What’s the Point of Social Media?

And which social media platform is best for business?

Welcome to Tuesday, which is apparently the most productive day of the week. I personally don’t have a most productive day of the week but who am I to argue with science?

Anyway, this week’s question is: What’s the point of social media?

I’m not asking this question as an angsty user sick of endless scrolling, but more from a business perspective, particularly around which platforms work best for which purpose.

Let’s start with Facebook.

What’s the Point of Facebook?

Facebook is great for seeing what people from school are up to and getting into heated political debates with family members.

But is it any good for business?

The answer is a bit complex with lots to discuss, so I think we’re going to need to sub-heading this bad-boy up, starting with Facebook ads.

Are Facebook Ads Useful for Business?

Facebook ads are pretty handy if you can get your head around them. You can tailor ads to audiences and do all sorts of cool stuff with them.

This means if they’re used intelligently, they can work well for your brand.

But to be honest, regardless of what that social media “guru” (divvy) who keeps spamming your email inbox says, FB ads are pretty hit and miss unless you invest a lot of time and money into them.

Facebook Pixel is better, in my experience, but it only really works if you already have decent traffic to your website. This makes Pixel pretty pointless if your whole reason for using Facebook is to get more visitors to your website because you have none there at the moment.

It does, however, make it a handy tool if you have decent traffic to your site.

So, to answer the question… Kind of.

Interacting with Customers on Facebook

People spend their lives on Facebook which means they now whinge at businesses on Facebook more than ever.

While increasing the amount of whinging you have to deal with might not sound too appealing, for smaller businesses, Facebook messages are more likely to be enquiries rather than complaints.

This means that it’s a good idea to remain active on Facebook if you’re a small business and keep an eye on your messages so you don’t miss out on potential work.

What Should I Use Facebook For as a Business?

Overall, Facebook has made it more and more difficult in recent years for small businesses to make an impact, unless you pay them for the pleasure.

Saying this, I do know of a few small, local businesses who operate solely on Facebook. They get jobs on a word-of-mouth basis, posting reviews of happy customers and showing off their products. Generally, however, these are really small brands who aren’t reaching as many people as they could be.

If this sounds like you, you would probably benefit from utilising a couple of other platforms as well as Facebook, such as Instagram, your own website, a blog, and some marketing.

All in all, I’d use Facebook sparingly as a brand exposure tool and for answering questions. Keep notifications on in case any enquiries come through and don’t stress about not getting much engagement because it can be really difficult.

And if it’s the only platform you use and it’s not working out. It’s time to spread your wings.

Is Twitter good for Business?

Twitter is fantastic for a few things. It’s a great place to slag politicians off and shout at strangers with lots of numbers after their username.

It’s also pretty good for freelancers and business owners.

First off, there seems to be lots of opportunity to go viral on Twitter because people throw retweets around for fun. Even “likes” will have your tweets showing up on other people’s timelines.

Simply post about popular events and reply to popular tweets with your hot take and watch those notifications go wild.

Like Facebook, Twitter is better for bigger brands and while it is easier for them to go viral because they already have the audience, one well-worded comment or brilliant tweet can send you into the dizzying heights of Trendingdom, regardless of your size.

This makes it a quality tool for brand exposure and engagement.

Twitter Communities

There are also lots of really helpful and friendly communities on Twitter of like-minded business-people.

I was really nervous about going self-employed, but the copywriters on Twitter were very welcoming and always engage with posts. They’re a helpful bunch who look out for each other, and I’m sure other areas of Twitter are similar.

This makes Twitter a brilliant tool for networking and getting advice, but for me, it’s not terrific for sales.

You can get recommendations if you’re part of a strong community on Twitter, but like with Facebook and Insta, it’s more of a brand exposure tool, generally speaking.

Should I Use Instagram For my Business?

To be fair, if you have a visual business or anything food-related, you can get excellent engagement on Insta because it’s such a highly visual platform.

Quality imagery and utilisation of hashtags can lead to a strong response rate, but you WILL get loads of randomers from different countries liking your stuff so try keeping your hashtags localised.

But it’s not just random likes and comments. In fact, I know of local companies like cake makers and restaurants who solely use Instagram for their operations, and they’re pretty successful.

You can take orders via direct messaging and post images of your products and happy customers. You can also conduct polls to discover more about your audience and build a strong relationship with your customers.

For the most part, though, these smaller brands use Instagram to get started but tend to outgrow the platform and go for an e-commerce website to make things easier.

Either that or they die. (In a business way, not in a grim reaper way.)

So for me, Instagram is once again a decent brand exposure platform, and you might get messages and enquiries on there so keep an eye on it.

My advice would be that if you’re doing well without it or don’t use it too much, don’t worry about it. Post regularly, as in once or twice a week to show you’re an active company, reply to messages, and leave it there.

And if you use it as your only digital presence, it can be great to get started but you’ll probably outgrow it or get left behind.

Is LinkedIn Useful for Businesses?

LinkedIn is a rare social media platform in that it was created specifically for business types.

While the business pages themselves are poor and don’t really get much engagement, posting as an individual can be a fantastic method of getting exposure.

This is particularly the case for creative freelancers like copywriters. Some of those bastards are excellent at LinkedIn and it works really well for them as a marketing tool.

But you don’t have to be a pro. Even for the novice, you can connect with specific people you want to work with and show off how brilliant you are at your job with your posts.

This means you can post tips, case studies, demonstrate your expertise and show it all off to a captive audience of your own curation. People even have job titles in their descriptions, so you can target specific individuals you want to work with and put yourself on their radar.

It’s because of this that in my opinion, LinkedIn is the best tool for business owners. It’s business-focused and you can target people you need to target as well as being part of a business community in your area.

You also don’t get bombarded with pics of people’s dinners too, so that’s a win.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Don’t get LinkedIn Premium. It’s shit.

Still Not Sure what to do?

A lot of the time, posting on social media can seem like a job in its own rite, and lots of business owners don’t have the time to do that as well as run their operations. It’s also confusing even with amazing guides like this.

Luckily for you, it’s literally my job so I can give it the time it deserves.

I successfully manage businesses from tiny to massive and can help you out with a tailored plan suited to what will work best for you.

I don’t do contracts, so it’s a case of using me and keeping me on if it works. If not, just sack me off and I won’t be upset.

Well, I will, but I won’t kick off or anything. I’ll just let you go with a singular tear rolling down my cheek.

Drop me an email at james@writeocreative.co.uk for more info. I’m cheap as and really good at what I do.