Promoting through social media

When you start implementing a project or initiative, it's nice when other people know about it. For example, they might visit your performance, buy a ticket to an event or become a buyer of the art you create. That's why you bet on good communication and promotion of what you've come up with. There are a lot of types of promotional tools you can use. For example, you can use offline promotion such as print or approach the media with the goal of generating free publicity. Since the advent of the Internet, many new forms of communication have been added, which we classify under online communication. Within this, a major role is played by promotion through social media.

What do we mean by social media?

Social media is the collective name for a host of types of online platforms. These are websites or applications where users can communicate with each other. Sometimes this is led by editors but mostly it is without their intervention. Through social media, people can share stories, short messages, photos, videos and all kinds of content. Others can react to it or forward it to others, so that a single message can have a large reach. It is also an easy way to interact with your supporters or potential audience.

What types of social media are there?

There are an awful lot of different platforms for social media. The purpose for which you can use them makes the main difference. For example, there are social media that are very much focused on personal experiences (such as Facebook) or a bit more focused on business interaction (such as LinkedIn). There is also a lot of difference in the type of content that prevails on the social medium. For example, Instagram allows you to communicate mainly photos and videos, Twitter mainly short messages and (moving) images, and sites like YouTube and Vimeo are entirely focused on videos. Also, there are social media like Snapchat where it is mainly about short and quick messages. The number of social media is still increasing and every year there is a shift in their use in the Netherlands and abroad. It is too much to mention so we advise you to do your own search through the worldwide web.

How do you decide which social media to use?

It's not surprising that you can't see the forest for the forest because of the wide range of social media available. However, there is no chance that you can use them all. Therefore, it is wise to make choices. It is good to look at yourself first. Determine which social media suits you best. If you yourself don't feel like being on Twitter very much, your target audience will notice when you try it anyway. Compare it to someone who is on the phone: on the other end of the line you will hear or notice that. It is also very important to check which social media are used by your target audience. You can find this out yourself by conducting surveys or interviews, for example. However, it now varies from year to year and you often cannot keep track of that yourself. That is why it is good to keep an eye on the Internet. Especially in the first months of the year, there are plenty of analyses published by marketing platforms or institutions dealing with statistics. Some examples of articles and documents that address this and substantiate the findings with diagrams and statistics can be clicked below:

• Marketingfacts: Social media in the Netherlands 2018: exodus of young people on Facebook.
• Newcom: National Social Media Survey 2019 (pdf)
• Atvise: Which social media platform is your target audience using in 2018?

Tips on using social media promotion

Of course, each form of social media differs in its use. Every platform has its instruction page and there are plenty of tutorials all over the Internet explaining, often through videos, how to use it. This is often linked to the goal you want to achieve with it because often you do not use all the possibilities of a platform. Below you will find a number of general tips that can help you on your way and that apply to almost all social media:

• First, carefully determine who your target audience is and on which platform they are most active.
• Determine what goal you are pursuing and see if that is achievable through the platform.
• Make sure you set up the basics of your account (such as your profile page or channel) properly.
• Use understandable language.
• Whenever possible, provide variety in the type of content (texts, videos, photos) you post. This, of course, depends on the platform you choose.
• Involve others if you don't know much about it yourself or if your interest lies elsewhere.
• Make sure you don't just "send" messages but try to create interaction.
• Play around with your content to test what works best for you and your target audience.
• Make sure you have some regularity in posting.
• Every now and then, try posting a message that makes your target audience take action, such as clicking through to another article or buying an entry ticket.
• Make sure you don't come across as irritating, such as by posting too many in a row.
• Research whether advertising through a platform can be interesting. It depends on the type of platform, the cost and what you want to say. We found a very comprehensive article on the marketing website Frankwatching.com.

Feel free to ask for help

If you don't have much use for social media yourself, which is quite understandable, you may do well to ask for help from people who do. This way you can still reach target groups more easily, without it costing you a lot of time and energy yourself. There are many companies that specialize in working with social media. This has become a profession practiced by many small businesses and self-employed people. They can advise you and often even take over the entire management of social media. The cost will vary by company. They are often relatively young people who are fully engaged in this. Make sure you keep an eye on what is communicated and in what way. It is important that this fits with the way you want to communicate with your supporters.

If, from your expertise, you yourself have knowledge that would fit this topic, or if you see opportunities to improve this text, we look forward to receiving your message at info@cultuuracademy.nl.