Thrive Marketing rounds up key updates to the social media landscape as well as offer training and advice to businesses…
For many years, social media has developed into a solid marketing tool, not just a forum for expressing opinion, sharing memes and uploading photos of your new baby.
In 2015 the teams behind Facebook and Twitter really worked to build a more worthwhile experience for companies looking to use their platforms for business, marketing and advertising purposes.
A lot of companies on the business park fully understand the importance of social media marketing and management, so we won’t go into that (although there is lots of information on our company blog).
However, it’s easy for businesses to do what they’ve always done when it comes to marketing and not explore new avenues that have opened up since marketing operations began.
For instance, did you notice that Twitter has launched Twitter Flight School, designed to improve your knowledge of the platform and how it works for business?
In case you missed them, here are a few changes Thrive recommends you look into…
Twitter
In 2015 Twitter started to play GIFs, videos and Vines in your timeline as you scroll through giving you more than just text to discover. Also, a great way of having a private discussion is Direct Message – no longer limited to 140 characters! In December 2015, Twitter Moments was launched, filled with popular tweets and breaking news.
Facebook
Facebook Advertising is a BIG thing for companies looking to get noticed, particularly in the B2C industries. If you haven’t already dabbled with advertising, get in touch with Thrive for a free walkthrough! Business pages have been hugely improved in their look and capability, particularly on mobile apps and browsers. Messenger Business is a new way of communicating with companies using the Messenger app and can be used to provide your customers with purchase information or live tech support.
LinkedIn
Although LinkedIn is much more of an “only worth it if you fit certain requirements”, for some companies it’s good to have. From an individual’s perspective the new data that has been added to the Jobs section to ensure that users get a better idea about whether a vacancy is a good fit for them.
Google+
Heavily debated for its capabilities and added value to a business, Google+ recently changed the way it displays business information for Google Local searches. If you haven’t already, setting up a Google+ page, in its entirety, can be pivotal in improving how the public finds your website – ask us for more information!
Social media has real validation for some companies and can bring in a lot of new leads – providing you have a clear brand identity and website in place already. The biggest issues for a lot of people revolve around understanding just what social media is, how you need to react to it to ensure it works and what the realistic goals actually are.
Social media doesn’t create sales, it creates lead opportunities. Sharing your product and service messaging and engaging with other users allows visitors an in-road to finding your website and more about you. It’s your website that must then perform to its optimum to produce sales or that “let’s have a meeting” action!
In 2016, we will be sharing in-depth details about upcoming developments and changes to social media marketing and management on the Thrive blog, as well as inviting businesses to come in and chat with us about what is right for them.
• If you are keen to find out more or need a helping hand to get Facebook, Twitter and the alike up and running, get in touch with Thrive at [email protected] or call 0845 838 7517 for a consultation and training session.
