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Following the Threads: The ultimate guide to social media in business
Following the Threads
A brand new social media platform has emerged. So of course, marketing teams across the world have been scrambling to jump on the Threads train (with varying levels of enthusiasm).
It’s likely that you’ve already heard about Threads in mainstream media. Perhaps your teams are already up and running, learning the ropes of the app. Or maybe they are still trying to make the most out of all the social media platforms already out there so you’re reading this thinking ‘not another one?!’
No matter where you stand, many businesses are beginning to explore the new capabilities this emerging platform can bring to their current social media strategies.
And we think this is the perfect time to look at the opportunities that social media on the whole can offer to your business.
Number of Users
Why is everyone talking about Threads?
Threads is the new conversation app rivaling Twitter and has been all over the media since its launch on 6th July 2023.
Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, developed Threads as a space ‘where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.’
Using your existing Instagram account to log in, Threads allows users to write posts up to 500 characters long, including images, links and videos up to five minutes in length.
And even though the social media platform is still in its infancy, it has already stirred up some controversy. Twitter’s owner Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Thread’s parent company Meta over the ‘copycat’ app, having publicly stated ‘competition is fine, cheating is not’.
Yet, people have quickly taken to the app, with five million users signing up within the first four hours, leading to the platform reaching 100 million members within just one week of going live.
Among the millions of users that have already signed up to the platform, it’s fair to say that a number of those will be businesses like yours looking to benefit from the additional exposure their brand can achieve through a new social media outlet.
The biggest social media platforms’ key highlights
Each social media platform has its own key features and target audiences. Before publishing any content or building on your social media strategy, you might want to consider;
Tone of voice
Algorithms
Social media algorithms refer to a set of rules and calculations used by the platform to determine the priority of the content being shared to its users.
How social media can enhance your business
Social media has the capacity to impact every area of your business, from recruitment and building a brand to connecting with your customers and gaining competitor insight.
And you can play around with different media types depending on the platform, such as creating infographics, publishing articles or developing videos.
Harnessing the opportunities that social media offers can be key to enhancing your business, particularly when done correctly.
Brand Awareness
People all over the world use various social media platforms on a daily basis. Therefore, creating a social media presence is an easy way to get your service in front of these potential clients.
And depending on whether you are Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C), you may want to focus your efforts towards a particular social media platform. That way you can ensure that you are targeting the right audience for your business.
Customer Engagement
Social media can play a really important role in nurturing the relationship between you and your customers. And it doesn't hurt to know that customers are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media.
Having a consistent social media plan can be key to building long-term engagement with clients. Since social media is such a competitive and fast-paced environment, it’s imperative that you remain consistent in order to stay at the forefront of people’s minds.
Employee Advocacy
Happy employees will proudly spread the word of your business on social media. Get your teams engaging with your social media page, whether that’s a ‘Like’ a ‘Comment’ or sharing your posts onto their own feed.
It’s the digital equivalent to sharing information through ‘word of mouth’, and a powerful tool in getting wider customer reach, lead generation and brand awareness.
Market Insight
Social media is an ever changing and fast-paced environment. So, it's imperative that you can keep up, both to stay relevant and to be ahead of your competitors.
Most, if not all, social media platforms will have functionalities for you to gain insight into rival businesses and view the analytics of your own pages’ performance. This helps you to use social listening to better understand how your audience is engaging with you, and make sure you can continue to offer relevant content targeted to the right people.
Challenges to be aware of with your social media platforms
With great power comes great responsibility. So, when your teams are building social media plans and marketing campaigns, it might be helpful to keep the following in mind:
Constant, rapid change
We’ve already mentioned how social media changes day to day. A strategy that is working for you one week might not hit the mark next week.
And because of that, you need to be on top of what’s new in order to stay relevant. Fall behind for too long, or post out-dated content and you lose credibility and, as a result, engagement.
Juggling multiple pages
You’ll likely be focusing the majority of your content on one social media platform (the one best suited to your brand, tone of voice and audience). But having a page on multiple sites allows you to reach the largest and most diverse audience.
It can be all too easy to neglect pages on your least active platforms. But while these pages are left to gather dust, they are still available for potential clients to see. And like we have already mentioned, if a potential customer's image of you is that you are not managing to stay relevant, they’ll go somewhere else.
Review the copy
No matter where your posts are being published, whether it’s on an informal platform like TikTok or in a professional space such as LinkedIn, every single post needs to go through the same rigorous review process to make sure everything you put out is on brand and has the correct tone of voice.
Don’t fall into the trap of complacency. One poorly judged or ill timed post can set you back to square one, erasing the hard work you've done to build your brand through social media. There have been many instances of brands creating misguided social media campaigns, such as Burger King UK’s International Women's Day tweet in 2021.
Building credibility
Creating a social media page is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Anyone can set themselves up a profile within just a few clicks, which on one hand is great as you can get up and running in no time. On the other, it means there can be lots of pages out there that aren’t legitimate.
You want to make sure your page is credible so people engage with you and have trust in your brand. Make sure that where necessary, you are referring to reputable sources, linking any call to action (CTA) to your service and you might even be able to promote your most reputable work.
How to tell if people are engaged with your social media page
So, you’re working hard to post regular and engaging content to all of your social media pages. But it won't be much use if you can’t work out whether or not your content and marketing strategies are building engagement.
Here are some signs you might want to look out for to tell if people are engaging with your social media page:
- Customers are viewing and ‘Liking’ your content
- Employees are sharing your posts unprompted
- Increase in followers
- Improved target audience engagement
- Increased clickthrough rate
- Your page is receiving more visitors
- Increase in the average time spent on your website
- More viewers are clicking through to multiple pages per session
As we have established, social media can be a real asset to building brand awareness and generating leads for your business. And each platform will offer you its own key benefits, whether it is to start a casual conversation on Threads or to build client relationships on LinkedIn.
For further insight and support for your social media marketing campaigns, get in
touch with us.
Written by Lucy Dugdale
