Reaching out to potential customers on social media

Sal

Hi, I'm new here. Recently launched a new company and with low funds I feel social media could be a great way to reach my target audience.

I recently considered searching for particular hashtags which my target customer might use and then reach out to them that way.

I just wondered is this common practice? Or is it considered to be intrusive?

What is the best way to promote an online service via social media?

Thanks!

Ryan O'Bleness

Hi, @Sal, and welcome to the community! 

Hashtags are a great way to interact on Twitter and Instagram. I don't particularly think they're that effective on Facebook. 

I would also say to make sure the hashtag aligns with your brand. Don't just jump on every trending hashtag hoping that you will be noticed -- your audience actually has to connect with the subject. Though, Twitter often does quirky/funny hashtags and it's not a bad idea to participate in those with a good tweet that will show your brand's humorous side in a wholesome way. 

If you have a campaign or special product/promotion, try to come up with a unique hashtag that your audience can identify with and will use. Try to keep them short and to the point. 

Also, when writing a tweet or Instagram post, be sure to hashtag those content/industry hashtags. Such as #marketing, #socialmedia, #writing, #finance, etc. That way you are making yourself visible to those in similar industries. 

Other social media marketing strategies include boosting posts, targeted ads, interacting with other/similar brands, posting blog articles from your website, creating video/live video, posting photos and asking followers to caption or engage, integrating cross-channel campaigns, responding back to followers, etc. 

Before you do any of this, you'll need to be sure to allocate a small budget for social media, analyze the competition, identify your target audience/customer and set objectives. 

cdevos

Depends what your service is. Are you offering B2B or B2C?

@Ryan O'Bleness this is terrific advice! Best to approach strategically.

Before you do any of this, you'll need to be sure to allocate a small budget for social media, analyze the competition, identify your target audience/customer and set objectives. 

I find that social media is good for sharing valuable info but not really a good stand-alone sales technique. If you're directly reaching out to people on social media, you should be offering them a tool, piece of content, or something that they will actually find valuable. If you just reach out with your service or direct sell it will turn a lot of people off on the first encounter.

Its the same thing with posting to the general public. If you're only talking about your own services people won't want to follow you. A good rule is to do an 80/20 split of just helpful/funny/engaging/industry type posts and then some that describe your service/company/offer.

It's best to set up some sort of content curation and scheduling tool so you can easily see lists of content that would make for good posts and schedule them throughout the week rather than having to go in every day and make more of them.

--

Colton De Vos

Marketing and Communications

Sal

Hi, we're a b2c service. This is really useful advice, thanks! I guess the way I saw it was the equivalent to street sales people going up to members of the public and asking them for 5 minutes of their time. I'm tempted to do that approach but online but you're right, we need to think about reputation and the way the customer feels.

salenadam

Social media is a great marketing tool, it is organic (most of it), cost effective and reliable. It is fast and unwrapped. In today’s day and age, it has made it easier for you to reach out to potential consumers and users to showcase your product and eventually  convert them into your customers.

Carlbrewster

On Twitter, hashtags defines a topic on which people share their thought & if more people use the same hashtag it become trending on Twitter, for example, #metoo, but on Facebook, the hashtags aren't much effective though you can use them, most of the trending post on Facebook is controversial, news or some event. If you are running some paid ads on facebook then there could be chances of reach to a targetted audience you can even run a lead campaign which only attracts the interested users!

genesisrenewcream

Always use unique content & insert Hashtag in the proper way.

Kuldeep singh

use quality of content not quantity of content.