platform. 

According to Pew Research, 22% of US adults use Twitter with 32% having a college degree. This same study found that 44% of 18–24-year-olds use the platform. There are 152 million daily active users worldwide (Statista, 2020). This is a great platform for any brand in the news, sports, celebrity, or pop culture industry.

• Add a video or graphic to increase engagement 
• Use link shorteners to save character counts
• Be concise with what you post 
• Build relationships with influencers and brand ambassadors here

Any business who sends in the moment information should be on Twitter!

LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is a professional networking site focusing on B2B. It is all about building and developing professional connections. It is great for businesses to share their CSR campaigns, news, jobs, and any other exciting updates. LinkedIn is a very niche audience making it easier to target specific groups of people. The average age group is 25-30 being 44% of users and 51% are educated at a college level. The platform has 706 million members in 200 countries and regions worldwide.

• Have clear call to actions on your LinkedIn posts
• Use LinkedIn to find talent
• Utilize graphics and videos
• Limit emojis and anything that could seem unprofessional 

LinkedIn is a place for professionals to convene and meet. Remember to use this platform in a professional manner with a professional tone.

Pinterest 

Pinterest is a great platform for businesses looking to connect with women. According to Statista, 71% of global users are female and they make the purchasing decisions in their household. Statista also says that there are 322 million users globally with 87 million active users in the US. 

The platform is used to plan “life moments” such as weddings, parties, traveling, etc. It is also used to develop hobbies and passions like; arts and decor, cooking, sewing, and building their business, like you! 

• Use Pinterest to connect with your audience through positive posts and ads
• Help users plan life moments using your products or services 
• Use Pinterest during the consideration stage of the Buyer’s Journey 
• Pinterest introduced Mobile Ad Tools so that you can build ad campaigns right from your phone

If you are a DIY brand or one with unique ideas, Pinterest is the platform for you!

Remember that it is okay to start a social media channel and test different strategies. The great thing about social media is that it is ever evolving and ever changing. Maybe one trend isn’t your strong suit, but another one comes along that is more up your alley. But always remember your audience and the messages that they want to see.

If you aren’t speaking where people can hear you, how are you going to get your message across?

All of the elements above are naturally woven into your social media presence. And we briefly touched on social media posting. But do you have a business marketing social media strategy?

Enthusiasm and vision go a long way, but without explicit goals, how will you know if it’s working? The great thing about social media is that the analytics are mostly done for you. Here are a couple of important points about all forms of social media for businesses.

The Importance of ‘Pulling Them In’

Constantly bombarding people with offers or samey photos of muffins or latte art on social media may be a put-off. Getting people to engage with you takes more effort and a touch of inspiration. But it’s a coffee shop marketing tool that can start conversations that snowball.

The low-hanging fruits are the reviews and comments you organically receive on social channels and review sites. Respond to as many as possible, as they are the perfect place to promote your brand. First, hear new suggestions from loyal followers. Limit negative publicity by reacting thoughtfully and generously to complaints. Last, join in the conversation as much as you can – it’s the next best thing to seeing customers in person.

Get Competitive

Competitions work when it comes to busienss marketing strategies. Competitions offering gift cards or product giveaways can have multiple benefits. Plus, they are a perfect idea for your coffee shop marketing strategy.

For example, you can run a photo contest. Pick a theme that reminds people about your brand. Maybe ‘best children’s painting’ if you’re a super child-friendly establishment. Or ‘coziest living room’ if you’re known for your sofas – don’t hesitate to go off on a tangent. Share these pictures on your social channels with a caption linking to your brand. It shows that your business is alive and busy with activity. Let your audience choose the best pictures by voting for that extra bit of customer engagement.

Reinforce your branding by ensuring the prize is clearly connected to your shop. Offer a generous gift card or free coffee for a week (or longer?). Let people know about next month’s competition straight away. This type of promotion gets them thinking about your coffee shop for the weeks ahead. As a result, you get to enjoy free user-generated content. The more on-brand the competition is, the more useful this content will strengthen your coffee shop’s identity.

It’s All About the Content

At the end of the day, this type of business marketing is useless without quality content. Whether it’s user-generated or from your own fair hands, keep your social channels buzzing. Make sure your content is interesting, entertaining and appropriate. It’s not as big a task as it might seem. The trick is to weave it into your daily routine.

