How Each Social Media works for Your Business?
As a marketer or a business owner, you’re probably wondering which social media platforms suit your business right? That’s great, you’ve come to the right place!
Digital marketing is increasingly popular among marketers and business owners today, providing various types of social media channels which make it harder to see which ones compliment your business.
The common misconception most marketers and business owners face is they feel the need to be on all social media platforms for wider reach because the truth is with limited time and resources, you can’t accommodate everyone and yet you can’t afford to ignore them either — it’s a dilemma.
Realistically, there will be consequences to your actions, and it can be an exhausting process to keep your social media platforms in sync, as they all serve a different purpose in digital marketing.
A smart move would be to take a step back and truly understand which platform is suitable for you, your business goals, and your target audience before plunging right in.
Before we start, let’s warm you up with a relevant introduction to social media is and its importance in marketing; then I will walk you through some top social media platforms, so don’t be overwhelmed or feel the need to be on every single one, I repeat.
However, I can assure you, you’re going to feel a lot more confident than before when it comes to choosing the right platforms that will do your business some justice.
Table of Contents:
Introduction to social media
What is social media?
Social media is an internet-based technology of online networks that enable the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information known as digital content.
Social media comprises of virtual networks that are developed by a community of users and a virtual community.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to promote a product or service to develop branding, create awareness, and build relationships with existing and potential consumers. Social media allows your company to connect with users globally through paid or organic online marketing efforts.
What is the importance of social media for your business?
Social media plays an integral role in the way businesses promote their products and services. These social sites create brand awareness, generate sales and leads, connect you to your potential and existing audience, and helps you manage your relationships.
Many businesses question whether it’s worth investing time and resources on social media for their return of investment (ROI) which is a common concern.
Based on the Statista Research Department, as of January 2020, it indicates that about 81% of Malaysians were active social media users alone and as of July 2020, the average global penetration rate was 51%.
To top the stats further, research from Digital Influence Lab shows that Malaysians embrace social media, as 71% (22 million) of them are internet users that have an account on a social media platform. All these statistics are proven and will likely increase over time.
So, if you’re not visible and your competitors are, there’s a high chance they will win your customers over because you have no online presence, to begin with.
Questions to consider asking yourself
I am sure as a marketer or business owner, you’re always wondering “Which social media platforms should I be on for my business?” because it’s a tricky thought and since you’re reading this, you have the same question in mind too.
Before making any impulse decisions, I always need to know and so should you, these main things before deciding which social media platforms suit your business.
Identify your business
Are you a B2C, B2B, or B2M?
B2C stands for business to consumers, B2B refers to business to business, and B2M is a term business-to-many.
B2C businesses sell a product and service to consumers for their personal use. This may be in the form of luxury travels, clothing, automobiles, jewelry, and the list goes on.
B2B businesses sell their products or services directly to businesses. They deal directly with the decision-makers of any business. This can come in the form of digital marketing agency services, office furniture, cybersecurity software, and many more.
B2M is a company that does a combination of B2C and B2B practices. They sell their products and services to both businesses and consumers. A clear example of a B2M business would be a book publishing company that deals directly with the authors and publishers forming a B2B relationship, then selling it to consumers once it’s being published is the act of B2C. So here, you have both.
What is your target audience?
Once you’ve identified your business nature, you can break it down into these starter questions below to determine your target audience and buyer persona (do dive deep!):
1. What is their personal info?
- Age, gender, marital status, children, location, income, education.
2. What do they value in their professional life?
- Job title/ role, career path, company/industry, special skills, what is a typical day like? What tools do they use? Who is their boss? Do they manage others? How is their success measured?
3. What are their values and fears?
- What do they value in their personal & professional life?
- What is important to them when it comes to a product/service of yours?
- What are their pain points?
- What objections might they have?
- What drives their decision-making process?
4. What are their goals & challenges?
- What are their personal/career goals?
- How do they prioritize those goals?
- What challenges may affect these goals?
- How could you help?
- What questions do they ask/ what kind of solutions do they need?
5. Where can you find them?
- How do they get information?
- What forms of communication do they use?
- What media do they consume?
- Do they belong to any community/association?
- What social media do they use?
- Do they attend any events or conferences?
- Where do they spend their days?
- Do they have any hobbies/ activities?
6. Any negative info on your end?
- Are there customers you don’t want to retain?
- Are they too difficult or expensive to support?
- Not enough budget?
- Wrong industry?
What are your overall goals for your business?
Now that you’ve become a professional spy and probably know your audience inside and out, you can start setting specific goals for this audience. As a business, you want to drive more sales, create more brand awareness, and attract potential customers and keep the existing ones happy with the use of social media.
There are also ways to build relationships with social media through customer service support via Facebook or Twitter.
