Social media has transformed how those in developed societies communicate. While some lament the dropping popularity of telephones and other old communication methods, the shift appears to be increasing communication between friends. For those in the business field, social media is quickly becoming the best way to reach potential customers online, and young people are uniquely suited to taking advantage of what the platforms have to offer. Here are some tips.
Make attractive pages?
Current social media platforms are far more restrictive than older platforms, and many experts are crediting these clean appearances with their success. Myspace, for example, is largely believed to have failed because it gave users too much power to customize their pages. Young entrepreneurs are encouraged to remember this when creating their properties; the page should be clean and professional.?
There should, however, be hints about the branding and motifs that are used to make the business stand out. The logo is the most important part of the page, so those running the page are encouraged to ensure that the logo looks great on both desktops and smart devices.
Make connections?
The most challenging part of the process is to gain followers. When using Twitter, it is generally acceptable to search through users’ comments and follow those who may be interesting in what the business has to offer. Too much following, however, will trip Twitter’s alerts and can possible put the account at risk.?
Facebook, however, is a bit trickier to use; the best way to find followers is to run promotional events and post great content that is likely to be shared. Offering to donate to a charity once enough users “like” the page can help, and offers of discounts or even free products work as well. It is also possible to create great content that followers will share with their friends; especially good content can spread through several levels of accounts and reach a tremendous number of viewers.?
If the source page is strong, this tactic can gain a large number of followers quickly.
Find a niche and post great content
After working at Oracle, noted CEO?Charles Phillips?found a niche area in enterprise resource planning software and used it to grow his company Infor quickly and in a sustainable manner. Too often, entrepreneurs think that social media is more different from traditional business tasks than it actually is; finding a niche and posting great content is the key to keep followers engaged and to find new followers.?
Social media also provides a valuable tool that many fail to take advantage of: feedback. Comments are likely to lead to new ideas about how to better refine the company’s niche and ideas about great content to post. Further, this feedback can lead to great examples of customer interaction visible to the public.
Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising are still the two most utilized techniques that are used by young professionals, and these two field will continue to be crucial elements for online business. Social media, however, holds the promise of being able to surpass these two fields. Young entrepreneurs are encouraged to create their social media platforms while the field is still relatively young.