Social Media - Braveheart Digital Marketing

How Many Social Media Platforms Should You Focus On?

How Many Social Media Platforms Should You Focus On?

One of the challenges that a lot of companies struggle with is that they know that to be successful, you need to be visible on social media. But how much social media is the right amount of social media?

When it comes to social media, I believe that the answer is always the same: focus on the platforms that are most relevant to your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business or a large corporation, there’s one thing that remains true for everyone – it’s better to be active and engaged on a few platforms than spread yourself too thin across many. That being said, how do you decide which social media platforms are right for your business? Let’s take a look at some of the factors to consider when making this decision.

What Social Media Platforms Does Your Audience Use?

The first step in deciding which social media platforms you should focus on is determining who your target audience is. Different audiences have different preferences and engage with different types of content, so it’s important to understand who your customers are before you decide what social networks they use most often. Take time to create buyer personas and survey your existing customers about their preferences. This will help you determine which networks are best for reaching them and engaging them with your brand.

Know Your Goals

It’s great that you want to be active on all the major social media networks, but it’s also important to be realistic about what resource constraints exist for your business. Do you have the staff or budget necessary to manage multiple accounts? Do you have the time and energy required for managing multiple accounts? If not, then it might be better to focus on just one or two networks rather than trying to spread yourself too thin across all of them.

What Are Your Social Media Resources?

Choose A Few Channels And Invest In Them

Once you know who your audience is and what social media channels they use, it’s time to make the decision about which platforms to focus on. By focusing on one or two platforms instead of trying to be everywhere at once, you are able to create better relationships with customers and build trust with them over time. Through effective engagement strategies such as responding quickly to comments and messages, answering questions people have about your product or service, or providing helpful advice related to your industry, you can deepen these relationships even further. And this leads directly back to increased sales for your business!

When it comes down to it, there is no hard-and-fast answer as far as how many social media platforms a business should focus on. It all depends on factors like resources available, target audience demographics, and results from testing various strategies and approaches across different networks. However one thing is certain, having an effective social media presence is essential if businesses want their brands seen by potential customers in today’s digital world!

If you need help amplifying your website content via social media, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a social media agency in Manchester NH that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. Contact us today to learn more!

How We Grew Our Twitter Accounts To Over 400k Followers

Twitter is out of favor with advertisers and the media since Elon Musk took the company private, but I continue to find it is the best social media channel for the sports accounts we manage.

Tweeting 10-20 times while a game is being played is common, and one of the lessons we have learnt over the last five years is that you need to find a social platform that matches your actions. For us, Twitter allows for a continuous interaction with fans and followers throughout the day, especially on days when a game is being played. This level of engagement is essential for building a strong connection with our audience.

So, while Twitter may be out of favor with some, it remains an essential tool in our social media arsenal.

We are not the only ones who think this. The 2022 Social Media Benchmark report from Rival IQ shows that sports teams are posting more on Twitter than any other platform.

Value Achieved:

So how did our Twitter account become one of the 15 biggest accounts in Milan Italy? By executing the following four steps:

1. Create A Voice And Tone That Resonates With Your Audience

Twitter has become one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years, and it is a great way to connect with fans from all over the world. We created a Twitter account for Inter Milan fans, and we shared the ups, downs and joys of supporting a team. The more “real” we became, the more fans started to follow us.

Twitter is a great way to connect with fans and build relationships. We are able to share news, photos and videos with our followers, and they are able to interact with us directly. This interaction is essential for building a strong bond between a club and its supporters.

2. Seed Your Feed With High Quality Content

I knew that in order to grow our Twitter account we would need more than just content from our site. I wanted to create such high quality content that if you were going to follow one Inter Milan account, it would be this one.

We included content from other websites and Twitter accounts, creating a consistent stream of engaging content, for fans, by fans. This content strategy was modeled after Gary Vaynerchuck’s approach to seed your feed with high quality content. As a result of this strategy, our Twitter account grew rapidly, gaining hundreds of new followers every day. Today, our Twitter account is one of the most popular Inter Milan accounts on the platform.

3. Interact With Followers

Twitter is a great way to seed content and get people talking about your brand, but it’s so important to interact with your followers and make sure that your Twitter account doesn’t look impersonal. Conversation and interaction are key to personalizing the experience for your fans, especially around big games and news events when everyone wants to talk about the team.

Whenever we tweeted during a game, we saw more people become followers. The more we interacted and retweeted our followers, the more fans started to follow us, because they could see that we were a real account – not a bot. So if you’re using Twitter to promote your brand, make sure you’re also interacting with your followers on a regular basis. It’ll make all the difference in the world.

