With so many different social media channels out there, it’s tricky to figure out what qualities each channel has and which ones are the best fit for your blog or business. To help you out, here’s an overview of the most prominent ones, plus I’m giving some personal insights.
Facebook
The main purpose of using Facebook as a business is to pitch your product (as a blogger your product is your posts) to an audience. However, posting solely product-related content on Facebook isn’t the best idea. It’s key to create a ‘lifestyle experience’ around your product. This means that besides posting your own links, you should think of posting inspirational images, quotes or fun facts that you believe your audience will respond most positively to (the more likes and shares, the better. This way the friends of your Facebook fans will get to know you too).
I always let my Facebook followers know when there’s a new a post on FashionContainer. I post an image accompanied with a bit of text to give an impression what the post is about. Including the relevant link where your followers can read the post is very important! I’d recommend to link to the particular post that you’re promoting, rather than just linking to your website’s homepage. When people go through old Facebook content, they want to land on the page with the post that they were interested to read.
Twitter
With over 255 million monthly users, twitter is a biggie! I get the impression that bloggers emphasize on Instagram and Facebook presence rather than Twitter, but there’s so much this medium has to offer from a marketing point of view too.
Twitter is the ultimate platform to remind your followers several times a day about your post(s) by sending out a quick tweet. No perfectly edited images needed, just a 140 character compelling text for people to click on. Don’t limit yourself by only promoting newly posted content, feel free to tweet links to older posts too.
In order to promote this post (Yes, the one you’re reading right now) I’ll for example send out the following tweets during the day: “Learn how utilize social media to the fullest for your business” “Grow your traffic with social media” “Social media tips and tricks”, all linking to this post.
The good thing about twitter too is that it’s very easy to reach locals and you can easily grab people’s attention by re-tweeting some of their tweets.
Pinterest
Be actively present on Pinterest and it will guaranteed drive a lot of new traffic to your website. Here are few facts to begin with:
- Pinterest generates 400 percent more revenue than Twitter.
- Pinterest generates a 50 percent higher conversion rate than other traffic.
- 47% of online customers were encouraged to make a purchase.
Read more about the power of Pinterest in this informative and super fun to read article.
I’d recommend to carefully organize your boards, don’t put ‘a bit of everything everywhere’. Here are a few of the boards that I’ve got on Pinterest: outfits (exclusively my own), fashion inspiration, wishlist (including my Rewardstyle links so I can earn a commission over any sale), travel, blogging tips. Your Pinterest account should be a reflection of everything your business stands for, so keep that in mind before you pin an image. I pin all the random stuff that I like (good receipe, bad image e.g.), on my secret board which is visible for myself only.
According to FashionContainer’s analytics, Pinterest is now the second largest source of referrals (meaning: blog visitors). Not bad, right? Another good thing about Pinterest is that it never feels like work, because it’s just so much fun!
Instagram
Instagram is hot and happening. It’s popular under young and old and businesses seem to put more and more emphasize on this channel every day. But. I think its importance is slightly overrated. Especially for young businesses or bloggers who have started using it very recently. Like with every hyped social media phenomena, it’s usually the very first users that have been able to benefit from it the most. For the new kids on the block, it’s usually a lot harder to build up a following and thus benefit from Instagram as a marketing tool.
Instagram is very much a quick fix, almost like a sugar dose. People browse their feeds and your image only gets half a second worth of glimpse. Content consumed in the blink of an eye. While I believe that Instagram is great for branding, based on my own analytics I don’t think Instagram is the right fit (read: driving enough traffic) for everyone.
But hey, that doesn’t take away the fact that I love using Instagram for FashionContainer and I also enjoy the accounts I follow. Truth is though, from the many bloggers I follow on Instagram, there’s only a few whose blog I actually visit. Just to keep in mind.
I hope this article was helpful for everyone looking for the right social channels to promote a blog or a business. This was only a very brief insight, but you’re more than welcome to ask me any specific questions in the comments below.
