A Black Woman’s Guide to Social Media Platforms for Business Growth

Thanks to our technological age, the playing field has been leveled when it comes to creating, marketing, and building your professional brand. In the past, those who won the marketing game were the ‘big boys’ who had plenty of money to throw at marketing agencies.

But now, not only can anyone create a business entity, but they can also use free or low-cost marketing platforms to perform tasks that would have been previously tasked to several different agencies, at a hefty price-tag.

If you’re a Black woman who wants to promote your brand to like-minded prospects, then check out all of the free and highly effective marketing platforms at your disposal.

Yelp

When consumers of all sectors want the scoop on a business or a brand, then one of the first social sites they think of is Yelp. Yelp is a site where local business owners can post a page, and advertising their offerings.

Then, local consumers and customers leave honest reviews about their experiences with spending money on the business product or service. If you’re a Black woman who wants to attract like-minded consumers and end-users in your local area, then posting a Yelp page is definitely something you should consider.

This is especially true if you’d like to position your business as a tourist destination. Prospects coming into town almost always check out the reviews on Yelp before arriving somewhere new.

LinkedIn has branded itself as the social site for those who are either looking for work or are looking for industry networking opportunities.

Depending upon your company’s brand and your offerings, there are several ways for you to market and brand yourself by using this platform.

First, you can establish yourself as an authority in your arena by creating a professional profile. This allows you to show off your previous skills and education. Use the free blogging feature to get your message out to the masses. This is a great tool to use to generate new followers and connections.

Finally, you can market yourself inside of industry groups and via features like SlideShare. LinkedIn is a great platform for showing off your professional and intellectual prowess.

Facebook

Facebook still has a lot of relevancy, especially if your goal is community building; something that Black women are inherently known for and are very competent at.

Facebook allows you to start community groups, free of charge. You simply think of the purpose of your group, name it, and then decide if you’d like the group to be open to the general public or not. If not, then be sure to designate your group as closed, or private, as it’s now being known as.

A private group can still be found in the platform’s search queries, but the names of your members will be closed off to non-members for privacy sake.

Don’t forget about implementing the use of Facebook stories. This is a feature that allows you to upload short videos while tagging them and creating a short script. It’s similar to how Snapchat works, but you can use the same features all on one platform.

There’s the Page feature on Facebook. There are a variety of roles that help make a business’s Facebook page a success, including Administrator, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser, Analyst, and Jobs Manager.

Here’s one more tip for using Facebook; you can implement pre-set messages on your business pages via Facebook Messenger. Simply create a ‘contact me’ widget, and when a prospect hits the button to send you a message, they’ll receive an auto-response with more information on how to reach you. You can also inform your prospects on when you’ll respond, the turn-around time on responses, etc.

Twitter

Twitter was one of the first recognized social media platforms, and there’s a good reason for it. It’s an excellent PR tool if you need to quickly get your thoughts and your message out. But not only can it be used for sending out quick messages around the world, but it can also be used for linking to longer messages.

For example, let’s suppose that you have a new blog or video post to share. You can simply create a teaser text, and then you can link to your longer-form content.

And speaking of a worldwide audience, you can attract followers by using hashtags; in fact, Twitter was the first social platform to implement hashtags. These are coded phrases that people can search for, allowing them to find other posts that use the phrase or phrases.

Twitter can basically perform the work of a boutique public relations team in a fast, efficient manner. This makes the platform excellent for branding and community engagement.

As a platform, Pinterest doesn’t generate as much street-cred as some of the others — but don’t sleep on this platform. Pinterest can be used as an excellent platform for Black women who want to offer visuals for branding and community-building purposes.

This is especially true if yours is a service-industry business such as hair or nails. And this is particularly true if your business is aspirational in nature. This also includes the beauty sector, but it can also include fashion, travel, restaurant/hospitality, and spa/self-care.

Instagram

Instagram is currently one of the top two social media platforms, and there’s a good reason why. First, it’s a very visual platform. It’s perfect for uploading photos and video clips.

In fact, this is the platform that’s more video-friendly than Pinterest. Having said that, both platforms work fine as a stand-alone, or they can be linked to complement each other, depending upon your audience.

If your audience is typically in their late 20s or older, then Pinterest might be more enticing to them, since this is the platform whose demographic is typically a mature female.

But if your company’s brand is anxious to attract teenagers, young adults, and some of the mature crowd, then Instagram is definitely for you. Not only can you post photos and videos about your business, but you can also increase engagement while attracting followers by posting ‘day in the life’ content, exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ content, and more.

If your company manufactures products, especially if these are health and beauty products, then ‘behind the scenes’ content will do a great job in attracting brand loyalists.

Quora

Do you like answering questions? Do you like showing off your expertise? You can do this in a professional manner on LinkedIn, but you can attract a wider base in a more casual manner when you use Quora to promote your products and services.

Quora is a platform that allows people from around the world to both ask and answer questions. Marketers like using this platform because answering the questions allows them to brand themselves as an industry expert.

People engage with those they get to know, like, and trust. If these are your goals, then use this platform to build trust while increasing brand loyalty.

YouTube

Video content is currently king. Since every queen wants to rule in tandem with a king, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not marketing yourself on this Google-owned platform.

Did you know that not only can you generate new brand fans and customers by uploading video content to YouTube, but you can also earn money just for uploading on the platform? You do this when you participate in YouTube’s advertising program.

You’ll generate a piece of the revenue generated platform wide. And check this out, not only can you generate revenue from ads, but you can position yourself as an influencer. Interested brands will reach out to you for partnership opportunities, paying you very well in return.

Mixer

Mixer is much like YouTube or Twitch. You can create video content that can be viewed live or after the fact and can earn your business extra money through advertising and views.

It is a great avenue to pursue now because one of the largest influencer Ninja aka Richard Tyler Blevins decided recently to exclusively stream his content on Mixer. It’s a newer platform created by Microsoft in 2016.

How to Use Them

It’s crucial that you understand what type of content works best for each platform. Otherwise, you won’t generate the results that you’re hoping for. Do your homework to see what type of content works for each.

This may mean that you eventually come to the realization that every social media platform isn’t right for your brand or your business. What’s more, you might not like using every platform out there. This is why it’s crucial to keep track of ROI metrics.

The sooner you realize which platforms are working best for you, the sooner you can stop wasting time and resources on the platforms that aren’t allowing you to reach your goals.

Here’s a secret: for every social media celebrity or brand that you hear about, there were months — and often years — of creating content. Be patient if you’re not generating results at first.

But whatever you do, don’t quit! Those who are constantly creating and improving are the winners of this game.

Elevate your brand with Black Girls Allowed today!