People of every age, background, and culture love social media. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are some of our favourite social media platforms. With billions of accounts spread across these sites, this is a great opportunity for any website to grow their brand.

Social media marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing channels available. Every hour of every day, brands of every category use social media to create awareness in the marketplace.

Users on social media are constantly searching for content to connect with. As a business looking to generate high quality leads and create conversation, it all begins with creating a successful social media profile.

Creating brand awareness
What social media does better than anything is let people know you exist. According to a survey by MarketingSherpa, the average adult between the age of 18-34 is most likely to follow a brand for the first time after they are introduced to them on social media. Include on your profile key information like your address and location, phone number, images of branding and products, and more.
Using the right platforms
Only use platforms that relate to your business. For example, Instagram is very image-friendly so creating a profile here will rely on sharing pictures of products and services. A common myth is a brand should have a profile on every platform – they actually don’t. If you can build relevant, positive social media experiences, up to 71 percent of the users you connect with are likely to recommend your brand to a friend.
Use social media only if you can maintain it
There’s no sense in creating a social media profile and never updating it, abandoning it in a sense. According to Lithium, 78 percent of people who make a public brand complaint on social media expect a response within 1 hour. If you have a social media profile, you’re going to want to resolve any disputes or complaints is as timely a fashion as you can. A strong social media presence is dependent on providing regular updates and implementing a strategic marketing campaign based on updates across these social channels.

Separate your business from the personal
Keep your business social media profiles separate from your personal profile. Subsequently, there’s a different expectation for a business social media page. Users expect to find your phone number, logo, email address, business banner, photos of products or services, details of services, and a background business description of your brand.
Add the appropriate image size
When adding images to your social media profile, it’s important to follow the guidelines of image sizes for each platform. When you don’t, what ends up happening is a form of image compression which degrades the quality and makes it appear low quality. Across Facebook alone, there are now more than 50 million small business profiles. You want to take every opportunity to appear high quality, professional, and legitimate, to elevate yourself above the competition.
Add a ‘Follow Us’ section to your website
As you build out your website design, you will want to integrate social media links onto every page. Connecting your social media to your site is incredibly important for synergy across platforms. Blog posts, brand descriptions, and landing pages are all opportunities to feature social media links. Surprisingly, up to 96 percent of people discussing brands on the Internet do not follow these same brands on social media according to 121 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts. By connecting these people to your profiles, that gives them an ongoing connection to your brand.
Start your own discussions
Social media is a great place to drive discussions around products and/or services. These discussions can easily veer off into negative territory though so it’s important to monitor them on a regular basis. According to a report published by The Drum, social media influences more than 52 percent of all online and offline purchasing choices. If you can control the discussion surrounding your brand’s products or services, that works in your favour.
Blog on a regular basis
Sharing blogs via social media is a great way to get clicks to your site. Be sure to write business-related content and keep opinions or personal information to a minimal amount. Posting relevant blog content on social media sites like Facebook open you up to having that shared with potentially hundreds of thousands of people. According to We Are Social, there are more than 1 million new active mobile social media users added across these platforms every day. Tap into that!