These figures show that social media is widely used in Ireland. Facebook is the largest and most engaged audience, but there are audiences on the other platforms that number in the hundreds of thousands per day.
2. What is the largest social media network in Ireland?
3. Other than their popularity, are there any other reasons why a business might choose to promote its brand on certain social media networks? (Consider target markets and the type of product.)
Simply having an audience is not enough, though… It is important therefore to understand what social media is capable of delivering.
All businesses are different, but for the vast majority the following will apply:
• Brand awareness – social media is an excellent tool for building up awareness of your brand • Sales/conversion – generally social media is not good at generating direct sales. It is a soft-selling tool so users do not usually respond well to direct calls to action
• Customer service – it is an excellent customer service tool but you must remain highly active • Brand loyalty – social media is also good at building up brand loyalty among your existing customers • Reputation – you can build up a reputation as an expert in your field using social media
• Search engine rankings – Google uses social media as a signal when determining search engine rankings so having a good social media presence can help your position in search results.
4. Why is social media not good at generating direct sales? Can you think of any ways that businesses have tried to address this problem?
5. Why is it important that a business keeps its social media accounts active?
So social media has a significant audience in Ireland, and it can deliver on real business objectives. The next step for you is to decide what objectives are the most important in your business. From there you can select the right social media platform, and develop a plan to deliver an effective strategy.
