Five Digital Media Platforms That Will Grow Your Business

It’s the 21st century people, so gone are the days were people have to over work themselves just to create a credible awareness for their organization or business venture. With the advent of the World Wide Web as well as diverse digital media platforms, one could very easily reach out to a global audience, all from the comfort of one’s office space! Besides digital media, there are however, other non-digital media platforms that many businesses still make use of even till date, some of which include; newspaper publications, brochures, magazines, flyers and posters, and it sometimes comes down to word-of-mouth, as methods of advertising. Now, as good as these non-digital platforms might be, they are still very limited as they may not very easily reach out to a larger or global audience as the case may be. However, with more and more persons patronizing digital gadgets such as androids and PCs, it is safer to say that digital media platforms will go a longer way as well as do a better job of awareness creation for business owners! For this post I will be sharing some of these digital media platforms with you and also show you how they can enrich as well as help your business grow this year! So sit back and enjoy the read!

TV/RADIO BROADCAST
Okay guys! Let’s start with the bigger stuff. As expensive as this could get, I believe that with strategic planning and sufficient inquiries, this can be achieved. I mean come to think of it guys, practically everyone must watch a TV broadcast every now and then, or at least listen to radio broadcasts. So imagine getting your business ad to a TV/radio broadcasting network. It would definitely open up new leads as well as create a larger fan/client base for your business, especially, when the ad is one that meets the eye or at least is very engaging when played on the radio. Now, you do not have to break the bank in order to achieve this, you might want to start by asking around, who knows? You may know someone who knows someone who also knows someone that might give you the right connections at a bonus rate! Or worse still, you could make adequate inquiries and then plan efficiently towards it. But remember, there is no such thing as a vague goal, one of the qualities of a goal is that it must be clear, precise and vivid, so you must make your inquiries so that you can know exactly what you are saving up for or planning towards. Once you’ve done this, give yourself a time frame to actualize this goal. You can check out this post I wrote a while ago on ‘Goal Setting’ to help you strategize;

GOAL SETTING

WORLD WIDE WEB
This is in fact one of the most affordable ways of creating global awareness for your business products and/or services. I’m referring to getting your own space on the internet and to do this you very likely would need to host a web page/site or launch a blog for your business and the good thing is that you can start out with a free web/blog site and still achieve your aim, like I said before, it doesn’t have to be a costly endeavor. The selection here is dependent on the kind of business you’re into. For instance, if you retail household products you just might want to stick to a web page where your products and price lists are regularly uploaded and updated with adequate contact details on the site. Some people go as far as making provision for purchase links on their web sites so that customers can pay for products/services online and have them delivered to them. Whatever the case may be, the choice is yours to make but choose wisely! For a service oriented business, such as a food catering service business or a photography business, an entrepreneur or organization may decide to host a blog site where regular uploads are made and their services are showcased. Such a business could go as far as releasing pictures or samples of their recipes or photographs as the case may be, just to catch the interest of their audience or fans. Again the contact details are adequately provided on the blog.
Whichever platform you choose, it is very important to link your web page or blog page to your social media platforms so that people who visit your web space can easily locate you on the various available social media platforms, where interactions are made possible. You can also include response forms or comment boxes on your site that people can fill, in order to send you their feedbacks, this is very important!

Bonus tip: if you have been following my blog posts regularly, you would notice that I occasionally leave you with some bonus tips. Yes! And here is another; so perhaps, you wish to advertise your products and services on the World Wide Web but you are just not ready to publish or host a website yet, well there is another option for you. You can still pay to advertise on the internet. To do this, you will need to get in touch with other website owners or bloggers and pay them to advertise for you on their web/blog site. Easy as pie! However, be certain that whichever site you choose has the required traffic you are looking for, more importantly go for websites that have spanned through a longer period of time and are active as well!

Check out my newest series tagged “Elma David Speaks..." on my YouTube Channel. Press play and click the ‘subscribe' button below 👇

SOCIAL MEDIA
Okay so the whole talk about publishing a website sounds really vague and complicated to you, perhaps you only run a small scale business and so you do not really think it’s necessary for you to publish a website or maybe you’re a sole entrepreneur and you’re thinking of the work load involved in actively running such a site. Well, do not fret, social media platforms have got you covered. Social media here, includes social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter, and so many others. The good thing about social media platforms is that they allow interactions, so the business owner can get client feedback and responses more easily as well as advertise products and services. Also with social media, you can vividly showcase your products and services and the most common expense involved here is a subscription fee for your network service providers.
However, in case you want to really scale things up a bit, then you should start thinking of running ‘sponsored ads’ on your social media platforms. This feature is currently available on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, however, to run sponsored ads one must be operating a business account, that is, instead of the regular/personal social media account, a business page as is the case with Facebook or a business account, as is the case with Instagram and Twitter is required. For Instagram and Twitter users, you can also change your personal accounts to a business accounts from the ‘Settings’ menu. This is a very good feature especially for those who want to maintain their already existing accounts and still use it for business. Now before I forget, ‘sponsored ads’ are paid ads (that is, ads which the business owner pays for) which are designed to run on whichever platform in use and are usually broadcasted to a pre-selected audience. They are sometimes referred to as ‘promotions’. With this, you can promote any post or update made on your business account to reach a larger audience and you can also schedule the ads to be posted. Now guys, just in case you are wondering, this doesn’t come for free, you will need to pay for this. However, the good thing is that the fees are regulated and you get to choose the amount you wish to spend, however, the higher the fees the larger the audience! That’s how it works! I should release a post on how you can run a sponsored ad very soon, so be on the lookout.

MOBILE APPLICATION
Jumia, Konga, Uber, Taxify, Amazon, and Google, to mention but a few, are all business that have moved on to launch mobile apps that will give more and more persons access to their products and services. Here, I’m referring to those software applications that have been designed to run on mobile phones. This is also another veritable means of growing your business, even though you will need to get professional help or assistance which would very likely cost you, to achieve this. But then again, like I’d always say, ‘…think benefits!’ especially the long term benefits. Imagine your business having an app that can be download in the various app stores available, it will definitely yield more returns for you in the long run. So if you can afford it, then why not try it? But, first, make enough research before you embark on this venture and try as much as possible to not mimic any one, in order words your business app should strive to stand out from the rest within your niche, this way you’ll attract more downloads and eventually grab more profitable business leads.

ONLINE STORES
Maybe, you do not wish to launch an app, perhaps it just does not come into play for the kind of business you do! Perhaps all you do is make and retail the best yogurt in town and yes, you’ve tried social media marketing but you feel like you still want to reach out to more and more people, well, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking then you would know that perhaps registering with an online store would just be your safest bet! And there are many of them nowadays, ranging from foreign to local online stores, some of which include; Amazon, Alibaba, ebay, Jiji, Jumia, Konga, Shopify, and many others too numerous to mention.

So guys, this is it, the various digital media platforms or avenues to help grow your business from small scale to a large scale enterprise. And all you need do is make more research and then put to better use your android mobile phones, personal computers and of course, your credit/debit cards….so endeavor to get started ASAP, cause the year is up and running! Thanks for reading, you can leave your questions and comments below and I’ll do well to respond to them.
Until next week, enjoy!