Why Do We Flock to Facebook in 2021? (Part 2)
With all of the social media platforms out there, how do you choose which ones to focus on to promote your product or service? Well, 2021 is all about your personality, so start thinking along those lines. TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are proof of this: they’re platforms that are heavily entrenched in the personality and lives of the users, which explains their effortless success. TikTok users have acquired millions of dollars in a variety of ways. From singers to dancers to comedians, thrifty individuals have used their most vital instrument – their VOICE – to make a buck. Brands tend to stray from using their voice because of the time/effort it may take to form a solid idea. I cannot stress enough the vitality behind using TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Some of the others – SnapChat, YouTube, Twitch, and Pinterest – could be left behind due to their different functionality; however, the other four are juggernauts at the very least. With content ranging from vehicle tutorials to comedic skits and everywhere in between, these sites have a variety of viewership that must not go untapped.
Among those four platforms, there are roughly 2.89 billion users. Based on 2020 numbers, that’s more than Facebook’s 2.7 billion users. Simply put, businesses everywhere are restricting their reach drastically by homing in on just one platform. Facebook is certainly useful, but each platform has its purpose:
LinkedIn: professional branding
TikTok: personability growth
Instagram: influencers and representation
Twitter: announcements and news
You put in the effort to build your business from the ground up or to manage it, so it should follow that you put in the effort to do the housekeeping. Facebook is a wonderful platform that opens up a world of possibilities, but as Facebook has explained, the focus is not on business pages any longer. When you go to a store/dealer and purchase a product, do you go online and follow their business page? Of course not! That is not and never will be the practical approach. A person will not see your organic posts unless they follow you or unless your post is shared, as Facebook does not have a discovery section. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn all provide tools for discovery and a hashtag paradigm that reigns supreme. Sure, the algorithms have been beaten to a pulp. But they still work for discovery.
Your next step should be creating an account on all of these platforms, exploring their nooks and crannies. If you own a small business, come up with a plan on how you could generate a variety of daily content, videos, stories, and so on, making sure that it’s useful to your followers. Do your research on hashtags and similar brands. One foundation for success is following similar brands and accounts that show interest in your product. There is legwork behind social media success, and it’s not limited to creating a page and posting. Keep in mind that everyone starts with zero followers! If you own a larger business, develop a team approach or hire a few influencers to do this work for you. If you use an agency, keep in mind that someone in-house has to be sending personalized content to this agency to post. Relying solely on news and stock imagery will only get you so far. “You snooze, you lose” couldn’t be more accurate: you simply can’t sleep on the newest social media trends. They may not last, but they work!
Last, don’t focus on the number of followers or likes: these metrics can be squandered by bots and false profiles. Engagement is the key metric. I say this because someone can follow 500 accounts on Instagram and never look at or engage with their content. So, does that make them a fan? I will let you answer that as you do your research.
So, as you’re creating your organic strategy for 2021–2022, make sure that you incorporate more platforms to your repertoire. Facebook, as helpful as it can be for businesses and dealerships alike, is not the sole driving force of social engagement. Now go out, buy a camera, and start creating that personalized content!
Written by: Taylor Crow