When something exciting, out of the ordinary or just totally on-brand happens, consider sharing it. Arrange a time with your top barista to shoot a video of their best latte art. Get your resident wordsmith to research the provenance of your coffee beans. Share all things about your espresso machine or furniture and share it as a blog or a short clip.

Get involved with the latest conversations, competitions and content through signs around your coffee shop. As much as your venue is going digital, bring the online world into your physical space, too.

Final Thoughts on Business Marketing

The pace and relentless growth of the business sector mean it has more surprises left up its sleeve. All you need is to have smart and successful business marketing. Marketing is an essential part of any business. By developing a solid marketing strategy, you can reach more potential customers. This results in more leads and sales. Follow these tactics, and you can market your cafe in an effective and engaging way.

Grow your business or venue with WiFi marketing. Cubical Tech helps businesses like yours grow with data capture, marketing automation and reputation management.

‘Corporate citizenship’ is a common buzzword these days. It boils down to being a positive influence on your community. The best part is that it also serves as a business marketing tactic for your brand. It’s a win for everyone.

Often, business are key social hubs for local communities. Therefore they are ideally placed to play a role in helping local people and causes. For example, your coffee shop can:

• Offer a room or area for local groups to meet.
• Donate food and drink to local shelters and other people in need.
• Sponsor charity events and supply prizes for raffles and the like.
• Collect money for local causes or organize donation drives.
• Look for the biggest employers near you and work with them to provide an exemplary lunch offer.

Ensure the packaging you use is sustainable and up for the job. The idea here is that your business is aligned with the community service it provides.

The oldest play in the business marketing playbook is investing in advertising. Advertising all that’s good about your venue doesn’t always need to cost a lot of money. Making yourself known in the community and beyond cements your business in the scene.

Events that are on-brand and newsworthy can bring information about your venue to a new audience. Stories could involve:

• Achievements by your staff or customers (be it sporting, educational or otherwise).
• An extravagant party you’ve thrown for a local event.
• An amusing seasonal competition that has captured the public’s imagination.
• A talk by a famous (or not-so-famous) speaker in your venue.

Harness the power of social media to help with your advertising. Utilize on-brand hashtags, and be sure to use location tags. There are an astounding number of people that use social media. Since they are already online, market your brand so your audience naturally comes across your posts.

If you know the direction your business is going, you can add value quicker. Wondering how? An excellent business marketing plan we briefly mentioned is to work with other businesses. Again, don’t just throw anything at it. What kind of ‘bonus features’ align most with your branding and your biggest demographics? Some ideas include:

• Selling local crafts.
• A vintage or locally-made fashion market.
• A pop-up book and art store.
• A permanent counter selling locally-produced groceries.
• Working with Amazon, or another delivery service, to provide lockers for delivered goods.
• A seasonal gift market.

Of course, you don’t have to outsource these features of your business. Doing it in-house could be profitable. But it could also take significant time out of your day to stay on top of core operations.

Founded in 1994 by Web-surfing Stanford University grad students, Yahoo! grew from a tiny

upstart surrounded by Silicon Valley heavy weights to a powerful force in Internet media.

Yahoo! worked hard to be more than just a search engine. The company proudly proclaims it

is “The only place anyone needs to go to find anything, communicate with anyone, or buy

anything.” Its range of services includes e-mail, news, weather, music, photos, games, shopping,

auctions, and travel. A large percentage of revenues comes from advertising, but the company also

profits from subscription services such as online personal ads, premium e-mail, and small-business services.

Although Yahoo! strives to achieve a competitive advantage over rival Google with its vast array of original content, Google’s ascension to the runaway leader in search, e-mail, and related services has made it a darling with advertisers. Yahoo!’s acquisition of photo-sharing service Flickr, social bookmark manager Del.icio.us, and online video editing site Jump cut strengthened its capabilities. Yahoo! has also continued to grow globally in Europe and Asia, helped in part by the acquisition of Kel koo, a European comparison shopping site, for $579 million, and of 46 percent of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, for $1 billion in cash. Discussions with Microsoft about a possible merger culminated in a 10-year deal in June 2009 that gave Microsoft full access to the Yahoo!

search engine, to be used in future Microsoft projects for its own search engine, Bing. CEO Carol Bartz faced many questions, however, about how Yahoo! should best move forward.