social media: 4 steps to develop your brand's visibility

Which social media will allow you to increase your performance and visibility tenfold?

More 70% of Internet users having had a positive impression with a brand on social networks will recommend itr to their loved ones.

A good word of mouth is an excellent asset to increase your visibility.

61% players in the BtoB sector made a purchase after seeing content shared on social media.

The use of social media has become an important, if not indispensable, part of companies' marketing plans.

With an ever-increasing number of people using social media, it's a great way to reach many of your potential customers.

But what will your brand's social media use look like in 2022-2023?

Is there a social network to be favored ? And how can companies make the most of social media in the future? Is there a frequency of publicationor a particular tone to adopt?

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of social media for businesses in 2022-2023. Which will ultimately increase your brand's visibility and sales!

What is the potential of social media for your business?

Some figures on social networks to understand their scope. It is estimated that in 2022, 4.6 billion people will use social networks worldwide. For France, the figure is 49,6 million active users. Age is no longer a criterion, as 58% of people aged between 60 and 69 in France said they use at least one social network.

Social networks are powerful marketing tools for businesses. If used correctly, they can be excellent channels to reach and engage your potential customers.

LinkedIn may be the best known and most business-friendly social network, but it's not the only one. There are many other social networks, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

The key is to find the ones that are most relevant to your business and your target customers.

Researching and creating personas is extremely useful in this regard. By understanding who your target customers are and what their needs are, you can more easily identify which social networks they are most likely to be active on. From there, you can develop strategies to engage with them on those platforms.

Properly used, social media is a major asset for any business that wants to increase its visibility and ultimately its sales. It allows you to reach a large audience of potential customers and build relationships with them. If you are not yet using social media for your business, it is time to start exploring its potential.

How to achieve a good brand communication on social networks?

There are a few key things to keep in mind when doing good brand communication on social networks. First, it's important to remember that each social network is different and users interact with each platform in different ways. For example, LinkedIn is typically used for professional networking, while Instagram is more visual and can be used to showcase your products or services.

It is also important to consider the most popular social networks in your target market. For example, Facebook remains the most used social network in the world, but Snapchat is more popular in France. Knowing which social platforms are most popular with your target audience will help you choose where to focus your efforts.

Finally, don't forget that social media can be a great way to connect with your customers and build relationships. Responding quickly to comments and questions shows that you care about your customers and their experience with your brand.

Step 1: Identify your communications objectives

Many companies get into social networking with the idea that "it will work". As in everything, there are exceptions. However, this way of doing things does not work in the long term. But an effective use of social networks requires resources in terms of means and personnel. And that's why it requires a strategy with concrete and measurable objectives. For a good brand communication, there are several questions to ask:

1) What should my publications be used for?

• market opening
• sales boost
• loyalty
• ect

2. Who are the users I am targeting:

• age
• gender
• place of life
• habit
• professional activity
• ect

3. The financial means to be allocated to communication campaigns.

Indeed, many factors of writing, management and planning will depend on the budget you want to devote to your campaigns on social networks.

4. The time period of each campaign.

Why do you communicate? Holiday season? Product launch? Ongoing communication to stay in touch with your customers?

You must clearly define your communication period to be as effective as possible.

Once you have the answers to these questions, write them down, as they are part of your communication plan brand.

Once the objectives are clearly defined, it's time to get down to business. Which social media should you turn to?

Step 2: Which social media for my brand?

Depending on your activity, your marketing communication objectives and your target, some social networks will be more obvious than others to develop your digital presence. You must ask yourself the following questions:

• Where is my target
• What is the best format for my brand
• Where my competitors communicate, and do not communicate

First, a quick overview is necessary. What are the most used networks in France?

1 - Facebook (Meta)

With its 2.9 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook is the most popular social network. In France alone, the platform has over 38 million users.

Here, we focus only on the usefulness of networks for businesses. Facebook is very useful to communicate with your customers by sharing your content (photos, videos, live, etc.). Facebook is also used to reach your prospects because there is the possibility to :

Create targeted ads

Sell your products and services

Over 68% of Facebook users are between the ages of 35 and 55.

2 - YouTube

YouTube is the essential network for video sharing. Indeed, with its 2.2 billion monthly active users worldwide, YouTube is the absolute leader in the consumption of audio-visual content. In France, there are no less than 46 million unique users per month. That's huge!

It should be noted that the platform has a little more men than women. 53% of YouTube users are indeed men. As for the majority age group, it is the 18-35 years old. However, all age groups are well represented on the platform.

It is therefore a platform to be favored for sharing your animated content.

Also, it's important to know that paid ads on YouTube work. One study shows that 70% of people who saw a YouTube ad purchased a product afterwards.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is undoubtedly the number one social network for sharing and viewing videos. Moreover, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, so it is very important to take care of the SEO of your content on the platform. It is a real gateway to your brand for consumers!

3 - Twitter

The network of short and precise messages, Twitter stands out for its speed in terms of accessibility to information.

