Ghana has 8.8 million active social media users. Ghanaians spend an average of 3 hours 58 minutes per day on social media. In Ghana, 58.6% of internet users use social media to research brands and products. These figures are taken from the Digital Report 2022.
When it comes to social media, you cannot be on the fence. You should create a social media presence for your business. Furthermore, you must have a strong strategy in place to reach these social media users.
A social media strategy describes the goals you want to achieve with social media, how you plan to achieve those goals, and how you plan to measure performance. Its goals can include brand awareness, engagement, leads or sales, and customer retention.
Social media marketing is part of digital marketing. It is made up of Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, Twitter marketing, LinkedIn marketing, YouTube marketing, TikTok marketing, and so on.
This post will assist you in developing an effective social media strategy for this year. The method used to arrive at the right strategy was to assess the relevant features that social media platforms have for businesses. These characteristics are size, content type, content life span, content reach, community building, sales tools, and the uniqueness of each platform. Each of these is discussed in detail below.
Size
According to the Digital 2022 report, on a global level, active social media users are as follows:
Facebook (2.9 billion),
YouTube (2.5 billion),
WhatsApp (2 billion),
Instagram (1.4 billion),
TikTok (1 billion), and
Twitter (436 million).
On a national level, active social media users in Ghana are as follows:
Facebook (7.05 million)
YouTube (Not available)
Instagram (2.2 million)
LinkedIn (1.8 million)
Twitter (919,700)
TikTok (Not Available)
Facebook has the biggest audience. Hence, it is easy to use it to reach lots of people than the other social media platforms. Because of its size, you cannot exclude Facebook from your social media strategy.
Content-Type
Which content format is best for communicating your message? The answer is video. But which social media platform is best for video content?
If you own a business and have a website, you should think about a platform where you can post links to your website. So you can get some traffic from there.
Videos, links, and texts are the most effective types of content on Facebook. Twitter is primarily about texts, with a character limit of 280.
You will not be able to fully flesh out your thoughts on Twitter due to this restriction. Except when you use Twitter storms.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, is better for long forms of text and links. It also has a larger following than Twitter.
Instagram and TikTok have larger followings than LinkedIn. Both are video-centric. Videos have a higher level of engagement than links and text.
However, Instagram and TikTok are focused on short-form videos. They are vying for the best platform for short videos.
Nonetheless, Instagram has a competitive advantage over TikTok. Because Instagram has a format for image posts (Carousels). Carousels are Instagram’s second most popular post format.
Long-form videos are the most popular post format on YouTube. With long-form YouTube videos, you can take your time to do product reviews, tutorials, in-depth answers to frequently asked questions, and so on.
These are things you can do on YouTube. However, you may not be able to go as deep on other social media platforms.
Like most social media platforms, YouTube has a live feature. As a result, live post formats do not give other social media platforms an advantage over YouTube.
In fact, people teach how to use other social media platforms on YouTube. But not vice versa. That means you’ll need to go to YouTube to learn how to use the other social media platforms. Therefore, when it comes to content, YouTube should take centre stage in your social media strategy.
Content Life Span
How long does it take for people to see your social media content? Facebook has a medium content lifespan. People will still see your Facebook posts after a few days, weeks, or even months.
Twitter is only a matter of hours or days before your tweets vanish from people’s timelines.
Instagram and LinkedIn can keep showing your post to other people for days or weeks. With TikTok, however, it can take hours. And your post is buried under rubble.
YouTube videos can appear years after they were posted. YouTube’s algorithm can show you relevant 5-year-old content.
Furthermore, if your YouTube channel is monetized, you can still earn money from videos you made years ago. As long as people keep watching it. So, once again, YouTube is the best option in this regard.
Content Reach
How easy is it for your social media posts to reach people? Facebook now has a low organic reach. This means that your followers may not even see your posts. The only way is to boost your posts with paid advertisements. Unless you are willing to spend money on display ads, your business page’s Facebook posts may not reach your target audience easily.
Twitter’s organic reach is determined by who you follow and who follows you. Also, commenting on issues allows you to reach out to more people. In fact, you do not need (trending) hashtags to be seen on Twitter. It sounds strange, but it’s true.
YouTube’s organic reach is not as encouraging as that of the other social media platforms. New YouTube channels grow slowly. However, with TikTok, new accounts can easily break into the viral category.
TikTok’s organic reach is above average. It is the platform that can transform unknown creators into influencers overnight. Except for TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn have higher organic reach.
