Whether you’re using social media to follow the latest celebrity news, film fun dance videos with friends or create links with potential business contacts, it’s fair to say that the online world drives a lot of our daily interactions.
With 500 million daily active users, Instagram is one of the most prominent social media platforms out there. In fact, nearly 24% of all people aged 13 and above use Instagram.
Hot on its heels is TikTok, the short-form, video-sharing app that soared to popularity throughout the pandemic, which now boasts one billion users.
So, while it’s fairly common for businesses to have LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook accounts, what benefits can these more visual social platforms bring?
Amplify your voice
As a business, there’s nothing worse than knowing there is a conversation happening about you, which you’re not part of.
With the soaring growth of platforms like Instagram and TikTok, it is inevitable that many discussions will happen about your organisation, or at least your sector, on these channels. Therefore, just having a presence gives you the chance to witness the conversation and provide your own voice if necessary.
Power to the people
Making sure you post relatable content is important. It can feel quite clinical if a business posts just sales promotions or self-indulgent posts, which will naturally put off customers from following your channel.
If you decide to take the plunge and start posting your own organic content, it is also the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the individual members of your team — after all, people buy from people. So, if they can put a face, or personality, to the brand they are following they are more likely to remember and relate to it more.
Picture is worth a thousand words
While there is still huge value in written content (that’s where good PR comes in!), on social media, people’s attention spans are much shorter. They are looking for short, snappy, content that they can digest in mere moments.
And unlike many of the text-based social channels, TikTok and Instagram are all about visual content. Research shows you have about eight seconds to capture someone’s attention — and for a business, that someone is a potential customer, so the value is even higher.
This makes it the perfect opportunity to showcase some of your products in their ‘natural habitat’, it makes it easier for customers to see exactly what they are getting and be able to picture it in their own environment.
Trend setter
One of the most valuable assets you have on visual content platforms like TikTok and Instagram is audio. Using trending audio tracks to boost your reach and work with the infamous algorithms has the potential to broaden your audience reach and target new demographics.
You can also capitalise on trending videos by reacting or commenting your organisation’s own thoughts and opinions — just be mindful that you’re adding to the conversation and not just getting involved for the sake of it.
Capturing the content
One of the biggest barriers for some organisations is capturing the content, particularly that which is ‘in the wild’.
But putting together comprehensive social media policy you can set the limits and expectations of the management team, but it is important that you set a culture where you staff feel empowered to capture content while they’re doing their day-to-day activities.
It’s also important that any content captured is in various formats to fit multiple platforms. TikTok and Instagram both work best with portrait formatting, while Facebook and LinkedIn use landscape.
Whether you’re just starting out, or are already familiar with social content, it’s clear there is a captive audience out there to reach and share your story with. It’s understandable if it is a daunting prospect to begin with, but there’s no need to fret – the See Media team are poised support with your social media strategy. To get things started, contact jade.ziola@see-media.co.uk.
