For any business that is trying to reach more and more people and planning to increase its visibility, it is essential for it to be on social media platforms because as per the studies the large amount of population spends anywhere from average 2 hours to 9 hours every day on these platforms and the consumptions continues to grow at unprecedented rates.
Wherein, there are plenty of options available to choose from, it’s generally advisable to stick to only those social platforms which are actually suitable for the nature and purpose of your business, rather than being everywhere. You ask why? Well, a.) It’s better to utilize your time and effort on the platforms where you get more response and chances of ROI instead of wasting your energy on number of other platforms b.) Be awesome at few of them rather being average on all of them.
Here is how you decide the platform you want to pick as per your business need:
- Facebook: It is the biggest social networking platform with much wider audience than any other platform. Facebook is great for businesses who want to establish their brand as it allows you to bring personal touch to your business by sharing pictures, videos and its latest feature, live video has it made it even easier for your audience to get the glimpse into the life of the people behind your brand logo and their lives beyond work. On Facebook, it’s not easy to create relations if you are not in for long-term commitment or sociable.
- Twitter: It is a great place to connect with your audience and suitable for businesses that have a lot to say, announcements to make, promote new products, have contests to run and wants to initiate interactive campaigns. Twitter throws a challenge at you to say what you want to convey in 140 characters and because of this feature the conversations on twitter is never boring. It’s great for you if you are into the business or industry where you want to be closer to your audience and reply to their issues and problems without any delay. It’s great to develop relationship as it’s not about selling but about involving with your target audience, clients and consumers. It’s unique feature of using hashtags in the conversation allows you to connect with the people with similar topics and interests as you.
- LinkedIn: It’s more about social networking than social media. LinkedIn is great for developing B2B relationships. LinkedIn is not very visual but you can make your presence felt by being the part of various group discussions that takes place. Here you can answer other people’s questions, help them in their dilemma, advice people and ask your own questions. It’s a way of showing how active, connected and transparent you are in your approach.
- Instagram: It’s all about being visual as it allows you to share photos and videos. It’s great for businesses which have products to display and beautiful pictures to share. Here people can get involved with you by liking and commenting on your posts. In the recent times it has become an extremely popular platform but it can only be operated through mobile. The posts which you share here can also be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc through its ‘share’ feature.
- YouTube: It’s a great platform for sharing videos, showcasing products and services and highlight supporter stories and events. Not only that, but it allows users to create your channel, upload videos, share it on other networks and initiating conversation and discussion in comment box. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google.
- Pinterest: It’s more like an online scrapbook which allows you to showcase your products and display the essence and inspiration behind your brand. Here you can create pin boards with the beautiful pictures and back link those to your blog or website and generate more traffic which would eventually lead to the greater chances of ROI.
- Snapchat: It has come a long way from its humble beginning and has become a marketing tool from mere photo and video sharing app. Despite of its self-destructive nature which doesn’t allow for photos and videos to stay more than few seconds, it has become popular beyond expectations. If done right, you can create the right buzz for your product, service or event to the right audience at the right time. This app is widely used in running contests, realizing teasers of upcoming product and events.
The bottom line is, no matter what social media channels you pick for your business, you have to be active, engaged and consistently produce quality content and give your best. Each social media platform is different and requires different content, different kinds of engagement, and different activity and different approach. So think well and strategies in advance before choosing the best suitable platform.
Also published on Medium.
