The deadly outbreak of Covid-19 globally has changed the way of buying & selling goods and marketing. Businesses that were forced to shut down during the pandemic have made their way to social media platforms to sustain their business.
Marketing on social media is the cheapest form of selling products. The ROI it’s providing to the business is highly commendable and is increasing daily.
Suppose you are a business owner and leverage social media to market and sell your products to customers.
In that case, you are confused about which is the best social media site to choose to target audiences and achieve your business goals.
Then you have landed on the right place as here we will be discussing leading social media platforms to start a successful online business.
Without any further ado, let’s get started!!
Importance of Social Media Platform for Business
The reasons as to why social media platform is essential for business is mentioned below –
- Build Brand Awareness- When you constantly keep on promoting your products on social media leading platforms. Your brand’s name will stick to people mind’s leading to sales of products.
- Make connections with customers- By doing business through social media, you can directly connect with your customer. So, you must build a healthy relation and a customer base for them to return and make a purchase again.
- Revenue Generation- By selling products & services on the social media platform, you can also generate income by selling products to your base of customers.
10 Leading Social Media Platform to Start & Promote Online Business
Instagram is the most popular photo & video-sharing social media platform. It allows users and business persons to share their products via posts, stories & reels, IGTV, and live videos to potential customers.
One of the essential features of marketing is to know about the preferences and choices of customers. You can do so by going through their feeds on Instagram.
But if the person whose feed you want to check out has a private account, you can use tools such as; Instalooker and imglookup to spy on their posts, stories, etc.
Facebook is one of the best social media platforms with billions of users. Due to the broad base of users on Facebook, it is easy to target customers through photos, videos, live sessions, advertising campaigns, and stories.
It also allows businesspersons to build an email list to connect with customers and build relationships.
As a brand, you can also create a private group on Instagram where members or customers can join, interact with you, or post questions about the product, if any.
The algorithm of Facebook is quite robust, which allows them to promote and scale their businesses among newer audiences.
Messenger
Messenger, a social media platform, is a part of Facebook but a standalone application with various expanded features.
It is a helpful platform for running a business. You can connect directly with customers, take orders, solve their issues, get feedback, etc.
A business person can also create chatbots, advertise, and send newsletters to potential customers. It also enables you to set up automated messages for the business page.
This platform also allows the sharing of exclusive content about business with people to increase the base of customers and ultimately increase income.
Pinterest is one of the best social media platforms to share engaging and unique visual content belonging to any niche.
Businesspersons or E-commerce business firms can share or pin anything, from scarfs to shoes, from home decor to an infographic, from recipes to wedding inspiration ideas on this platform.
This platform has features that allow you to write a description and add links to the product and upload photos.
There is also a built-in purchase feature on this platform that makes business promotion an easier task.
YouTube
Youtube is a unique video-based social media platform that has more than 2 billion users globally. People use it not only for entertainment, but also to learn about new things & products through videos.
Hence, making it a powerful and leading tool to run & promote business. To operate a business on YouTube, you have to create a channel and upload recorded videos.
Otherwise, do live sessions to showcase your products, tell their features, qualities, price, and give a demo or tutorial to impress viewers.
It is a visual way where customers can analyze products in a better way before actually purchasing them.
Whatsapp is the most common and the best social media app for messaging, owned by Meta.
It is a direct platform to share products & services with the customers and communicate or connect directly with them.
Whatsapp allows users to set up a business profile which enables them to quickly respond to the messages from customers and automate some messages to keep you organized.
It also allows businesses to create catalogues of their products & services, essential to promote products to potential customers.
Reddit is an attractive social media platform, which allows you to interact with customers based on shared interests.
It is an open sharing platform that has specific rules about what to post and whatnot. On this platform, you can share content, their purchasing links & also replies to or solve customer queries.
This platform also acts as a research tool that allows you to know or understand the likes, preferences, and choices of potential customers.
There are also various advertising options, with which you can showcase your business in front of new & interested customers.
LinkedIn is a leading social media platform for professionals. They follow a B2B business model and are mainly for those who are in search of jobs.
Business companies should maintain a LinkedIn account to update potential employees who want to join your business company.
You can also share information about what your company offers to employees & customers, its work mail address, and other necessary information essential for those searching for new job prospects and want to know more about business companies.
Quora
Quora may not be a direct social media platform to advertise and promote your business. But you can do so indirectly.
Users on quora ask various questions related to different niches and verticals. Suppose you run a business related to the niche of questions asked by the users.
In that case, you can reply to them to build yourself up as an authority. Your replies should be linked directly to the asked questions. It should not seem like you are blatantly advertising your business.
Twitter is one of the oldest social media platforms. Similar to Instagram, this platform also allows users to share photos, videos, add captions, and hashtags along with them.
On Twitter, you can search for potential customers with the help of hashtags. You can hunt for a hashtag similar to your business or use it in posts you come across.
And when you find anything related to your business or hashtags made by people wanting services or products that your business can offer. You can tweet them to inform about the same and gain new customers.
Conclusion
Apart from social media platforms for running and promoting a successful business mentioned above, you can also use other channels such as Snapchat, TikTok, Yelp, Tumblr, and Next Door.
So, if you are also planning to start an online business or take your business to a broader reach of the public, then follow the above guide to get started.