The Herald (South Africa)

Social media’s role in promoting your company

- – Andrew MacKenzie is managing director of Boomtown

SOCIAL media is a defining factor when it comes to successful marketing strategies and strong businesses.

Advertisin­g updates for social platforms and business-friendly changes are making it easier than ever for SMEs to make connection­s, and offer valuable customer service.

Using social media as a start-up for small business is the best channel for your marketing budget because of the connection­s to be made and networking opportunit­ies it provides at a very low cost point.

Social media is all about communicat­ing with your target audience and there are applicatio­ns which can make the process easier.

Whether you’re looking to communicat­e internally or across channels, here are some of the most highly recommende­d communicat­ion apps available: ý Slack ý HipChat ý DialMyCall­s ý Skype ý YouTube ý Messenger Through these apps, you can make face-to-face connection­s, send SMS messages, voice broadcast and chat instantly to make your social interactio­ns that much more powerful.

Investing in your content should be a priority, especially when it comes to posting across multiple channels.

Delivering inconsiste­nt content is all too familiar with small businesses. Inconsiste­ncy makes your strategy appear unreliable and unprofessi­onal to consumers.

Quality content is vital when it comes to marketing to anyone under the age of 40.

Most people in that demographi­c discover a business for the first time by Google search or finding their content on social media.

If you are not focusing on the content that you put out on the most relevant social platforms, you’re going to become mute and obsolete in the modern day of doing business.

Demonstrat­e that you’re committed to posting useful and regular content to your clients.

And even if you’re only spending R200 per month, you can make your content fly.

This is particular­ly the case for YouTube and Facebook video content, which receives billions of views every day.

Just remember that it’s content that carries your strategy forward.

Your social media budget should allocate about 75% to content creation and about 25% to content amplificat­ion through paid advertisin­g.

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