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In recent years, social media has moved from a ‘trend’ to an essential piece of a digital marketing strategy. It has become a habitual part of our everyday lives and as a result, it’s a very crowded and therefore competitive space. Incorporating social media into your business marketing strategy is essential, but running effective social media accounts is not only time-consuming, but to be effective you need to have a strategy. So, where to start?
Which platforms should I be using?
1. Define your social media goals
What are you trying to achieve? Pet businesses such as vet practices and other pet professionals use various forms of social media to serve their goals. For example, if you want to increase your brand awareness, gain new clients and customers, and expose your business to new audiences, you may consider Instagram. However, if you have more time to invest and want to communicate, educate, and engage with clients and customers directly, you may consider Facebook.
2. Understand which channels your audience is using
One of the key uses of social media is to put you in front of, or in touch with, your most receptive audience. Utilise your analytics to understand which demographics are your key audience as a starting point, from there it will give you a gauge of where they are likely to be operating. Once you know your target audience, you can use the likes of paid advertising (for example, through Facebook), to input your ideal audience - this will estimate the audience size and what they may be doing to inform your strategy.
3. Look at your capabilities as to what type of content you are able to create
While you may decide that TikTok is the most popular platform and could form part of your strategy, without the internal capabilities to create and post relevant content, you could waste a significant amount of time for little return. Equally, look at the integration opportunities, i.e. how all aspects of your marketing work together. If your pet business tends to focus more on blogs to drive website traffic, it may be you can recycle this content through various forms, such as linking your blog through a visual on Instagram. Same goal, different vehicle.
4. Ok, so now which platform?
Various forms of social media can be used for pet businesses, but fundamentally, there are 5 key leaders which are consistent across most business pages.
Still the leader in usage, Facebook remains the largest and most popular platform. Alongside its ability to post text, you are also able to post images and/or videos from your business page specifically. This is an effective way to communicate with pet owners, build relationships, and possibly even engage with audiences in targeted groups, allowing your business offering to be seen.
While Instagram comparably has almost half the users of Facebook, it has very similar capabilities to Facebook, and in addition, is emerging as a more effective conversion tool with the introduction of Instagram shops where there is no need to redirect to a landing page. Instagram, whilst a more image-led platform, is also emerging as a safe space for social causes, giving businesses the added opportunity to demonstrate what values their business aligns with effectively and spreading that to a wider, potentially untapped, audience.
More of a personal/professional networking platform, LinkedIn equally enables networking between professional organisations in your industry. This is a great way to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and to share information with others in your field. As the age-old saying goes ‘people buy from people’.
Pinterest, arguably less effective for businesses, is a visual social media platform where users can create and share pins (i.e. images), create mood boards, and shop. Pinterest, while more of a personal platform, can be highly effective for a targeted set of businesses. For example, many wedding gown boutiques use Pinterest to create ‘boards’ of the dresses they stock for customers to ‘pin’ their favourites. Not only does this create a highly efficient and personalised shopping experience, but more importantly, could greatly increase brand exposure and your customer base.
YouTube
Finally, our last social media leader, YouTube. The rise of the ‘vlogger’ created huge scope and opportunities for businesses to sell their products and services. This move into influencer marketing probably needs its own blog, however! In its simplest form, YouTube is a video platform which for businesses is widely utilised for promotions and instructions. Its emergence as a customer service tool is growing and a sure way to express your brand personality in the process.
If you are unsure where to start or which platforms you should be spending your precious time on, we’ll happily chat through your options and help you to get started. Similarly, if you are ready to take your social media presence to the next level and serve your aims better, we would love to hear from you.
If you would like a free consultation, drop us a message at hello@join-embark.com - we love to chat!
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