Home > Our Thoughts > Social Media

How You Should Use Social Media For Your Business

The advantages of social media have long been overstated. According to Statista, more than 85% of the Malaysian population are active social media users as of January 2021. Businesses that do not tap into social media stand to miss out on a fast, affordable, and effective way to boost their businesses if they do not utilize these digital tools, but don’t worry! If you don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered; just keep scrolling down to find out more!

Know Your Marketing Goals And Identify Your Target Audience

Firstly, ask yourself questions about the goals that you would like to accomplish for your business on social media. Do set a time frame for completion. List down a few essential tasks or objectives that you would like to focus on within the first one, three, or even six months.

Secondly, knowing your target audience is crucial from the start. For example, is your target audience mainly women? What is the age group? Once you know who your target audience is, it’ll be easier to choose the right social media platform for your business.

Select The Right Social Media Platforms

However, you could also consider exploring other platforms too, and each platform has its pros and cons. Opting for the “on-trend” platforms does not always give you the best result; you will also have to see if your contents are suitable for the majority of the audiences on the platform. If your business focuses on video content creations, YouTube may be an ideal tool for your business.

YouTube, the most-used social media platform in Malaysia, can help you reach audiences interested in watching videos to get the knowledge or information instead through text. On the other hand, WhatsApp is a fantastic tool for businesses to contact users or vice versa. On top of that, you can even update the latest promotion or update WhatsApp stories for the target audience to view.

Use Catchy And Relevant Handle And Hashtags

Start with a social media handle or username that is catchy and relevant and, like all good brands, memorable. It should be easy to remember and if you have multiple social media accounts, make sure most of the usernames or handles are consistent; if you can’t, try to be as close as possible.

An example, for instance, is Velvet Vanity, a local cosmetic brand, named their handle on Instagram “shopvelvetvanity”; on Twitter, on the other hand, the handle is “velvetvanity_”. Since these two usernames are relevant, it takes seconds for the users to search for their store online.

Hashtags are essential in many social media accounts, such as Instagram and Twitter. By using the right hashtags, you can improve brand visibility. Start with one of your brands, but make sure you add other hashtags that you feel are relevant for your brand and product category. You want your brand to be associated with the product. The more relevant the hashtags are to your targeted audience, the better visibility your brand will get.

Social Media Plans & Schedule Your Post!

Let’s say you find a restaurant on Instagram, but there’s been no update in over six months. Would you feel skeptical about visiting it? You may question whether the business is still operating. If the answer is yes, then here’s how you can avoid the same mistake for your business.

The question is, how often should you post content? How often is too often? The answer to your questions is consistency and quality.

Facebook Post Frequency:

Post at least three (3) times a week.
Ensure that you never upload multiple posts in one go; this will make the audience feel uninterested and lead to social media fatigue.
Always check your Facebook Insights.

Twitter Post Frequency

Put more effort into Twitter; this means you can tweet 3-6 tweets a day, spaced out through the day.
Engagement. Make sure the tweets are relevant for your audience to respond to or retweet.
A good rule of thumb is that you need to be active every day. If you are not active on Twitter, the chances of losing followers are very high.

Use online scheduling tools to publish your posts if you’re tired of posting manually. You can view what the postings look like before posting them. Facebook Creator Studio offers all the tools that assist you with postings on Facebook pages and Instagram accounts. You can check out Buffer and Hootsuite for similar services, but we would suggest you make the comparison before subscribing as well.

Keep on experiencing the journey of content creation until you find the right tactic that suits your business. There is no right or wrong answer, but it will not work out well if you are not consistent or create high-quality content.

SEO is trackable:

You can track how visitors enter your website
The devices that they are using
The items they have added to the cart
The visitors’ page before they leave

Google Analytics generates all the details you need to know to analyze and understand your customers’ behaviors. From there, you can improvise your website to attract more potential customers.

Share Your Brand’s Story And People Behind The Brand

Story-telling is extremely important when it comes to digital marketing. You want to resonate with your target audience, and you want to engage with them as much as possible. Go the extra mile to develop an emotional connection with your target audience. Of course, you can always share your brand’s story on social media platforms; copywriting is the key, and words of choice are crucial.

If you have been in Petaling Jaya long enough, you might recognize Table and Apron, a local neighborhood restaurant. Table and Apron constantly update their social media posts and share with their audience about the brand and the people behind the restaurant. It makes the audiences feel more approachable, leaves a good impression on the restaurants, creates high-quality content, and is, most importantly, authentic. Next time when you are brainstorming, apply the content and come out with a brand story to resonate with your target audience.

Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

Hiring a digital marketing expert to execute the social media plans would be a good idea, especially if you are not a very tech-savvy user and have many more things to keep track of when running a business. You could set up a department for your company specializing in social media, covering all the social media content, from copywriting, photography, videography, and design.

If this is too much to invest in, for the time being, you can reach out to a digital marketing agency that provides the services that you need for your business.

The experts from the digital marketing agencies are usually highly experienced and can provide you with some advice on your business. If you are looking for a digital marketing company, UnRavel is a 360° digital marketing agency that offers social media management, digital PR, SEO services, content marketing, and more to boost your business.

Final Thoughts

Before setting up your social media accounts for your business, make sure you’ve done your research. Find out which social media platform is most popular with your target audience, starting with the one that best matches your business goals. Don’t fret over if you are not active on social media. You can always start small and add more platforms in the future to reach out to more people.

If you need an expert’s advice, fill-up the form below, and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible!