Christopher Wick is the founder of SMM International, a social media marketing firm.

He specializes in giving his clients an online reputation that best serves their business objectives, such as revenue growth, lead gen and growing the bottom line.

His expertise in the social media field was channeled into his international best seller, “How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business and Make More Money.”

On the podcast, Wick explains how the overarching purpose of using social media strategy for business marketing, particularly with Facebook Live and Instagram. He also delves into how important video content it, and that consumers respond more favorably to authenticity than professionalism.

How to Make the Best Use of Facebook Live

Because Facebook is primarily about connecting people and forming communities, business owners should be looking to engage these same people and create their own communities. One way to do this is with Facebook Live.

Wick specifically cites a business owner who used Facebook Live to let people vote on what she should name her animal. Even though this might seem silly and unrelated to business, when she released the winning name, she mentioned a charity that meant a lot to her and asked people to donate.

In other words, she was using the “name my animal” promotion as a Trojan Horse for her actual cause. Both the silliness of naming the animal and the dedication to her charity do wonders in building a positive reputation around her and, by extension, her business.

How to Build Groups on Facebook

Facebook groups are a great way to build a community around a business, manage your brand, and increase your engagement. Even though it can be difficult to start, starting is the most important step, even if the only people in your group is your mom and your cousin.

There’s no boosting posts or advertising in a group. It’s an organic way of communicating with consumers and building a reputation.

A surefire way to grow your group, Wick contests, is to leverage your existing network. Get your family and friends to reach out to others who might be interested in whatever product or service you’re selling.

Another way to grow your group is to have really good content, because that’s what people will respond to—not begging for engagements or ham-fisted advertisements.

In order to have good content, you’ll have to know what people want. Why has your group assembled? Group exclusivity can also be a boon to creating interest around groups. In other words, putting your content behind a curtain will naturally spur curiosity.

What Are Some Other Useful Ways to Use Facebook?

Wick really likes using polls, because people love to share their opinions. It also helps that polls are relatively simple to engage with, as there’s often only two or three options.

As effective as polls are, contests are actually the number one engagement narrator.

For instance, one campaign Wick was involved with hired a mascot dressed as a pizza slice to go to a University and dance around. If students took a picture with the mascot and shared it on social media, they could win free pizza for an entire semester.

This resulted in tons of social presence for the pizza owner, such as pictures, engagements, and hashtags. Because of this, the pizza business had a spike in sales, due to the increased awareness.

These contests can also work for B2B purposes, such as giving away free social media makeovers.

What’s the Best Way to Use Facebook Messenger?

Wick says that Facebook Messenger is a wonderful place for business to be, because it’s where the people are.

As an example, Wick cites a hotel company that allows consumers to make reservations through Messenger.

However, it’s important that business have a human on hand for Messenger.

While using automated messages for common questions is fine, it can be annoying if a consumer has a specific question and gets a prepared answer that has nothing to do with his or her question.

Making the Most Out of Instagram

One of the best ways a business can make use of Instagram is through shout-outs. Shout-outs are when a business tags another business by mentioning a special promotion of some kind. Because social media is built around small communities, shout-outs can help dip into the communities of other businesses, while benefiting you both.

As for videos, Wisk suggests keeping them from 60 to 90 seconds to start. However, once you have built an audience, longer videos will work, as well.

Whether or not videos will work for your business also depends on the type of business—car dealerships will have better success, because cars are inherently photogenic.

Don’t worry about spending a lot of money on filming equipment, because a smartphone camera can work perfectly fine. In fact, Wick finds that data shows homegrown videos are getting more engagements than professional videos.

How Do You Choose Which Social Media Platform to Use?

Wick finds that each social media platform has its own flavor. Facebook is slower, Twitter is faster, and Instagram is visual. Therefore, your business might be more effective on one platform than another.

For instance, if you own a tattoo parlor, Instagram will be most useful, as you can share your visual creations.

In general, however, Facebook remains the most popular platform in generating consumer engagements. So, if you’re not sure where to start, that’s probably the best place.

After that, you can use Facebook to funnel your audience to your platform of choice.

If you’re having trouble with your social media platforms, Wick believes it’s never a bad idea to bring in an expert.