Back then we had hotlines or had to physically drag ourselves out to ask for help. Now, with social media at our fingertips, we can just communicate our issues directly to a brand’s customer service support online.
A prime example of top-notch customer service on Twitter would be Starbucks.
With Twitter, their social support team goes beyond general replies, they make sure to monitor mentions, they remain proactive, and they build and maintain their relationships by going out of their way to satisfy their customers.
When you think of your goals, think about ways social media can help your brand.
Which social media platforms suit your business?
I am sure, as a marketer or a business owner, you all probably have your personal social media favorites for entertainment, self-development, or to stay connected with friends, family or distant relatives overseas, workmates, and the list goes on.
When it comes to marketing your business with social media, it is crucial to choose the right platforms that are suitable for your business and its audience.
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Here’s a list of our top 8 social media platforms and what they’re all about:
What’s this network used for?
Facebook is a social networking platform for people to connect with other people, make new friends, and even connect with brands.
How does it work for your business?
When it comes to Facebook, this multi-faceted platform helps build brand awareness, market research, spy on your competition and their campaign styles and strategy, lead generation, connecting with people, and building and maintaining relationships with your customers via customer service, and the possibilities are almost endless on this network. Based on statistics as of August 2020 by NapoleanCat, Facebook users in Malaysia account for 79.8% (27,500,000 million) of the total population!
Also, Facebook has even launched a professional extension known as Facebook for Business which offers a free tool called Facebook Business Manager that practically makes life easier for businesses and agencies to manage multiple pages and ad accounts, track your online marketing efforts, and other assets on Facebook in one place. Here’s a guide to get started on Facebook Business Manager for your business so you won’t miss out on your business potential!
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What’s this network used for?
Twitter is considered a microblogging and social networking platform where people post messages called a ‘tweet’ and can receive messages or replies. This platform is good for networking and sharing thoughts, ideas, and links in real-time.
Back then, the word limit was capped at 140 characters per tweet, but today, Twitter has upped the limit to 280 characters.
A user can choose to create their tweet or retweet another person’s post, content threads happen often on this platform and usually have a high chance of going viral.
People who have no time to read a proper blog post rely on Twitter when they’re on the go to catch the latest news and trends.
How does it work for your business?
According to Statista, Malaysia has reached 3.1 million Twitter users.
Twitter is very focused on conversations and is a relationship network, which is the perfect platform for businesses looking to improve their customer service and to build relationships with their people.
It is also a great platform for businesses to expand their reach to a new audience organically.
If you have a strong social media marketing strategy, Twitter For Business is a good platform to start creating awareness, increase sales, and to boost your brand name in social media.
It is highly recommended for Software as a service (SaaS) companies, or any company that is offering a service, such as HubSpot, Salesforce, MailChimp, and the list goes on. It will also appeal to new organizations as Twitter revolves around in-the-moment developments, so any company offering a service that needs a good shout out for their brand, Twitter is the right platform to express just that. It has also been proven that tweets that include images on Twitter will get higher engagement.
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What’s this network used for?
Instagram is a visually orientated social media platform that is far different from Facebook that revolves around text and images or Twitter’s text-oriented platform.
Instagram is like the hybrid child of Facebook and Twitter, where its purpose is to enable people to share pictures or videos (content is optional).
Instagram is one of the top social media platforms today due to its highly interactive feature options such as its fun filters you can use to enhance your images or even upload preset filters, an Insta story option that allows you to post short videos for 60 seconds maximum or images (you can choose to include location, GIFS, texts, polls, questions, etc) that lasts 24 hours, but thankfully you can save it into your highlights which is similar to a collection of albums, and also view stories of your friends, and the interesting people you follow will pop up on your feed when they do a feed post.
There is also a direct message (DM) option that allows you to privately message a friend/ potential customer/brand that interests you or you can opt to reply and leave a comment on yours or someone’s post. You can even tag a friend in your story post or feed post and get tagged back. This is how the interaction builds on this platform. It’s inevitable!
Aside from short videos on Instagram or should we now call it by its abbreviation, IG, is that it also has another feature for people to post on IGTV which is an option to post LIVE or longer videos for up to 15 minutes.
For example, IGTV is widely used by influencers, independent make-up artists, and more.
Instagram in Malaysia is widely popular between the age groups of 25-34 years which makes up the largest user group (4,600,000)of users, according to the recent stats by NapoleanCat.
How does it work for your business?
Instagram is a good platform for any business that wants to interact with their audience.
The story feature is popular and receives very good engagement, which is the main attraction for marketers and businesses to showcase their events, products, beautiful lifestyle photography, and aesthetically pleasing videos or images. It creates a personalized feel and is a lifestyle-oriented platform.
