It’s 2016. We live in very modern times that continue to move forward at a quicker and faster pace than ever before. It also means that businesses and business plans, including our own in the window and door industry, also have to move just as quickly in order to keep up with changing consumer demands. Social media, and it’s many platforms, have become an integral part of many businesses in our sector. But not for everyone. And that is frustrating. There are some that I see using it poorly, and some businesses, some BIG ones, don’t have any official presence on social media at all.
So, here’s a little refresher as to why social media is absolutely key when it comes to business plans and marketing, now, and in the future.
It’s free!
Everyone likes a bargain in January, and you cannot get better than this one; social media is totally free! Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest and the rest are all free. No sign up fees, no monthly subscriptions (unless you really feel the need to pay for LinkedIn’s pro features) and there’s no cancellation costs of you decide a particular platform is not for you.
How easy is that to work into a marketing budget?! All you need to spend is a little time learning the features of each one and how best to apply them depending on your own specific needs and target audiences. I’ve created a little guide to decipher which platforms are best depending on who you’re trying to target.
Everyone is on there
The numbers on social media is staggering. Facebook alone has well over a billion users worldwide. Combine all the networks and those numbers run into the many billions, so there is little doubt that your own target audience is in the mix.
Social media is instant. Unlike print ads which take time to come to market, tweets, facebook pages, YouTube videos are all platforms which can reach your target audiences as soon as they’re live, for free. Surely this is worth taking advantage of?
Fact is, social media is very much here to stay. Yes the landscape may change over the years, with some new platforms coming and some old ones going away from time to time. But social media has changed the way we communicate around the world, and how businesses, including UK window and door companies, can communicate and reach out to existing and new customers.
A guide…
Not all platforms will suit your needs and your target market, so here is a quick guide as to which social media platforms hit different audiences, and which might be better for you and your business – based on my time using them over the past few years:
- Used almost as a news service
- Best used on a B2B level: syscos to fabricators, fabricators to installers etc
- Great for quick and responsive interaction with people and companies
- 140 character limit allows for straight to the point information and decision making
- Not a great platform for engaging home owners with, but that trend is slowly changing as some start to engage with Twitter and Facebook at the same time
- A slowly growing platform, but one that looks like its here to stay for the long haul
- Unlike Twitter, Facebook is a far better platform in which to engage with home owners
- No text, image or character limits, allowing companies to really beef up their Facebook presence
- Page likes are easily built up if time is spent nurturing your page – no need to pay to boost your Facebook page if you do it right
- Don’t expect much in the way of B2B growth, LinkedIn or Twitter is best for that
- By far the largest platform, which should making targeting and finding those new customers a bit easier
- The jury is still out on this one – it’s never really set the social media world alight
- Despite this, some reports make Google+ the second largest platform by way of accounts
- “Communities” and “Collections” are your best way to gain traction, but in my experience it has been difficult to build up any sort of web traffic or social interaction
- Works nominally on a B2B level, almost zero on B2C level
- A platform worth being on simply just for having a presence on there, just in case
- A network for business professionals
- A definite B2B platform, don’t expect to pick up home owners as new customers on here
- Great platform in which to connect with other like-minded professionals, across all levels within a company
- Keep the chit chat strictly business – people are on there for a reason. Reserve football and personal views for Twitter!
- Perhaps one of the best ways to pick up new customers, at least from a sysco or fabricator level
- There is a premium option on LinkedIn which incurs a monthly fee. Many see no use for it, and it’s a bit expensive when you look at what you get for your money
- If you’re a blogger or PR company, it can be a good platform to boost site traffic. Just make sure you find the right connections and post articles in the right groups.
- The king of image-based social media – a great platform for installers to showcase their work to potentially interested home owners
- Also a great platform for fabricators to show off their installer’s own work – useful if trying to growth a customer base
- One of the fastest growing networks, and relatively simple to use once you’ve spent a few minutes getting your head around it all
- A great way to group certain things together, making it easy for potential clients to browse efficiently around the content you’ve gathered
Those are just a few, but are the main networks used to build business and engage with potential new customers.
Social media is something that absolutely should be embraced, whether you’re a fan of it or not. It should be part of every single business and marketing plan in every window and door company up and down this land. It’s all free, simple to use once you’ve invested a little time knowing how to get the best out of it, it’s got a growing audience that will only get bigger in time and communication is instant – perhaps the most valuable of all.
If you’re not making social media part of your business plan in 2016, perhaps you need to think again.
It’s worth pointing out that you’re better off picking one of two networks that work well for your business, rather than trying to run all of them.
Good post… I would add that a ‘Social Listening’ tool like Hootsuite is a must for any business user of social media.
I also think a big area for improvement is the analytic analysis regarding posts, Linkedin has this covered really well if you post from your company page. The others need to catch up especially for B2B as I like to know if I’m reaching my target audience.
It’s so true. This is the year that social media will move from being social to business. We see lots of companies using platforms for keeping in touch but not exploiting it to generate real business enquiries. And that’s what we predict the big difference will be for 2016. Most social media platforms are really simple to use and monitor. Many companies now have at least have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn even if it’s just for the benefit of SEO. Initially developing one or two platforms to get started is certainly a good idea. But sometimes it’s… Read more »
I agree with most of the comments so far but would urge anyone to have a think about what they are trying to achieve through social media before starting. Personally, I use self generated and therefore content to drive traffic to a website. I try to make the content relevant and interesting for the audience I want to attract and I make sure that everything fits with the brand. I have a separate private Twitter account and on LinkedIn, where my own name is most closely linked with the business, I keep it strictly business. In other words, I argue… Read more »