4. Make Becoming A Follower Important To Fans

Twitter is a powerful social media platform that can help you reach new fans and followers. To make becoming a follower important to fans, cross-promote your Twitter account on your website and in your emails. Highlight Twitter-only promotions and giveaways in other channels to encourage fan engagement. Use Twitter to share valuable content, such as behind-the-scenes photos and videos, exclusive discounts, and links to interesting blog posts.

By making Twitter an integral part of your social media strategy, you’ll be able to build a devoted fan base who are excited to follow your every move.

How to Amplify Your Content in Four Steps

The latest B2B Content Marketing report from the Content Marketing Institute estimates that 73% of all marketers are utilizing some sort of content marketing strategy. With so many brands producing blogs, videos, and whitepapers every day, companies can no longer rely on just developing compelling content to get their message out, which is why so many marketers are turning to content amplification—a strategy that focuses on increasing brand visibility across multiple channels. There are a few key ways to amplify your website content via social media, and as a business owner, you should be utilizing all of them! Here’s a guide on how to do just that:

1. Use social media platforms to share your content

This is the most obvious way to amplify your website content via social media . By simply sharing your content on social media platforms, you’re increasing its reach and potential for engagement.

The B2B Survey indicates that 95% of all B2B marketers have used social networks within the last 12 months to distribute content. While the use of organic social media platforms has not changed much Year over Year, it is interesting to see that the use of YouTube increased by 5 points (65% this year vs. 60% the previous year), which is not surprising considering the rise in the use of video.

2. Use social media ads to boost your content

If you want to ensure that your content is seen by as many people as possible, you can use social media ads to give it a boost. This will help increase its reach and also ensure that your target audience is seeing it.

During the pandemic we saw the use of paid content distribution decrease from 81% to 67% as B2B companies moved money away from awareness and into mid-funnel activities like lead generation and direct advertising.

The one platform where advertisers significantly invested less money was Facebook, as the use of Facebook advertising decreased to 56% from 69% YoY.

3. Use social media influencers to promote your content

If you have a budget for it, another great way to amplify your website content via social media is to use social media influencers. This can be a very effective way to reach more people and get them interested in what you have to say.

The 2022 Influencer Report found that finds that 86% of B2B brands say that their influencer marketing campaigns are either moderately or very successful.

A third of businesses report influencer marketing has led to increased revenue, and 85% believe interest in working with influencers will increase in the next 12 months.

4. Use social media groups to get your content seen

We see more and more marketers use groups and communities to distribute their content. The data shows that 26% of marketers (versus 22% last year) use their organization’s branded online community to distribute content.

If you do not have a branded online community the most popular groups for B2B marketers are LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups.

LinkedIn groups are a place for LinkedIn users to gather around a specific topic, interest, or industry. LinkedIn Groups are a great way to build relationships and grow your business and provide a space for like-minded individuals to connect with each other, share ideas, collaborate on projects, and more.

Facebook Groups on the other hand tend to be more of a private forum where members are invited into the group. These private groups provides a place where businesses can share information and promote their brand. They’re an incredibly useful tool for businesses to get feedback from their customers and grow their audiences.

Conclusion

There are a number of ways to amplify your website content via social media. As a business owner, it’s important to utilize all of them in order to reach the widest audience possible. By doing so, you’ll not only increase the reach of your content, but also the engagement levels. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start amplifying your content today!

When To Select A Social Media Agency

One of the questions that we get asked a lot is when is the should I use a social media agency for social versus when should I do it in-house with the people that I have? It’s a great question and I turned to social media expert Amanda Fountain to answer that question. This is what she had to say:

Hiring A Social Media Agency

One of the reasons why a company would consider using a social media agency is to develop a social media strategy.

A social media strategy is one of the key building blocks to being successful on social media. A strategy identifies who your target audience is. What social networks they are on? What messaging they respond too? What types of messaging they do not respond too?

A second reason to engage with a social media agency is to produce more content.

A third reason is to listen and engage with your audiences on social media. Listening is an overlooked aspect of a successful social media strategy. The bigger you are as a company, the more risk you have of missing conversations about your brand if you don’t have someone monitoring and listening all the time.

“By providing great customer service through social comments, you not only retain existing customers but also win new ones.”

Joe Flyan Tweet

Handling Your Social Media In-house

When does handling your social media accounts in-house work best? If you know that your audience is not really active on social, that it is not where you want to talk to your audience then having internal resources handling your social media accounts make sense.

In this scenario, your in-house person just focused on posting content and responding to whatever comments are left.