If you don’t have a photographer or a graphic designer in-house or aren’t ready to put your company out there, engage with your audience, or explore the abundance of creatively savvy features, Instagram is not for you.
If you’re a retailer or do B2C, this is the lucrative haven for your business; switch your account to Instagram for business so you have a more professional outlook with your contact, email, and website details all on display so your customers can reach you directly.
You can showcase your products organically through the stories or on the news feed so your existing and potential customers can always go back to your page to admire the sight of your product before deciding on which one to purchase.
Instagram is also popular with Instagram outreach, where you have a successful page that receives a lot of engagement and large following, that people would pay to be a part of or you get approached for ads, endorsements, etc. The opportunities are endless because you can directly communicate and interact with each other.
Instagram is the perfect place to build a strong brand persona and is for businesses related to lifestyle, food, fashion, beauty, art, photography, interior design, and everything lifestyle-oriented. However, if your business is not associated with lifestyle, you will need to consult with a digital marketing agency to execute a solid social media strategy and art direction to generate quality images and captions to entice your audience. Your business can build a large following, create awareness, increase sales, and build potential relationships with customers on this platform.
YouTube
What’s this network used for?
The iconic red play button is known as one of the world’s leading online video platforms that are designed for people to watch or to upload videos onto the site. According to YouTube, their mission is “to give everyone a voice and show them the world,” Simple, yet impactful, as they are a platform that encourages everyone to share their thoughts and experiences to build a strong community. YouTube believes that every individual has the right to freedom of expression, information, opportunity, and a sense of belonging.
How does it work for your business?
YouTube is ranked second after Facebook as one of the most popular social networks with a whopping 2 billion active users worldwide. However, based on GlobalWebIndex, YouTube stands at 93% beating Facebook at 89% as the first most widely used platform based on the percentage of internet users aged 16-64 years in Malaysia. Wow, right?
Many celebrities, artists, and comedians have launched or made a successful career for themselves from being discovered on YouTube. Justin Bieber was one of them and look at his net worth today. It’s insane! Where do I even begin with the benefits for marketers and business owners?
Its simplicity is what led to its popularity and it appeals to everyone on the planet that wishes to share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. It’s a guaranteed formula!
In a business sense, it’s hard to deny the effectiveness of video marketing, as it is a great asset to incorporate into your social media marketing strategy.
YouTube alone captures so much attention, has high traffic volume, marketing your video on YouTube will increase your chances to be discovered on Google, get your videos shared across selected social media platforms that offer media sharing, associate your domain to gain authority to your website, give the audience a different variety of content to consume to learn more about your brand, other than blogs, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Plus, according to the Social Science Research Network, 65% of the global population are visual learners, which certainly shows why YouTube stands at 93% in Malaysia too. We, humans, are visual creatures by nature and can process information based on what we see in a clearer light. We can agree in this sense that video content is king for most businesses if executed with high-quality content and information. Best to engage with a digital agency in Malaysia to strategize and come up with creative video content for your business! Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on this one. For more information, visit YouTube.
What’s this network used for?
If Facebook were to suit up, it would become a LinkedIn. This is a social network playground for busy professionals and recruiting top talents around based on their professional profiles to connect. It’s a good platform for freelancers, build your customer base, and to find potential business partners.
According to statistics from NapoleanCat, as of August 2020, shows that LinkedIn is popular among the age groups of 25-34 which make up the largest group 3,500,000) of users in Malaysia.
So, if you’re not already a member, sign up here at LinkedIn.
Once you’re all set up on LinkedIn, you can then start to explore the features it offers, such as:
- Building a professional profile of your skills, expertise, and more.
- Limited insight to (unless you get one of their paid plans) sees who has viewed your profile.
- Granted 100 views per search.
But there’s more to the formal meet and greet nature on this profile, marketers, and businesses use it to network, connect, and sell their products and services.
How does it work for your business?
LinkedIn is the master of B2B businesses and can help you create a professional profile and start communicating with other professionals out there to discuss industry opportunities and share knowledge on your expertise.
It is an effective tool for finding potential partners that may contribute to the growth of your business.
LinkedIn allows:
- A resume / CV or to attach a portfolio of your previous works to be discovered.
- Get endorsed by your previous workplace or a business professional who is familiar with your capabilities.
- Share quality content that is relevant within your industry (e.g. professional news, updates, and events).
- See other business professionals’ posts related to your industry.
- Search for potential business prospects and possible collaborations.
- Join professional groups aligned with your interest (e.g. lead generation).
- Form your network and join more groups that will add you to their professional circle within your industry.
- Use keywords to get found.
LinkedIn helps you stay connected to the business professionals within your industry and even beyond it. It’s a good platform for businesses to be recognized and form meaningful relationships with other businesses and builds your company’s credibility within the industry.
