Social media is an extraordinary tool, and, it is an exciting time to explore emerging online platforms for your business. New platforms like TikTok and Threads have entered the game, offering unique opportunities to engage with your audience. Eager to use these tools to bring your customers closer to your brand? Read on!
Game Changer: TikTok
Known for its short, engaging video content, TikTok has taken the world by storm.
Unlike other platforms that prioritize who you follow, TikTok’s algorithm focuses on what you engage with. Essentially, your content has the potential to reach a massive audience, regardless of your follower count. This makes it an excellent platform to reach a broad audience with creative and shareable videos.
Businesses can benefit from learning the trends and challenges that gain popularity on TikTok, then creating their own content using music and various filters for photos & videos. The power of the platform is the personal algorithm that ensures a unique experience for users. TikTok monitors watch time and completion rate, engagement, and sound and music trends.
For example, the restaurant chain Chipotle is using TikTok as a tool to grow their success. In 2019, Chipotle tapped into trending challenges and user-generated content. Their #GuacDance challenge became one of the most successful branded challenges on TikTok, driving high engagement and increasing brand visibility.
TikTok can be a game changer and an opportunity to get creative with your brand.
Text-Based Contender: Threads
Threads, owned by Facebook parent company Meta, helps businesses build communities and initiate customer conversations that are text-based. This platform is merged with Instagram, enabling it to seamlessly drive cross-platform content engagement.
Threads is similar to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) because of the focus on text-based content. These platforms bring different advantages to businesses such as real-time communication, engagement, interaction, and content variety. Since the launch of Threads in July 2023, it is said that Threads had over 190 million total users on May 1, 2024. They reached this enormous number of users in a mere 10 months, whereas X took two years to reach 1 million users.
Marvel Entertainment has been extremely successful in leveraging Threads to drive user engagement. Marvel posts “heartfelt scenes from comics and candid clips” of their fans attending comic conventions along with behind-the-scenes extras from its franchises. Taking an original stab at Threads helped Marvel Entertainment gain 4.5 million followers to their page.
How Can These New Platforms Work for You?
I can hear you now: “That’s fine for Chipotle and Marvel, but what does that have to do with my business?” The answer is… not a lot if you don’t jump in and use them. But before you do, there are a few things you need to check off your list:
- Understand your Audience
Social media can be one of the most effective tools to help you connect with your audience, build your brand, and drive sales. Spending some time researching on these platforms will help you learn what they like, dislike, and share with others. Creating personalized content, boosting engagement, and knowing how to stay relevant will take work, but this effort will pay off over time. - Determine whether TikTok or Threads is better for your audience
The decision to use TikTok or Threads for your company depends on your audience and the types of content you want to put out. TikTok reaches a younger and trendier audience with visually engaging content. Threads is better suited for community building, professional engagement, and more detailed text-based interactions. Give some honest thought to who you are trying to reach and how they’re likely to interact with your brand. When it comes to socials, the medium is the message. - Familiarize Yourself with the Trends:
Staying up to date with the most popular social media trends is crucial for your brand. This enhances engagement, visibility, and relevance, while also providing valuable insights and creativity. By staying up on the latest trends, brands can maintain a competitive edge in the evolving social media world. How do businesses track trends? - Collaborate:
Collaborating with other businesses on social media is a strategic move that offers many benefits when building a brand. By forming partnerships with influencers, other brands, and your audience, you can enhance your social media presence and achieve your marketing goals. Collaboration can help you achieve new opportunities and take your brand’s social media presence to the next level.
Final Step: Optimize Your Website for Social Media
Refining your website for social media is crucial for maximizing its impact and engagement. Focus on creating shareable content that resonates with your audience and encourages them to spread the word across their own social networks. Utilize SEO strategies to increase your website’s visibility. By optimizing your meta tags, using relevant keywords, and ensuring fast loading times, you can make your content more discoverable on search engines and social media platforms, driving more organic traffic to your site. Also, ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly is extremely important because a substantial portion of social media traffic comes from mobile devices. According to Forbes, 99 percent of users access social media on a mobile device or tablet.
Want Help With With Social Media?
Seem like a lot to keep track of? No worries.
The LRS Web Solutions team helps small, medium, and enterprise businesses optimize their websites for SEO and other marketing strategies, including social media. We can help you create high-quality, shareable content that resonates with your audiences and leverage analytics to show you what is working. Our team can also help you with social media strategies to enhance engagement, visibility, and relevance on TikTok, Threads, or other platforms.
Staying updated with social media trends is important for your business. LRS can help you make the most of your online presence. When you’re ready to take that big step, Contact Us and together we’ll make sure every day is Social Media day for your company!