Agency + In-House Model

The obvious best model is when you have a social media agency partner and someone -in house that’s your social media expert.

You have your in-house person who can lead what needs to happen, can share all that in-marketing insight from the other pieces that are going on, and help with the execution pieces of it.

Your agency partner then becomes your strategist, your person that’s there to tell you what’s happening, tell you what’s going on, counsel you to make changes or consider new things. To push you in new ways that if you’re in the trenches day to day, it’s not always easy to see those things.

So that’s a good model, having a social media agency partner who can be your strategist, and then the in-house person that can oversee implementation and execution of your social medium campaigns.

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on Facebook

Facebook dominates social media, and that’s why both B2B and B2C companies must have a strong Facebook presence to overcome competition. An effective Facebook presence strengthens your brand by providing value and/or entertainment to your audience through posts, tabs, and other shared content. Here are 10 ways that you improve your company’s presence on Facebook:

Facebook Brand Page

Your Facebook page is the central hub of your brand. Creating a Facebook page for your company has many benefits; it makes your business discoverable in Facebook search, allows you to connect one-on-one with your followers, helps you reach a wider range of prospective customers and gives you deeper insight into your audience.

L.L. Bean’s corporate Facebook page connects with customers via cool photos, videos, and tips for outdoor adventures. The screenshot below shows how L.L. Bean also dedicates tabs to its “Free Shipping” policy, a “Base Camp” where customers can post photos using specific hashtags, and a “Join the Conversation” tab where you can sign up for L.L. Bean’s mailing list or follow its other social media accounts.

As L.L. Bean’s page demonstrates, your Facebook page is an extension of your business, and Facebook offers many methods of customization to properly represent that business.

In building your brand presence on Facebook, consider the following five tools:

Facebook Page Cover Photo

The cover photo backdrops your logo and rests at the top of your company profile page. The cover photo tends to change seasonally or promotionally to reflect relevant company updates and also allows you to creatively express your brand. Because of its large size, cover photos offer brands more real estate to work with, with a photo that can include brand messaging, campaign promotions, product images, and an endless list of options.

One of the best corporate cover photos is this one from Starbucks, which showcases products in-house in a warm, inviting way:

Facebook Profile Photo

This image stamping the bottom left corner of your cover photo is how Facebook users identify your company. It’s a small thumbnail that is attached to almost any action that you make across the platform. From posting in a group to posting on your own timeline, this image appears next to all of your posts as the HubSpot example illustrates below:

Facebook Page About Section

The about section is a tab in the navigation bar that resides under your profile photo and cover photo.

This section includes two elements. The first is your page information, which is your opportunity to share details about your company. This section includes sharing information—like a description, products, and links to other social media properties and your main website. See image below:

Facebook Page Milestones Section

The second element (refer to image below) is what Facebook calls “Milestones,” which lets you commemorate and share important events in the history of your brand with your followers, allowing your customers to experience your triumphs right along with you!

Facebook Page Timeline Section

Your Facebook page allows you the ability to post updates for your followers. Posting on Facebook is a key way to build followers and fuel your paid advertising efforts.

These posts can be comprised of text, images, links, non-native video (like a YouTube link), native video (a video posted specifically and originally on the Facebook platform), slide decks, and photo albums.

The image below is from the Facebook page for Sugarbush Ski Resort in VT after the first sizeable snowfall of the season. From the Sugarbush example, you can see how the resort is keeping up with its followers in real time with information (a snowstorm) relevant to the resort’s services.

Building Your Fan Base On Facebook

For marketers, building your fan base is a key activity to achieve through social networks. There are a variety of techniques that you can use to build fan followings, and we’ll explore them in this section.

Creating regular posts is an integral part of building and maintaining your Facebook page audience. You want your audience to seek out your posts, and that’s why it’s important that your content is entertaining, engaging, and informative.

Concurrently, it’s important to post the type of content that appeals to your target audience at optimum times.

Facebook Demographics

Being the largest social media network in the world, your target audience in on Facebook. As of December 2021, the current audience demographics of Facebook were between the ages of 25-54 and male:

When To Post On Facebook

No two days are the same. According to directom.com, you should avoid posting content on Tuesdays. Other days have varied favorable windows.

For example—for Monday postings, you’ll want to post between 11:50AM-12:10PM. Wednesdays are different. The window is a little longer, between 11:30AM-12:30PM.

Interestingly, as the week progresses, the publishing window increases. Thursday, anytime after 3:00PM is a favorable time, and on Friday, the range falls between 3:00-6:00PM.

