This is no surprise; most businesses have jumped on the bandwagon of social media marketing to nail their presence on the internet and reach global audience faster and at lesser cost, everyone who has access to internet is using social media platforms for knowledge, entertainment, or just to kill time.
Investing your resources on each and every social media platform is like shooting in dark with a little chance of hitting the target. For social media marketing “know your audience” should be first goal. Let’s discuss different social media channels suited for you and your business needs.
Facebook is undeniably the biggest most famous social media network. Even the recent leaks and negative press couldn’t harm it’s fame, therefore. every business should have a Facebook page. When used smartly, a Facebook page can be invaluable to small businesses.
Facebook can be used to share everything from photos to important company updates. With a business account, you can access powerful advertising tools. Business pages also have countless options to customise and highlight information such as your contact information, hours of operation, the products and services you offer, and much more.
Instagram is next in line when it comes to popularity. From Instagram Live to Instagram Stories, there are numerous tools you can use to promote your products and services. Instagram is a visual platform that’s based entirely on photo and video posts.
If your business niches depend on visual aspects of marketing like beauty products manufacturer, you have a higher chance of excelling on it may not be the best fit for your business. If you have a good eye for detail and at least basic photography and editing skills, you can have success with this platform.
As Twitter is great for short updates and sharing links to blog posts. It isn’t for every business. On Twitter, you can only share short tweets (240 characters or fewer), videos, images, links, polls etc.
It’s easy to interact with users on this platform by mentioning them in your posts with liking and retweeting tweets. If you’re a highly visual business or don’t have a blog, this social media network might not work for you.
You can also use this platform to handle customer services to be easily accessible to your customers. Hashtags help boost posts, and if a user with a lot of followers retweets you, your content could go viral. Make sure your posts convey a message, knowledge and is relevant to the trends and industry.
Pinterest is visually oriented platform that lets its users to save and display content by “pinning” digital bulletin boards, which can be sorted by category. You might have a food board dedicated to pinning recipes, another board dedicated to photography, and so on. Brands can use specific information to their pins, like product details and even location maps. Every pin includes an image or video. Pinterest is especially good marketing tool for businesses in DIY projects, fashion, exercise, beauty, photography and food.
Snapchat
Snapchat is another mobile-only visual social media network where users can send videos and photos to each other, or post content to their public stories, which disappears after 24 hours, reflecting its respect for privacy of its users. The app has expanded to include chat, messaging, image storage, events and media content. Now, content can easily be saved and uploaded elsewhere.
A small business will most likely utilize the platform’s Stories feature, but only users who have added you can view your Story’s content, that means you need to build a loyal following first. However, once you have an audience, Stories allows you to easily create meaningful and interactive content.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing platform where people can view, upload, rate, share and comment on content. Now owned by Google, the site is an enormous platform for news and entertainment. YouTube is heavily driven by creativity, so it’s important to have a skilled video editor producing content.
You don’t need a channel to market on the platform. There’s a subculture of YouTube influencers who publish frequent videos and cater to large audiences, usually in millions. You can partner with YouTubers for product placement or get your business featured to get to a larger readily-available target audience. Make sure you look for influencer from your awn industry.
While LinkedIn might not be the most popular social media platform, it still has 500+ million member and is the best platform for professional networking. LinkedIn is a great platform for finding top talent, presenting yourself as an industry leader and promoting your business. Users create profiles that are similar to resumes, and companies can create pages that showcase their business.
You can join industry-specific LinkedIn Groups to ask and answer questions. This helps your brand, paints you as an industry expert, and brings people to your company’s page and website.
Conclusion
Internet is brimming with social media platforms with new entrants making their way every day, to make the most of them we need to find the one best suited for our business and its requirements, our own preferences and audience it caters to.
About the Author
Naila Yasir
Naila is Content Developer at Ava IT Solutions & Consulting, Dubai.
She is self-published author, skilled at articulating an extensive range of online content.
