10 Social Media Apps Small Businesses Should Focus On
Social media is always evolving, especially with increased interest and engagement on apps like TikTok and Community. What should small businesses be focused on in 2021?
To help you find the best social platforms for your small business, we asked PR experts and business leaders this question for their best tips. From LinkedIn to TikTok, there are several social media platforms that may be perfect for your small business.
Here are ten great social media platforms that your small business should be focused on in 2021:
Competitive Audit
LinkedIn
Clubhouse
Youtube
Slack
Instagram
TikTok
Google My Business
Facebook
Whatsapp
Competitive Audit
Small businesses should carefully evaluate competitor activity on social media platforms before deciding to enter or invest in a new platform. Just because there is buzz around a new social media platform doesn’t mean that a small business should join the conversation. Sometimes, objectively evaluating the ROI of a competitor's activity can be a strong indicator of future success.
Randall Smalley, Cruise America
LinkedIn will continue to be the most important app for businesses of any size. Through this app, anyone can connect and develop powerful partnerships with other professionals. LinkedIn provides small businesses with access to the same recruits, professional groups and networking afforded to larger businesses. And any business can brand itself as a subject matter expert in their niche area by leveraging the platform to publish articles that can shape and inform opinions. In utilizing LinkedIn, it is more about how you leverage the tool than what size your business is.
Tyler Butler, 11Eleven Consulting
Clubhouse
Clubhouse is a new app that small business owners may find helpful. The app is invite-only and purely audio. Whether it is a business or personal growth topic, a listener can drop-in on a live conversation and connect with others around the globe. The platform allows subject matter experts to start their own “rooms,” which help promote a business owner’s expertise and business.
Kimberly Bogues, Flourish Business Services, LLC
YouTube
Video marketing has become an immensely popular way for businesses to get found online. If you are looking for a social media app in 2021 that helps you facilitate more traffic to your brand, I recommend going with YouTube. After all, it’s the second largest search engine on the internet that’s been around for 15 years, and 74% of the adults in the US use it. You can easily get started by going LIVE on your smartphone, a computer with a camera or by uploading a pre-recorded video.
Wanda Baader, Strategize Your Success
Slack
You might not think of Slack as a social media app, and in many cases, it wouldn't be. But, its explosive growth has allowed Slack to become much more than a way to communicate with your co-workers in chat. Using app integrations from your favorite social media platforms, you can interface with social media in many different ways. Also, its popularity has seen many different focused communities popping up based on various topics and demographics, which can be great places to be...social. Don't miss out on this app and its ability to let you both better interface with social media as well as be social in more and more new communities where you can market your services.
Allen Trevethan, House Trevethan
For the last several years, businesses have been using Instagram to ‘go viral’ with a systematic, often automatic, and overly designed approach. It is a formula we have all seen too many times: someone (or a bot) likes several photos, perhaps follows us and sends a message to inspire us to follow them. Their page is a well-crafted, perfectly planned distribution of content. Do this instead: you be you. Help us know who you (and your business) is, what you care about, how you serve a purpose and what matters. Don’t worry so much about posting quotes on Tuesday. Post the quotes that strike you. Being normal in the era of Covid and beyond will be far more interesting.
Ken Kilday, Leader's Cut: The Ken Kilday Coaching Experience
TikTok
With nearly 20 billion #smallbusiness views, TikTok is clearly no longer "just for kids." But getting started on social media (especially when it's a new platform) can feel pretty intimidating. So, here are two things you should do first. First, don’t worry about posting just yet! Instead, spend some time in the app, seeing how other people (generally) use it. Second, when you feel more comfortable with the platform, post one behind-the-scenes video of your small business. It could feature you fulfilling an order, a funny Zoom moment, an industry hack, whatever. Just keep in mind that when it comes to TikTok, the more human, helpful, or entertaining, the better. So, try not to take yourself too seriously!
Jami Hartmann, Trainual
Google My Business
There are a handful of applications businesses can utilize to keep their customers updated. Focusing on one to bring the most traffic to your website can have the greatest return. Google is a premier search engine that gives customers the ability to locate businesses, restaurants and just about anything within their community. Do you know that Google My Business offers much more?
The information uploaded to Google My Business appears in every search by potential customers. This includes reviews, hours of operation, links to websites, physical addresses, phone numbers and any additional information that you feel is important about your business. Google offers this free account for small business owners to better connect with customers within Google Search and Maps.
For CopperPoint, Google My Business provides:
Information on our office hours, business locations and customer support
A place for customer reviews
Direct access to CopperPoint.com
Thomas Pytel, Jr., CopperPoint Insurance Companies
Facebook is still the number one website on the internet. While trendy and other mainstay social media platforms may generate more buzz, Facebook should also be a part of a social strategy because it can drive results. Yes, small businesses have the ability to post status updates on their pages. But, the days of getting organic visibility have mostly sailed and to utilize Facebook effectively a small business should consider carving out a paid ad budget to better reach their audience on the platform. Regardless of how Facebook is used, it’s too big to ignore when crafting a social media strategy.
Thylan Le, Markitors
WhatsApp is a centralized messaging and voice-over-IP service that allows users to send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share content like images and documents. While WhatsApp is more of a simple peer to peer communication app, with 1.5B users, it's one of the most popular social media tools on the international level. If you are working with workers overseas or simply looking for an app for one-to-one or group chat, WhatsApp is worth taking a look at.
Phillip Lew, C9 Staff