Weekends tend to be underutilized by many brands, but the secret to weekend success is to publish lighter stuff or upcoming social events.

What To Post On Facebook

Video is key on Facebook. Videos receive at least 59% more engagement than other post types. Notably, Facebook live video generates 2x the engagement of pre-recorded videos.

Facebook Content Opportunities

Live Video:

Facebook’s live-streaming video solution makes up 20% of all video on the platform. As 82% of people would prefer a live video over reading a social post, it allows brands to create a deeper connection with audiences.

Reels

Reels are displayed at the top of the mobile Facebook newsfeed with Stories. Ads for reels provide an opportunity for companies to extend the reach of their stories.

Stories

Facebook users are able content via Stories, which expire in 24 hours. These are easily reshared to Facebook when originally posting on Instagram.

Facebook Ads

Videos tend to get a 20 to 30% increase in conversions compared to Facebook image ads.

Is your business established on Facebook yet? Are you effectively utilizing the social network to work for you? Don’t miss out on Facebook opportunities. Contact us today to increase your sales, reach, and more via the top social network!

Instagram Tactics: Most Brands On Instagram Post Less Than Once Per Day

Some interesting data from the Social Media Benchmark Report about how often brands are publishing content across social networks.

While brands publish the most often on Facebook (0.97 posts per day) compared to Instagram (0.7 posts per day), and Twitter (.86 posts per day).

It is Instagram however, where brands are seeing the most engagement at they are seeing the most engagement at 1.60%.

Higher Ed dramatically outperformed other industries on Instagram again, while brands in other industries saw a slight drop: last year’s median engagement rate was 1.73%.

What is Working On Instagram?

More isn’t necessarily better on Instagram (or anywhere else, really): with the exception of Sports. Teams, the industries with the highest per-post engagement rates post less often.

It's All About The Pictures

Sports Teams are seeing great engagement on Instagram, and are taking more advantage of highengaging carousels than many other industries this year.

Eight Steps To Creating The Best Instagram Post In 2022

How To Create An Effective Instagram Strategy

Instagram Ads

While the majority of ad impressions on Instagram are from feed posts, 42% are from Stories. Reel ads also offer an opportunity for increased reach and engagement.

Instagram Vocabulary

Feed Posts: The original post on Instagram, “feed posts” are photos, graphics, or videos uploaded to your profile’s grid, or main page.

Carousels Carousels are up to 10 photos or videos gathered together in a swipeable post, which often generates more engagement on Instagram.

Reels Reels are vertical videos of up to 30 seconds that are shared into a separate Reels-only feed on the platform.

Stories Stories are photos or videos that expire in 24 hours and are able to be saved permanently as a highlight on your profile.

Instagram Takeaways

Some takeaways from the the Social Media Benchmark Report that you can use to grow your social media presence on Instagram.

More is not always better. A general statement is that posting less frequently on Instagram will engagement with followers.
Instagram is the most visual of the social media platforms, so it is not a surprise that pictures far outperform any other type of post. This hold true across all industries.
Hashtags are still important in the discovery phase for Instagram so companies need a strategy around what are the best hashtags to use and own.

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on LinkedIn

A strong LinkedIn presence is essential for every company—not just those involved in B2B marketing. To build an effective brand presence on LinkedIn, consider the following LinkedIn assets:

LinkedIn Company Profile Page

Your company profile page (like the Evernote sample below) is where a user lands when he or she searches for your company or clicks on its logo from another user’s profile. Company profile pages are a free LinkedIn service that provide business owners a venue to showcase his or her brand.

Because this is your company’s primary landing page on LinkedIn, it’s very important to insure the images and messages you choose properly represent your brand.

LinkedIn Page Logo

The logo informs users about your company in a small thumbnail, which is attached to almost any action that you make across the platform—from posting a job opening to sharing a corporate news announcement.

LinkedIn Header Image

Larger than the logo, the header sits at the top of your company profile page and offers companies more real estate to showcase creatively. Your header image can include brand messaging, campaign promotions, product images, or your staff (as the above image from Luxottica demonstrates), and it can also be frequently changed to reflect exciting and seasonally relevant company updates.

About Us Section

The about section beneath the header is your opportunity to describe your company, providing other LinkedIn users and potential clients insight into your company’s products and mission. Consider Microsoft’s Company Page below:

Microsoft’s profile details the company’s goal (to empower other people and organizations with technology), how that goal is currently achieved (through collaborative ideas), and what the company provides to potential employees (an outlet to answer curiosity, passion, and ambition with quality tools, a resourceful community, and flexibility).

