Introduction
As a Business-To-Consumer (B2C) market company, you need to consider which social media channels will be most effective when creating your marketing strategy.
The B2C marketing world can be tough. Whether you are a national chain, or a local business, you are destined to have competition in your niche. Having said that, you need to set yourself apart from the competition. But how? To start, embed these platforms within your social media strategy to get the best value for your time, and follow some of my tips to help grow your brand.
Below you will find my ranking of the most effective platforms for B2C marketers. Have no mistake, ALL of these platforms are very powerful, but some are just a tad better than others. (See My Ranking Below)
1. Facebook
Number 1. Facebook. With 2.8 billion users and 2.2 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers the largest market for both B2C and B2B marketers. (Check out my top 5 B2B marketing platforms here)
Facebook is the best used as a platform to build brand community. 97% of all B2C Marketers use Facebook as a platform in their content marketing efforts. One benefit of Facebook for marketers is its various ways of user engagement. For example, likes, comments, and shares. The prized possession engagement event for marketers is the share button. Not only does the share button broaden your reach into the user's network, but it essentially puts that user's "stamp of approval" on your content to their friends.
Facebook is a very versatile platform for marketers as far as content form. Marketers can create long/short-form text content, long/short-form video, photo content, repost company blogs, polls, slideshows, etc.
For campaign measurement, Facebook provides marketers with quality insights on performance. Utilize Facebook's Business Suite to schedule social posts ahead of time and measure post metrics like reach, click-through rate, website clicks, profile clicks, and more.
To sum, Facebook is the go-to platform for B2C companies, especially if you are only utilizing a singular platform.
2. Instagram
Number 2. Instagram. For marketers, Instagram is a great platform to build a brand. Built around visual content, Instagram is a platform that can build your brand's identity. Your brand will familiarize itself with the consumer through visual effects like the color scheme, font style, and other graphic values.
The holy grail reach event for Instagram marketing is when a follower shares your post onto their story. Like Facebook, this is the follower showing their followers that they give your company the "stamp of approval." But, the holy grail engagement event for marketers is when consumers share content showing your product in use. This content is called user-generated content. User-generated content is essentially free advertising for your business, bringing a great deal of credibility to your business along the way.
When presented with user-generated content, take advantage of it! Repost this content onto your feed. By reposting, not only does this show appreciation to the content creator (generating brand loyalty), but this also encourages other followers to create user-generated content as well- the snowball effect!
Take advantage of Instagram's content features like Reels to generate broad organic reach for your company, and build a brand!
3. TikTok
Number 3. TikTok. TikTok has easily taken the crown for the fastest-growing social media platform over the past year. The younger generation lives on the app, with the older generation's viewership rising week after week. TikTok is the ultimate platform for B2B marketers looking to take advantage of organic reach.
TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share up to a one-minute-long video on any topic. TikTok's algorithm allows accounts with very minimal followers to create videos with the potential of millions of views if the content is worthy. For that reason, TikTok is by far the easiest platform to go viral on as of today.
B2C businesses should use this platform to create an engaging video highlighting products and brand while staying involved with current TikTok trends. Other strategies include:
Creating branded effects and hashtags
Utilize the TikTok Ad Manager
See what content is working with the analytics tools
Reach out to influencers for collaboration
Have fun!
Overall, TikTok can be a powerful tool to get mass views quickly, but it is not as easy as it sounds. Create lots and lots of video content because you never know which one could be your viral hit.
4. Twitter
Number 4. Twitter. Termed the "Micro-Blogging Site," Twitter is an effective platform for real-time communication and brand building. 65% of marketers utilize Twitter in their marketing plan. Twitter is most effective when engaging with followers, using hashtags, and staying in the loop with current industry trends and memes.
Most brands utilize Twitter as a customer service platform, allowing them to search tweets involving their brand, assess the problem, provide help in real-time. Each time a brand resolves issues with an upset customer on Twitter, brand loyalty increases along with brand credibility.
For small businesses, customer service may not be necessary for this form. If a problem tweet does arise, yes, obviously engage with that customer, but most small businesses don't have hundreds of tweet mentions like Wendy's.
So, if not customer service, then how should a small business should utilize Twitter?
Twitter for small businesses should focus on staying in touch and engaging in industry trends and current memes. For example, a hot pop culture topic right now is Netflix's "Squid Game." Check out this example of how Murray Marketing engaged off this Squid Game ad idea.
5. YouTube
Number 5. YouTube. The largest online video platform with about 2.3 billion users, YouTube is the second most popular social media platform, with 79% of internet users having a YouTube account.
One of the most popular forms of content for YouTube marketers is "How To" videos. How to videos give brands the opportunity to show off product functionality, quality, and benefits. Other forms of content include:
Ad Clips
Vlogs
Animated Tutorials
Podcast Clip Cutouts
Top 5 Lists
Customer Testimonials
Location Tours
Staff Interviews
Any User-Generated Content to Re-Post!
"Behind the Scenes" Clips
In addition to views gained from the platform, YouTube can also be used as a tool to host the videos that you have embed on your website. Utilize YouTube as a tool to bring a different form of content to your audience, and don't forget to cut out short highlights from videos to post onto your other platforms!
Thank you for making it this far; I hope this helps! Please reach out to me with any questions or service inquiries via contact form or info@murraymarketingservices.com.
If you found this interesting or helpful, don't forget to share! Cheers!
- Nathan Murray, Founder, Murray Marketing Services
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