First, ask yourself, “What is my goal for connecting with my audience on social media?” Then ask yourself, “Where does that audience live?” If your answer is simply staying connected to your customers, then posting periodically throughout the month on Facebook/Instagram is likely a great place to start. In 2018, we wrote an article about how businesses needed to adapt their social media strategies to the Facebook algorithm update that changed the way businesses post were displayed to users. Many of these points are still true. Facebook may not always be the best place to aim your focus. You need to find out where your audience is spending its time. Are they on Facebook? Or are they on a new platform? Here is a recent article that shares the breakdown of how different generations use social media. (This article does not factor in TikTok which has been on the rise among Gen Zers and Millenials)

Facebook/Instagram have become pay to play platforms but that doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t seeking out updates from you on your profiles. Depending on your product or service, consumers often visit your Facebook/Instagram profiles for weekly sales, coupons, updates, and store/location hours. Sometimes, they are even checking in to see how you have been involved in the local community. Consumers love to put a face to the brands they support. Posting organically on Facebook/Instagram is a great start! For more detailed steps on how to leverage your social organic reach, check out this article.

What if you are looking to gain from your social media presence? Are you looking for social media to be another avenue of lead generation for your business? If so, the best place to start is with the data. If you have Google Analytics set up on your website, you are able to track the different platforms that users are coming to your website from. This is a great indicator of where you should spend your time and advertising dollars.

A few years ago when conducting SEO work for one of our outdoor structures clients, we found that they have a pretty solid amount of traffic coming to their website from Pinterest. Their brand is very visual and many moms use Pinterest as a means for inspiration for their homes. After further digging, we realized that their Pinterest was not fully optimized to it’s potential. We recommended adding more of their products to this platform, with descriptions, links, photos, and titles that would attract users to their website. Now Pinterest is consistently one of their top referral sources each month.

The final question that always seems to be the elephant in the room, “Should I be advertising on social media?” Our answer is, Yes. However, there are many factors that go into setting your business up for success with this type of advertising. Advertising to your customers on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest is about more than just the ad spend. Is your website optimized for a great user experience? Are we able to track leads properly from ad interaction to conversion onsite? Does the content on your website speak to the types of ads you want to be running online? Is your brand consistent from your social media profiles to your website? All these things are important for setting your business up for success with social media advertising. If all these ducks are in a row, then it’s time to dive into the strategy behind your advertising spend on social. Each business, website, and customer audience is unique, so there will never be a once size fits all strategy for our clients!