Your marketing team likely tells you that you need an online presence. In the past, that meant having only a website. But today’s internet is much different. Depending on your industry and your focus, there are various channels and platforms your company needs to be on. Here is a list of some online platforms you need to be on if you want maximum visibility for your company.
Website
While social media provides businesses with easy-to-make platforms for presence, nothing beats an actual website. Work with a development team to create a website that informs customers of all that they need. Additionally, you can integrate an online store so that customers can directly buy from you when necessary.
The biggest platform you should be on is Facebook. It is a platform that has billions of people on it and any business would be happy to have access to all those people. The great thing about Facebook is that it can be a very open platform for advertising. A small business can be just as competitive as a large one. A small business must have a social media page if it wants to be relevant.
Facebook has the most reach and this makes it the ideal choice. It also helps that it is completely free. You can spend some money on Facebook ads but that is not essential. It is better to invest in a team that engages with people on the platform and creating posts that can go viral.
Facebook is not the only social media platform you should have a presence on. Instagram is an ideal place for businesses. Starting as a photo-sharing website, the platform was an excellent place to showcase what restaurants had to offer. This created a boom in promotions and now many businesses that have photogenic offerings have a profile on it. For example, if you sell shoes, you can easily sell your offerings by taking pictures of them and using the right hashtags.
Additionally, the platform allows for creating shoppable posts, which allow for browsers to immediately buy the product they are seeing. This platform will require a bit of work since you need to create great photos and that is not easy. Professional photographers can be a big help as well as contact already existing Instagram influencers.
It is not just customers that you can connect with on the internet. Potential business partners, suppliers, and more can reach out to you if they know you are there. To get the preferred results when networking, you usually had to go to business conferences. With LinkedIn, you should be able to find connections that should help your business with a simple search.
Getting in contact with potential customers is easier with LinkedIn. There is even a targeted mailing list feature that you can use to your advantage. It can also be the ideal platform for you to build a separate brand from your business. For businesses, it is a perfect place to recruit for the more important positions that need filling out.
YouTube
People are very visual and there is nothing like a video to catch their eye. YouTube’s popularity is thanks to this. While YouTube is a great place to promote your company, it is not for everyone. Some industries don’t work well with the video format. It will also require a lot of creativity and investment to make it work. The cost would be mainly to contract professional video production companies to work with your marketing team to create memorable video content. If done right, your YouTube channel can quickly go viral and get millions of views.
While technically a search engine, the real core business of Google is ads and visibility. If you want your business to be visible on Google, there are a couple of things you need to do. One is to work on your SEO. Search engine optimization ensures that your website gets featured on the first few pages of any search engine results. It’s been proven that a position there is very important if you want to get a click. Next, you need to invest in Google ads. Everyone sees the ads when searching but that is not the only place they pop up. If you want people to know about your business, then Google ad visibility is important.
A visible company is very important. If your customers know that you exist, they will know to look for your products or services. Investing in an online presence can pay back as you get increased sales. However, you need to choose your platforms wisely. Only the biggest companies can cover all the possible online channels and even then they focus on particular demographics. Be strategic and choose only the best platforms to make your presence known.
