4 Underused Ways to Promote Your Brand on Social Media
Here are some social media statistics if you’ve ever doubted the power of social media for business:
- 63% of millennials say they stay updated on brands through social networks.
- 46% of millennials rely on social media when making purchase online.
- Marketers spent more than $8.3 billion on social media advertising in 2015.
- 78% of companies now say they have dedicated social media teams.
Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-business/
However, more and more people are branching out from the social media norm of regular posting and going to other platforms – Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.
While none of this totally shocking, there are opportunities to really get creative and outside the box with your social media marketing. With so much of your competition now on the same platforms, you have to dig deeper and look for other unique ways to get noticed and capture your target audience’s attention. Here are four underused, creative ways to promote your brand on social media:
Tweet Chats
Tweet Chats are a great way to raise awareness of your brand on Twitter. If you’re not familiar with these, think of it like a group chat, except everyone follows the conversation via a hashtag. Every time I have participated in one, I’ve walked away with more followers and more people who now know about my business.
This is something you can host or you can simply just be a participant in. One of the best programs to use for this is tweetchat.com.
To read up on Tweet Chats, Buffer has a great guide to these that is a great starting point. Maybe one night someone will tackle a #southerncchat? 😉
Facebook Live Videos
Facebook Live is the “hot” thing right now on the platform and there are a multitude of ways you can use this to your brand’s advantage. Here are just a few –
- Tip of the Week Video
- Weekly Broadcast
- Sneak Peeks
- Cooking Shows
- How-to Videos
The key to making Facebook Live videos work for your brand is planning them and promoting them. If you did an on-the-fly Facebook Live video, you’d be at the mercy of who happened to be online at the time you went live. If you planned it out and promoted it (via organic posting or social ads), people would know to be online at that set day and time to tune-in.
Specials/Sales via Snapchat
This is something I’m seeing more of. With the limited time-ness (if that’s a word) of Snapchat, this makes the deal seem very exclusive. A lot of brands are still hesitant to join Snapchat, but for those who have made the leap, they are doing quite well with it. There is an ocean of opportunity if your target audience is one that uses this platform a lot.
Example: Promote on your brand’s social channels to follow you on Snapchat for limited time, exclusive deals. Then every couple days post a Snap that says to come in for 25% off item, if you’re a retail store, or if you’re a service-based business like myself, you could create a Snap for a free 30 minute consulting session.
Host an Open House Online
If you are a realtor, this could be one really creative way to set you apart from your competition. Hosting an open house online consists of posting a video or slideshow showcasing the best feature of each residence. You can narrate a walk-through, give decorating ideas and talk about what the seller is willing to offer with the purchase. This is a great way to weed out those who are not seriously interested and for the buyers, this may help them decide if they really want to take the time to go and look. This has a great potential to bring clients to you because of the creativity and the extra effort you go to. Plus, it’s out of the box from the realtor-norm.
This could be done on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram – and with a link to a video, the posting options are endless!
Any of these four ideas can be modified for any business-type, not just the examples I gave. Are you willing to give any of them a try?
This post was written for and originally appeared on The Southern C website and has been republished with permission.
