What is the difference of the main social media platforms used today?
One of the main causes of a failed social strategy is prioritizing the wrong social media platforms.
Are you utilizing the right social media platforms for your business? Did you know that different platforms have different strengths and target audiences?
The main social media platforms used by businesses today are:
- Facebook: Builds brand awareness, loyalty and reputation. Establishes your business as an authority through educational content and informative posts.
- Instagram: A place to share videos and images that evoke feelings about your brand through the use of visual design.
- Pinterest: Acts as an online scrapbook. Showcases products. Displays brand essence through inspiration boards.
- Youtube: A video search engine. A YouTube channel is like having a second website – describe your company, products, and services you provide. Tagging your videos for SEO purposes will give you the advantage of being found in a general search.
- LinkedIn: Fosters a professional community, one that’s especially beneficial for B2B companies, to build meaningful relationships.
- Twitter: Shares breaking news and quick updates. Promotes new products, content or brand contests. Collects instant feedback from your audience.
Why use social media platforms?
It is critical in choosing the right social media platforms based on your goals, objectives and target audience. Keeping in mind what you want to achieve by engaging in various social media channels. It could be to generate sales, build brand awareness, network, or for customer service.
There are many reasons why you should use social media. Here is a list that may help you determine which social media platforms are best for your business:
- Increase brand awareness
- Humanize your brand
- Establish your brand as a thought leader
- Stay top of mind with your audience
- Increase website leads
- Generate leads
- Boost sales
- Partner with influencers
- Promote content
- Source content
- Reputation management
- Crisis communication
- Customer and audience engagement
- Customer service and support
- Monitoring conversations that relate to your brand
- Learn more about your customers
- Gauge sentiment around your brand
- Keep an eye on your competition
- Stay on top of industry news
- Targeted advertising
- Retargeting
- Reporting and analytics
How to choose the best social media platform for your business
There are many questions to consider when selecting the right social media channels to utilize for your business. We suggest as a start-up or early stage growth business you select 2, 3 maximum. These are some of the questions to ask yourself:
- What is your purpose for a particular social platform?
- What is the intended purpose of the platform?
- What does the audience look like that engages on your platforms?
- How do you grow your audience on your platforms of choice?
- How often should you post?
- When to use hashtags?
- What format of content performs the best?
- How long should my videos be and should they be different across different platforms?
- What type of content works best on each platform?
