For any business or agency, inbound marketing is crucial to scaling your business and generating consistent leads on autopilot.
Outbound lead generation is certainly effective, but it is a costly, labor intensive process that requires constant hands-on management.
With inbound marketing, though, you’re creating an online presence organically that brings leads to you without you having to lift a finger.
Here’s what a half-decent strategy will get you:
- More traffic to your site
- Boosts your company image
- Increases conversion rates
- Better communication between business and audiences
With that said, you need to find your customers on the social platforms they use. For instance, you cannot try to find a professional environment on any other platform other than LinkedIn.
However, an integral part of Inbound Marketing is maximizing the visibility of your company profile.
The first place that starts is the platform you take advantage of and how you use it.
Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. We’re going to outline which 6 social media platforms are the best for inbound marketing, and how you can use them most effectively.
6 platforms to make sure people can find you
#1 Facebook
Facebook is the largest convergence of audiences from all demographics and locations.
Facebook is a platform that attracts all generations, unlike other platforms that suit millennials better. It’s a powerful platform that can help your business connect with your clients, prospects and also to learn marketing tactics that work. One of the biggest strengths of this platform is the groups it offers, as many of your ideal prospects will be active there.
It’s essentially like an SEO hack, because you’re able to post regular, helpful content in targeted groups that you know your target audiences are in without them having to find you. Not only does this automatically make you seem more trustworthy, but due to the social nature of Facebook, your prospects will likely friend you and reach out organically.
You can also measure the quality of your posts and their usefulness by the amount of engagement the posts get (like any platform), but with the added benefit of reaching out to people who have engaged with your content independently to see if they need your services.
#2 Twitter
Twitter is the ideal “bite-sized” content platform for demonstrating authority and engaging with a high volume of people. You can post multiple times a day without seeming spammy as you might on LinkedIn. With keen usage of your hashtags, you can leapfrog off of trending topics to get your tweet seen and receive more exposure for your business.
The key thing to remember with Twitter is that you only have 280 characters per post, so communicating value in your content as soon as possible is key.
#3 Instagram
Instagram is the home of visual content for businesses, and therefore some brands will have an advantage over others. However, everyone can see success if they know how to play the algorithm right.
For example, at the moment, Instagram heavily favors video content, particularly long-form IGTV content and livestreams. This is particularly helpful to companies who aren’t “visually stunning”, as a simple video of you explaining your services or doing a Q&A stream can yield you great results if you do it right!
#4 Linkedin
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will help you take care of the social parts of your marketing. For a more grounded approach where you can engage with professionals, your business needs to be on LinkedIn. This is the social site where job seekers, employers, and businesses meet and form connections. Refine your posts to be more informative than humorous and also post at least two times a week.
#5 YouTube
YouTube is a severely underappreciated platform, even though many marketing agencies and businesses are able to cultivate a strong following and generate loads of leads from posting consistently.
And if you’ve got a particularly lengthy topic of conversation, video might be the way to go. It is also part of Google which means your business’s videos will rank higher there too. Post as often as you can, but note that this type of inbound marketing is by far the most labor intensive.
#6 Reddit
Reddit is another platform that you can use to grow your business and improve your marketing techniques. Essentially, Reddit is the best site to find out how good your efforts are. The site works by allowing people to vote on images, text posts, and links. Therefore, when you post your content or link to your website on Reddit, it gets rated and also can spark discussions.
This has the additional benefit of generating you incredibly useful feedback on your content. In addition, as with Facebook, there are a myriad of “Sub-Reddits” that you can join where potential new customers are already actively engaged.
This means you won’t even have to play any algorithm games. Instead, you’re springboarding off the sub’s popularity, and utilizing that to reach your target audience.
A side note that is vital though, is to remember that this isn’t a free opportunity to just pitch your services. That’s the fastest way to get your post removed and you out of the group.
Instead, offer free value to the members of the group and start paying close attention to which topics generate the most traction.
Conclusion
Your business needs social platforms to thrive because that’s where your customers and prospects are. Using the platforms mentioned above effectively guarantees increased conversion rates, traffic and builds your brand.
One platform might favor your business more than another, and you might not know which does until you start testing.
We recommend creating a content plan that initially spreads your brand across all 6 of these platforms, and then in several months following, monitor the results you see, and double down on successes.
