Twitter is officially nearing its tenth birthday this March, joining Facebook and LinkedIn as decade old platforms that have changed the way organizations leverage their brands. Social media allows organizations to directly interact with followers using a unique voice and personality that differentiates them from competition. For organizations in highly competitive markets, managing their brand on social media can be an effective addition to its marketing strategy.
From a SEO perspective, a major benefit to utilizing social media is the ability to share content and information about your organization with an invested audience. It’s an organic form of link building that develops traffic and authority to your website. Links that are shared frequently will have more visibility for search engines, making your website more competitive in the search rankings.
Prioritize The Quality of your Content
The effectiveness of social media relies heavily on the sharabilty of the content created. A study conducted by the NYT Insight Group found that 94% of social media users access the practical value of a webpage’s content before sharing.
Practical value, as well as other attributes like incentives, page readability, and relatability are all factors that play a major role in the sharability of content. This is where a firm understanding of your brand and how to best reflect its values, beliefs, and personality into social media are key to entice users to read your content.
Reflecting Your Brand in Social Media
There are many practical methods to garner attention on social media. A strong call to action or compelling graphic followed by a link will always see an increase in sharing rates. But to truly capture the value of each share, the voice of your content should accurately reflect the brand you portray on the social media platform.
As a rule of thumb, your social media posts should carry the same persona and tone as your content. If you’re a B2B company in a professional industry, you will want to carry that same voice over into your social media. This will attract the users you want to engage with, bringing value to your efforts.
Another thing to consider is the platform that your organization uses. Each social media platform is unique in its features, purpose, and demographic that will greatly influence how you interact with your audience.
Finding Your Best Platform
All major social media platforms utilize a subscription system to follow their favorite users. However, each platform supports a different voice, type of content, and demographics.
Of the many social media platforms, the most commonly used for marketing are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Recent research by the Pew Research Center on the demographic makeup of these platform found that:
- Facebook: 72% of online American adults are active on Facebook with the 82% of adults between 18-29 having a Facebook account. 70% of all users use Facebook on a daily basis.
- LinkedIn: 25% of online American adults use LinkedIn. 41% of LinkedIn make more than $75,000+ per-household. 22% of all users use LinkedIn on a daily basis.
- Twitter: 23% of online American adults use Twitter with 30% of users living in urban areas. This is nearly a third as much as people who live in suburban areas and double who live in rural areas. 38% of all users use Twitter on a daily basis.
Character limits also have a major role in the voice of your posts. Twitter will truncate at 140 characters, including links and hashtags. LinkedIn has a limit of 700 characters, which is much more than Twitter and way more than you should need for an effective post. Surpassing LinkedIn is Facebook with character limits in the thousands.
The important thing to remember is that the nature of interaction on social media is always changing. Platforms are consistently adding new features to enrich the experience for their users. The variety of social media platforms is also growing to serve the needs of niche communities. Search engine algorithms have increasingly placed greater priority in the sharability of content on social media. Keeping updated on the best practices for your industry is crucial to maintaining the engagement momentum you’ve developed overtime.
Strongpages always recommends maintaining an active social media presence for any industry. It provides your website with more visibility to search engines and access to users who are invested in your brand. To learn more about how social media can benefit your marketing strategy, fill out this form and our marketing experts will contact you shortly.
1 “The Psychology of Sharing”. The New York Times Insights. http://nytmarketing.whsites.net/mediakit/pos/
2 Maeve D. “The Demographics of Social Media Users”. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/