The purpose of this article is to discuss the basics of the four main social media platforms that you can use to help elevate your business.
One nice thing about Facebook is that it has its own business marketplace, so to speak. You are able to run advertisements through your Facebook Ads Manager account. This account is connected to your Facebook profile, so no need to create a new Facebook account. The ad set-up time is no more than 15 minutes. It is quick and easy to navigate. You are able to target as broad or as narrow as you want in regards to people. You do this by choosing the demographics such as age, geographical location, gender, profession and any interests they might have that pertain to your business or restaurant.
For instance, if I was the owner and operator of a local gym, and I wanted to promote my “New Year’s Resolution” special offer. I would tailor my advertisement to my target market -- those who enjoy going to the gym, age range of 18-65+ because those are more likely to be independent or living on their own, male and female, and those who live near my gym. Facebook will only display my advertisement to those who meet ALL of the criteria.
Another great feature of Facebook is the ability to have “Live video”. This is a great tool to use when looking to do polls, Q&As, or a behind-the-scenes look. People love participating in these live videos. It’s more interactive than a Facebook post. Plus, people are naturally curious. Entice them with a live video of a look into your kitchen preparing that day’s special menu offering. It will leave them drooling and desperate for more!
Commonly referred to as “IG”, Instagram is widely popular among younger people. It allows one to digest a vast amount of content in a short amount of time. You are only able to post media. So, pictures and videos only. Don’t let this discourage you! Many people prefer to watch a video over reading a post. It affords them more time watching a video. They are able to obtain the same amount of information in a short amount of time.
So, instead of posting an article about where you source your locally grown fruits and vegetables from, post a video of you picking up your fruits and vegetables or better yet, have those harvesting your food take a video of them then post that to Instagram captioning it something along the lines of “The Daily Life of a Farmer”.
Don’t forget to use those hashtags! That is how content is organized on Instagram. Once you upload a video or picture, you are able to categorize it based on the content. So, let’s use the same example as above. If your video post was about the daily life of a farmer, some potential hashtags could be: #farmerlife #farmer #localgrown #eatlocal etc. The list goes on. There is no limit to how many hashtags you are able to use.
As mentioned in the article, Why You Should Implement a Social Media Strategy to Market Your Restaurant, Twitter is mainly used to follow news and trending topics or events. It can be used to promote or market your restaurant or business. However, it won’t be done in the traditional sense. You can’t advertise on Twitter like you can with Facebook and LinkedIn. There is no separate Twitter Ads Manager or Twitter Ad Campaign Manager. How you market is through creating content and posting it. Whether that be a link to your blog article, a picture with a clever caption or phrase, or a video.
One thing Twitter does allow is the use of hashtags. Similar to Instagram, hashtags are used to organize content. For example, when someone wants to find a restaurant that sells the pancakes and waffles, they might search for “pancakes” and or “waffles”. Upon doing this, thousands of tweets will appear that show the best search results based on hashtags and captions. I just tried doing this exact thing and Shrewsbury Eats appeared. Showcasing their delectable dessert waffles drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with candies.
Even though you might not be able to run advertisement campaigns on Twitter, you will still be able to influence your target audience by posting relevant content. Don’t forget about appropriate hashtags! Make your content searchable by adding a few of those to your post!
Last but not least, we have LinkedIn. A networking site made by professionals, for professionals. I briefly mentioned that LinkedIn allows for advertisement campaigns. Like Facebook, this is also connected through your LinkedIn profile. You are able to target specific demographics just as you can on Facebook. However, one thing I would like to add here is that on LinkedIn most people will have either their employer or their profession listed on their profiles as it is a professional networking website and it would be who of them to have this information readily available. Whereas on Facebook, that is not so much a requirement, but more of an aesthetic. Therefore, making it even easier to isolate your target market on LinkedIn.
One thing that differs from Facebook advertising is that the minimum daily budget is $10.00. Meaning that the lowest amount you can spend on running an advertising campaign is $10.00 a day. Facebook daily budgets can be anywhere from $1.00-$1,000. Not saying you need to spend that much money to get a return on your investment, but just keep that in mind when looking to run a campaign on LinkedIn.
Social media platforms have proven to be a constant in our daily lives. Since their conception in the early 2000’s they have made accessing information relatively easy. The ease in which we continue to gain information will only increase in the future. Take advantage of this increase and consider running an ad campaign on Facebook. Gain exposure, brand awareness and the like. But, a cautionary would be to focus only on ONE goal for each campaign. So if your goal is to gain awareness, focus only on how much traffic you get to your website. Set your budget a little lower than you would if your goal was to gain leads or conversions. Enjoy cyberspace, have fun and remember, focus on that one goal!
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