With its 12 million monthly active users in France, the social network is mainly used for sharing news. Indeed, 62% of users believe that they have access to news faster than elsewhere and that the network is ideal to follow the evolution of this information in real time.

It is also, by far, the network with the greatest power over information in the 18 to 30 age group. The audience is mostly male ( 70%).

4 - LinkedIn

With over 546 million accounts, LinkedIn is undoubtedly the number 1 social network for professional relations.

LinkedIn allows you to create online resumes and build a network of professional partners.

It is a network that is widely used to share professional news, experiences or to exchange on subjects that are globally related to the professional framework.

LinkedIn allows you to highlight your professional experience and skills. As well as the publication of articles related to professional activities. LinkedIn is considered as one of the most serious networks by users.

85% of BtoB sector players use the LinkedIn network as part of their professional activities. This number is actually changing significantly, as it was 65% in 2016.

5 - Instagram

Instagram is the number 1 network for sharing photos, image carousels and videos.

It is clear that today Instagram is no longer a media that serves only individuals. This social network has a lot of benefits for companies.

Its visibility: It has 1 billion monthly users worldwide, and no less than 24 million in France.

Its showcase: If you have something to offer, don't say it, show it! Indeed, the public is always more receptive to an image rather than a text. It humanizes your brand!

Its conversion: Instagram allows you to create ads, add call to action (to redirect the prospect to his e-commerce site for example), and many other possibilities

6 - Pinterest

Pinterest is also a social network dedicated to photo sharing and visual content in a broad sense. However, its specificity is that it works by themes. Moreover, it is an abuse of language to consider Pinterest as a social network in the strict sense, it is a hybrid with a search engine.

In 2021, Pinterest had more than 454 million monthly active users on its platform worldwide, for 6 million in France.

Internet users use Pinterest for inspiration, they pin their favorite content on a board corresponding to a specific theme: cooking, fashion, home...

If this network is mainly used by women, men are consulting it more and more.

As for its marketing side, Pinterest offers sponsored pins, or you can simply drive traffic from your qualified prospects to your website through organic posts. Pinterest's analytics tools allow you to analyze all results related to marketing campaigns or organic posts.

7 - TikTok

TikTok is a social network allowing the creation and sharing of small videos. The content offered on the platform is very varied, this is where TikTok draws its strength, thanks to its powerful algorithm, everyone is offered targeted and appropriate content. TikTok had no less than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide in 2022, for 16 million in France.

You must have heard about it, in fact, it is one of the fastest growing social networks today. It is a social network that can be adapted for a certain form of virality and dynamism.

This automatically puts it on the list of networks to watch for all things marketing.

Step 3: Gathering a community

In order to communicate your brand on social media, you must first gather a community or audience around it. Once you have gathered this group, you can then use social media to help build and shape your brand image. By doing so, you will be able to better connect with your target audience and create a stronger bond with them. Create engagement

For this, it is important to focus on the human side. Even if your final objective is sales, the role of social networks is to develop the human side of your brand. Your community, before being customers, are people who like to be considered as such! Don't hesitate to be grateful to the people who follow you!

Keep in mind that consumers listen to and trust each other. A study conducted by Nielsen on nearly 30,000 consumers in 60 countries, shows that the most trusted sources of communications for products and services are peer recommendations and reviews.

Step 4: Communicate with the community

Having a community is essential, but then you have to make it live and interact with it! Here is a series of communication elements to keep in mind to interact with your audience:

Keeping a coherence

Adopt the tone you want, but keep it! Indeed, keeping a coherence will allow you to keep a solid brand image. By domino effect, it also sets you apart from your competitors.

This advice is not only valid for the use of social networks but for all the elements of your brand

Integrate visuals

It cannot be said enough but 65% of people assimilate and learn better when a information is visual rather than written. Your message will always come across much better with good visuals whatever the communication channel. Especially since there are more and more very good libraries of royalty-free images to illustrate its contents for free.

Be active and responsive

Being regular is vital on social networks. On the one hand, algorithms highlight productive accounts, and on the other hand it creates a real link with your community.

A delay of more than 60 minutes for an after-sales service starts to irritate the consumer, it's the same when you use social media. It is very important to listen to your customers.

Keep in mind that a customer relationship does not stop at the sale, it is fundamental that the customer is satisfied, getting a customer is good, keeping it is much better!

A good brand communication to increase its visibility on social media

The social media are therefore one of the major brand communication channelsYou have to take into account this in your marketing strategy. However, you shouldn't jump in thinking that it will work by itself.

Before embarking on the adventure, define your objectives so that you can then identify the social networks best suited to your brand, those where your audience is!

Once it's done, gather a community around your project while remaining yourself, sincerity is always appreciated!

Remember that consistency is golden on social networks (use planners like later to simplify your life)

Finally, the most important, always listen to the people who follow you ! This is how you will evolve 

Which social network do you prefer? Feel free to share your experiences on social networks, even the less known ones