What’s this network used for?
Pinterest falls under the category of bookmarking and content curation network and is a site where people can discover, save, discuss trending news and topics, and share it with their social groups.
It will remind you of the mood board you created in high school. People use this platform to seek creativity, inspiration, or to research on recipes online or products they are planning to buy, and more.
How does it work for your business?
According to statistics by GlobalWebIndex, Pinterest users in Malaysia amount up to 29%. It may not seem like a platform to pursue your business and look a little too lifestyle-oriented but behind all the beautiful pins and boards lies a cunning weapon in disguise, can you guess? It’s a search engine.
So, if you plan to include search engine optimization in your digital strategy then I kid you not, Pinterest is a good platform for it.
Pinterest users are mainly women and 71% of them are active users on this platform, according to Statista. So, if your brand gravitates towards the female market, you’ll know where to target them with an advantage while it’s still untapped.
Marketers and businesses will benefit from the subtle and indirect manner of selling lifestyle brands. Every idea in Pinterest is presented in a pin and once you tap on a pin, it will lead you to the website of the company, which generates sustainable traffic. When using Pinterest for your business, you should always include links to your website, which should be included in your marketing strategy if you’re a B2C business.
Another fact about Pinterest is that it’s also similar to Instagram and is visually appealing, making it the perfect social platform for lifestyle-related brands and is ideal for the B2C eCommerce audience. Learn more about business with Pinterest.
TikTok
What’s this network used for?
Now this one is the talk of the town, TikTok started in 2016 but its fame skyrocketed only recently. It’s a social media network for sharing user-generated videos, mainly of people dancing to some catchy music, lip-syncing, and many more forms of entertainment— even applies to animal lovers too. It’s that contagious!
How does it work for your business?
TikTok is new to marketing and while it’s still not yet ripe in the marketing department, there’s room for businesses to grow. But, the only challenge for businesses is that if you want to succeed on the TikTok, you must be active in it. You need to give the audience a reason to follow you on this platform.
As fun as this social platform aims to be, it’s not fun trying to be fun advertising in it — and marketers are still trying to keep up!
There are several options for marketers to advertise on TikTok such as, partnering with an influencer which is an effective way of communicating your brand to its rightful audience. According to TikTok, working with an influencer can increase your business ROI by up to 11%.
Another option would be to share your TikTok video content on other social media channels such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and others which will help increase your brand’s reach.
Promoting your brand’s very own TikTok channel is also a good way to blend in with your relevant audience and create your brand awareness there. The rule of thumb when advertising on TikTok is that you want to entertain your audience and make them laugh because that’s what they’re there for. So, don’t bother wasting your time selling boring products or services because you won’t get the engagement you seek, so it’s best to get even with them, make them ROFL or LOL.
Last but not least, marketers and business owners should also create a TikTok challenge because it is the most popular on the platform, and the audience loves the challenge.
An example of a TikTok challenge is the brand, Rexona. They started #RexonaChallenge to hype up their summer line, targeting teenagers. They used an influencer, Kate and she used pop music and started dancing with her own style. Rexona then awarded participants who shared their unique take of Kate’s TikTok dance video. This challenge resulted in 93 million views during their 6-day campaign duration and Rexona gained 14,000 followers on their TikTok account.
Learn how to TikTok here
What’s this network used for?
WhatsApp is a free social network that allows you to connect with friends and family, anytime, anywhere on its secure and reliable messaging, calling, and video calling platform all over the world. Based on statistics by GlobalWebIndex, WhatsApp came in second at 91% as a percentage of the total number of internet users, aged 16-64 years in Malaysia.
How does it work for your business?
WhatsApp for business offers an advantage for marketers and business owners to safely and securely message their customers within the WhatsApp platform.
WhatsApp aims to be the safest and most secure messaging platform so businesses feel it’s a safe environment for them to discuss P&C matters.
As a business, you can create a business profile on WhatsApp to appear more professional when reaching out to your customers. This allows you to insert email, media links, etc. For more information on WhatsApp for business, visit WhatsApp.
Conclusion
Last but not least, if you’re a marketer or business owner, I hope you are feeling more confident with your decision on leveraging the right social media platforms to execute your digital marketing strategy holistically.
If you need more information on how to execute a social media strategy with some of these social media platforms mentioned, click here.
Overall, social media platforms today are all very useful tools to bring you one step closer to your goals. However, time is of the essence here and if you need to focus on your primary business, you will need to touch base with a digital marketing agency to fill up the missing pieces for you.
At Synergy XYZ, we are a digital marketing agency in Malaysia that thrives across all social media platforms and will help you do all the strategizing for your brand to succeed.