Community Building
Assume you are in a community centre. Someone enters, isolates herself, and refuses to speak to anyone. When she wants to sell something, she shouts for everyone to hear. And she expects everyone to come and buy from her.
She doesn’t care what you’re doing. But she wants everyone to buy her goods. What do you think will happen? That is what happens when you post content but do not interact with anyone.
Social media is a gathering place. Our male ancestors used to gather under trees to play Oware and discuss community issues. The women talked about the same things as they walked to the river to get some water. The children also sat by the fireside, listening to Kwaku Ananse stories told by their grandparents.
Nowadays, most discussions do not take place under trees, by the river, or at firesides. They occur on social media platforms. So refusing to engage with other people’s posts is analogous to a woman going to the river with her friends to fetch water. However, when people are talking, she is unconcerned. But she wants everyone to be interested in what she has to say.
You will lose if you do not build a social media community. But which of these social media platforms is best for creating a community? They all share community-building features like likes, comments, and shares.
However, direct messaging (DMs) distinguishes itself from the others. Direct messaging features are currently unavailable on TikTok and YouTube. DM features are available on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This puts them in a better position than the others.
Twitter Spaces are live conference-style audio meetings on the app. Unlike other live features that only allow viewers to post comments, Twitter Spaces allows participants to speak during the meeting.
DMs are important because they help people connect on a more personal level. Furthermore, not every conversation can be shared in public as comments. Some things are better said in DMs.
According to Digital Report 2022, the 15 main reasons Ghanaians use social media (from highest to lowest) are
- Keeping in touch with friends and family
- Filling spare time
- Making new contacts
- Reading news stories
- Avoiding missing out (FOMO)
- Finding content
- Seeing what’s being talked about
- Looking for things to do or buy
- Sharing opinions
- Finding content from brands
- Activities for work
- Celebrities and Influencers
- Following sports
- Finding like-minded people
- Watching live streams
Consider your brand as a family member or friend. People will come to social media solely because of you. To consume your content. As a result, there is a need to create a community.
Sales Tools
One of the primary reasons your company is on social media is to sell products and services. As a result, it is advantageous when a social media platform provides you with tools to sell.
Yes, you may post directly about your products and services. However, a sales feature is an added benefit.
The Meta apps (Facebook and Instagram) have shops. You must create a Facebook page for your company. And link it to its Instagram page. Then, with the assistance of a web developer, you link the products and services on your company’s website to the Facebook and Instagram shops.
Any changes you make to your website (new product, price change, etc.) will be reflected instantly in your Facebook and Instagram shops. The future of shopping is social shopping. And these features will be extremely beneficial to your business. Furthermore, Facebook has the Facebook Marketplace. This is where people can buy and sell goods.
Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn do not yet have such features. TikTok shopping has begun. However, it is not yet available in any African country (including Ghana).
TikTok shopping is currently available only in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. That means your company may have to settle for the Meta apps’ shops for the time being.
The Uniqueness of Each Platform
Each social media platform is distinct from the others. These distinguishing features should be considered when developing a social media strategy.
Facebook functions as a local business directory. It makes it simple for people to find the businesses they are looking for on the app.
Twitter is the place to be for breaking news. It is a live discussion of current events. Instagram is notable for its ability to post visually appealing content. As a result, it assists businesses in presenting their brands in aesthetically pleasing ways.
YouTube is a search engine. It is the second largest after Google. You can easily find YouTube videos in Google search results. LinkedIn is the best platform for building business-to-business (B2B) relationships. If you sell to businesses rather than individuals, LinkedIn is the best place to build relationships.
The fact that TikTok’s demographic is young people distinguishes it. As a result, if young people fall within your target audience, you can use it to target them.
Conclusion
Maybe you haven’t decided which platform to prioritize yet. When it comes to your social media strategy, you must have a primary platform. The remainder is then used to amplify or supplement your main message.
Here’s what we recommend: Begin your social media strategy with Instagram. Create a strong presence on Instagram first. Because it has every feature you need to succeed on social media.
Then you make YouTube your second-in-line platform. After you’ve established your brand on Instagram, create long-form videos for YouTube. You can then direct your followers to your YouTube channel. As a result, your channel will grow organically faster.
Put Facebook in third place. Also, make good use of Facebook groups. Create a Facebook group for your company. They have a higher organic reach than Facebook business page posts.
Use TikTok as a dumping ground. Reupload any short-form video you make for any platform on TikTok. Even so, you will gain some followers on that app.
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