Social Media is no longer an option - especially for retail stores looking to make a lasting impression on their targeted audience. Once you’ve committed to the social media cause, you’ve got to decide what platforms are going to be the most impactful for your business - and how much time you’re truly able to designate to each of them.
When you’re looking to leverage social media to create a larger audience and increase your sales - both online and in person - you’re going to have to choose platforms that you’re comfortable navigating that also house the majority of your audience - Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Lemon8…. The list is endless and you’re going to have to do a little research before you jump on in. And don't forget - you don’t need to cover every social media platform all at once - you just need to cover the ones that will aid in your business growth and utilize them accordingly.
Need help choosing a platform? Consider some of these:
37% of the world’s population is on Facebook - nearly 200 million businesses and daily advertisers swarm the application every single day and the algorithm can be a little tricky.
YouTube marketing is great and fairly easy to use - and reaches 2.2 billion MAUs (Monthly Active Users). Plus, its parent company is Google and YouTube is quite literally the second largest search engine in the world.
TikTok is the most visited internet site and is vastly growing. Brands are hopping on board with not only utilizing their own content but also housing UGC to increase views and gain momentum behind a brand to a targeted audience - typically between ages 10 and 29. 47.4% of the United States users are in that age range but over all, TikTok reaches 1 billion people worldwide each month.
Pinterest is a one stop shop for inspiration and discovering anything new - so why not add your brand's latest products for a boost in sales? Pinterest courses 450 million monthly users and the people on their platform are 7x more likely to purchase products they’ve pinned.
Okay, so you’ve chosen your platform(s) and you’re ready to get started? Great! Buckle up - you’re about to commit a lot of time to the cause if you’re wanting to be just as successful as your competitors.
With algorithms that all require something different, daily posting habits being the absolute bare minimum, and engagement needing to happen in real time and around the clock, you’re going to require some help - and here’s where you can find yourself a few apps that’ll elevate some of the social media stress:
Buffer - Your Social Media Management Best Friend
Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform trusted by a large amount of small businesses and individual creators to help drive meaningful engagement and results on social media.
Their offerings include post scheduling, engagement, analytics, and even simple landing pages. They also offer team collaboration so multiple people can work together on a project efficiently and effectively.
Hootsuite - Similar to Buffer, but more!
This is the social media tool used by over 18 million people and more than 800 Fortune 100 companies.
This platform allows you to curate content, schedule content, measure your social metrics, run ads and more! This platform lets you connect to multiple social media networks and you can bulk-schedule content so you don’t need to manually post every day.
Grammarly - Say “No Thank You” to Typos!
Use Grammarly to automate your spelling and grammar checks. The pro account can tell you whether or not your tone is right and if you’re misusing passive voice. Plus, it automates suggestions on how to shorten your writing, not repeat yourself, and generally write for an audience.
Grammarly can integrate into your existing software, like your email, Google Docs, and Hootsuite.
Canva - The Next Best Thing to an In-House Graphic Designer
Obviously this easy-to-use graphic design tool has seriously upped the way we create content - that’s why it’s been added to quite a few applications main dashboards. But did you know you can also schedule your content and also track how your socials are performing? We 10/10 recommend this application!
For more tips and tricks on how to up your social media game, our favorite applications in saving social media time - or all around marketing ideas, be sure to sign up for our email list and receive updates on all of our blog posts!
By: Laurie Candeloro
