Blog Post
How Posting and Ad Platforms Can Make The Difference Between 10s and 1000s of Followers
Molly Berard • Apr 28, 2020
It's no secret that the internet is an infinitely expanding space. Social media and digital platforms grow and develop, creating new ways to market your business online. Not all platforms are created equally if your goal is to gain a few 1000 followers. Let's delve into which platforms work best for building brand awareness.
Over the years, the BusySeed team has come to learn that the platforms you post and advertise on can mean the difference between gaining a handful of new followers or getting thousands of followers in just a few months. Social media advertising is far and away the best method to gain new followers, but some digital platforms can perform relatively well organically as well. We're going to take you through some of the most common platforms used in social media marketing, both organically and paid, to help you figure out where you should put your business to gain the most brand awareness. Let's get started!
The Best Platforms For Organic Social Media Marketing
The top digital marketing agencies all tend to focus their attention on the same few digital platforms. This isn't a coincidence; countless studies and years of data collection have shown that some digital platforms are better for brand awareness than others. It's widely agreed that achieving a dramatic jump in brand awareness - as displayed in the form of new followers - is extremely difficult organically. Not impossible, but certainly a challenge. No matter which platform you use, you'll need some great content that catches the eye and makes people want to follow your page. Check out our blogs on cohesive creative, brand elements, and improving brand awareness to learn more. Let's take a look at some platforms, shall we?
Facebook:
Facebook is by far one of the best platforms for businesses to be on. People of all ages use Facebook regularly, so you can be confident that your content will reach the audience you're targeting. That being said, Facebook's organic reach is on a rapid decline and has been since 2016 (Neil Patel). Facebook advertising has quickly become much more popular, filling newsfeeds with sponsored posts and hiding organic posts in the clutter. Facebook's changing algorithm also hinders organic growth unless you know what, when, and how often to post. The new algorithm updates will display content most similar to others on someone's feed. If your content is similar to their interests, you could be seen. If not, you'll get tucked in at the back of the line. It's crucial to post content that will encourage tagging, shares, comments, and reactions. Maybe Michelle follows your page and shares a post. 20 of Michelle's friends do not follow your page, but thanks to the share, they'll now see your post! To make a long story short, as long as you produce good content that is relevant to many people and is engaging, Facebook can be excellent for organic growth and is a must-have for social media marketing.
Yelp: Yelp does not always receive the attention it deserves, especially if the discussion is about increasing brand awareness. Yelp is considered a social media platform, albeit an unusual one. People don't randomly decide to scroll through Yelp, until they want to find somewhere new to eat, exercise, shop, etc. Yelp is very easy to set up and doesn't require nearly as much maintenance as other social media marketing platforms. You'll need to claim your business's page, add some information and photos, and then wait for customer reviews to come in! Reputation management is hugely important in digital marketing because customers trust their peers more than businesses. Yelp is a great place for consumers to turn to to find new service-based businesses. You'll be able to see what you're doing well at, and what needs improving from the customers themselves. Yelp is excellent for brand awareness because your company will pop up based on service type and location that is searched. Yelp also has a "You Might Also Consider" section on each page that can show your business on the page of direct competitors!
Pinterest: Pinterest is used by the top digital marketing agencies around the world. Why? It's extremely popular and is largely based on resharing posts. If you're in an industry that involves animals, food, weddings, fashion, travel, crafting, education, or anything else that's aesthetically pleasing, you will succeed on Pinterest. You can gain brand awareness on Pinterest by creating pins and boards that people follow. Pinterest business accounts display how many average monthly viewers your page has, so you can see how many people are interested in what you're offering.
Instagram:
To be honest with you, Instagram is not the best platform for organic growth. With the increase in the use of social media for business purposes, Instagram is saturated and your content has to fight to get seen. Hashtags can be effective, but only if you use them properly. You need to find hashtags that have a good-size following, but not one that is used on every post ever with the hopes of getting likes. Businesses that are more visual tend to do best organically, especially companies involving travel, fashion, food, health, etc. It's very hard to get organic brand awareness on Instagram, even for top digital marketing agencies.
The Best Platforms for Social Media Advertising
If you're using social media for business, you need to set aside some budget to focus on social media advertising. Brand Awareness can skyrocket if you advertise on the right platforms. Managing ads isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it, and they are sure to get you more followers than resting on organic content.
Facebook: Social media advertising is where Facebook really shines. Facebook Ads Manager is user-friendly and doesn't take long to master. You can laser-target (for most industries) to show your ad to people in your target audience. The cost of advertising is flexible based on your budget, and even a low budget will get you incredible results. You can run Page Like, Engagement, and Brand Awareness ads on Facebook that will all increase your follower count quite substantially. The BusySeed Team has run hundreds of Facebook ad campaigns, and our clients have seen thousands of new followers in just a few months. The Facebook algorithm favors paid content, so your ad is much more likely to end up at the top of a news feed than your normal posts are. And, Facebook ads will show up to people who would never have been exposed to your content otherwise. 12/10, would recommend.
Pinterest: Pinterest is making yet another appearance on this list! It's a very underutilized platform in our opinion. Yes, only certain industries will see a lot of success, but when you do see it you'll be amazed at just how much success you get. Pinterest ads are not very expensive but are extremely effective. Some social media advertisements are obviously paid ads which can be a turn off for some customers. Pinterest integrates ads seamlessly with other pins. Pinterest ads are fantastic for brand awareness because they target viewers who are interested in very similar products or services as what you offer. If they've never heard of your brand before, now they have! Since Pinterest is so popular for shopping, you may even gain a new customer at the same time!
Twitter: Twitter is actually very highly rated for social media marketing. The ads they offer are very effective, particularly for building brand awareness. Similar to Facebook, your sponsored Tweets will appear on news feeds for potential new followers to see. Twitter ads are not very complicated to set up. According to Twitter, the brand awareness campaign has a mass-reach mentality to display your content to thousands of new people. If you work with one of the top digital marketing agencies, you'll see a lot of growth from Twitter ads. Top agencies know how to produce content that Twitter users will want to see more of. Good content = new followers. Keep in mind that Twitter ads tend to be significantly more expensive than other social media marketing platforms. The ads are very effective, but you'll need a hefty budget to see maximum success.
That was quite a lot of information! There are, of course, other social media platforms that we didn't discuss here. Some were excluded because they are best suited for other goals, and some are very industry-specific. Using social media for business growth is fantastic and can be successful both organically and paid. Social media advertising will show much more immediate and drastic growth, so if you have the budget for it, we'd suggest focusing on creating some campaigns. If creating and maintaining digital ads is out of your comfort zone or skill level, think about investing in managed social media! You can hire some of the top digital marketing agencies to handle your social media marketing for you. Managed social media is a beautiful thing that takes the stress off of your shoulders and puts the responsibility in the laps of experts in the field. BusySeed has helped to grow over 300 businesses with digital marketing, and we'd love to help you too! Give us a call at (888) 353-1484 to get started on the managed social media journey!
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