If you can provide detailed answers about your company to potential clients, then those clients will know exactly what your company does and how it can help them achieve their personal and professional goals.

Posting On LinkedIn

Like Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms, LinkedIn allows your company the ability to share posts. Posting on LinkedIn is a key way to build followers and fuel your paid advertising efforts. These posts can include text, images, links, non-native videos and slide decks.

The image below demonstrates L’Oreal’s social prowess; the company links to content on flipboard.com and Youtube.com within its LinkedIn posts.

Because LinkedIn is seen as a professional network, your content mix and tone should be professional and engaging. Additionally, we have found that educational posts perform very well on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Growth Opportunities

Most active companies post frequently on the Company Page, and here are a few content tips that will make a critical difference in your company’s posting success:

Leverage Employees

30% of engagement on LinkedIn for a company comes from its employees. Consider your employees as a primary audience for content when deciding what to post, and use the “notify employees” feature occasionally to notify them about new posts from your page.

Video

We expect to see tremendous growth in video usage on LinkedIn in 2022. According to a recent study, 68% of video marketers say they will include LinkedIn in their 2022 strategy, a 5% increase from 2021.

Tagging

Tagging members on LinkedIn and using hashtags in your posts on LinkedIn can increase reach, engagement, and website traffic. Posts with links performs 45% better than posts with no links.

Ready to enhance your company’s LinkedIn presence? Contact us today to increase your sales, customer base, and more!

State of Marketing: Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social Media was the #1 channel used in marketing in
2021. Social media use overall is at an all time high.
In November of 2020, the Baby Shark Dance video
(you know the song — do do doo doo do do … sorry in
advance for getting that stuck in your head) became the
most viewed video on YouTube with over 7 billion views.

8 in 10 companies invested in social media
marketing in 2021 according to the Hubspot State of Marketing 2021 Report.

Over the past year, companies have had to rethink their
entire strategy — many hired chief customer officers
to support the customer experience. Marketing and
leadership teams turned the mic over to their customers,
listening to how prospects and clients feel about their
interactions with the brand.

In 2021, the primary tactic for social media marketing was
social listening. By establishing a direct relationship with
your social media audience, you’ll learn exactly how to
support, engage with, and convert them into loyal brand advocates.

Braveheart Social Media Process

Successful social media marketing has matured from simply getting “likes” to acquiring new customers and increasing sales from existing ones. Four out of five marketers today view social media networks as critical distribution channels for their content.

We develop strategies that put your content on the platforms that your customers use.

Audit of your existing social media efforts
Creation of social media strategy
Establishing a social media calendar so that your team knows what will be published and when
Implementation of social media best practices
Providing analytics and performance reports so that you can measure the success of your program

If you are looking to grow your following on social media and turn those followers into customers, contact us about our social media marketing services.

How Many Social Media Platforms Should You Focus On?

What Social Media Platforms Does Your Audience Use?

Know Your Goals

What Are Your Social Media Resources?

Choose A Few Channels And Invest In Them

Recent Posts

How We Grew Our Twitter Accounts To Over 400k Followers

Value Achieved:

1. Create A Voice And Tone That Resonates With Your Audience

2. Seed Your Feed With High Quality Content

3. Interact With Followers

4. Make Becoming A Follower Important To Fans

Recent Posts

How to Amplify Your Content in Four Steps

1. Use social media platforms to share your content

2. Use social media ads to boost your content

3. Use social media influencers to promote your content

4. Use social media groups to get your content seen

Conclusion

Recent Posts

When To Select A Social Media Agency

Hiring A Social Media Agency

Handling Your Social Media In-house

Agency + In-House Model

Recent Posts

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on Facebook

Facebook Brand Page

Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook Profile Photo

Facebook Page About Section

Facebook Page Milestones Section

Facebook Page Timeline Section

Building Your Fan Base On Facebook

Facebook Demographics

When To Post On Facebook

What To Post On Facebook

Facebook Content Opportunities

Facebook Ads

Recent Posts

Instagram Tactics: Most Brands On Instagram Post Less Than Once Per Day

What is Working On Instagram?

It's All About The Pictures

Eight Steps To Creating The Best Instagram Post In 2022

How To Create An Effective Instagram Strategy

Instagram Ads

Instagram Vocabulary

Instagram Takeaways

Recent Posts

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Company Profile Page

LinkedIn Page Logo

LinkedIn Header Image

About Us Section

Posting On LinkedIn

LinkedIn Growth Opportunities

Leverage Employees

Video

Tagging

Recent Posts

State of Marketing: Social Media Marketing Strategy

Braveheart Social Media Process

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