The Top 10 Social Media Platforms for your Business and Why They Work
Instagram is your one stop shop for social media, most consumers look here to check a brand/business' reputability (by followers, content, etc…). Instagram is a great place to interact with your followers/fans/consumers and encourage them to help your brand through shout outs, contests, and user generated content. Instagram requires consistent daily engagement and content to stay relevant. Instagram is a necessity for all companies desiring an online presence. In the past few years it has been increasingly more difficult to maintain a presence on Instagram, which is leading some people to believe a new platform will replace Instagram but they are still on top and dont look like they're leaving anytime soon.
2. Twitter
Twitter is a love/hate relationship for most brands take customer service to a whole other level as a quick mass communication and response system. Additionally as a marketing tool twitter comments can be short , powerful and entertaining, reaching millions quickly. Cautiously, twitter can be your greatest tool, however, can also be risky since everyone has a voice. On this platform be extra mindful of what your consumer could deem offensive or unprofessional, this could mean responding to inaccurate information quickly. As a result, a twitter account needs to be constantly monitored and managed.
A couple of ways you can use twitter to grow, is to voice your opinion on popular subjects, try to stay away from risky subjects and pay attention to your patterns. For example, if an employee is posting negative responses they can really deter new consumers. However, engaging with customers about your brand quickly makes them feel appreciated. Let's say someone tweets “I love my shirt from Brand XYZ so soft!” You can take that opportunity to thank them for their business or say something nice about them.
3. Snapchat
Snapchat for your brand is hard to mess up and easy to set up. Behind the scenes, takeovers, and other Snapchat trends can help with your more dedicated fan base with interacting with your brand. I would focus on snapchat being for your more dedicated consumers and not a way to gain more attention to your brand. It’s hard to grow organically on snapchat without using other platforms.
4. Facebook
Don’t not (yes a double negative) use Facebook because you think people don't use Facebook. Stop. That. Facebook is way more of a platform and has way more uses than you thought. You probably already have the “automatically post to facebook” switch on when you post on Instagram, which is fine, BUT let’s create Facebook content as well. Facebook’s audience is older and more thorough than the younger social media consumers. So if you’re selling a product for teens and you think oh I don't need Facebook because all it is, is grandmas posting political comics, let's think again. WHO is buying that product for their teen child or grandchild? The humans of Facebook. Make a list of the top gifts to buy your 12-16 y/o grandchild and put your product on top!
Another amazing tool people look over on Facebook is groups. Please utilize groups. If your product has to do with cats, make a cat group and do a giveaway once a month to whoever invites the most people. Then you have a tight knit group of people completely in your niche. How amazing is that.
5. Linked in
Have you done something that’s worked that you don't think other brands have done? Linked in wants to know. These people LOVE unique content that can strengthen their opinion with numbers. Linked in is also a great way to connect with people in your industry whether its trade shows or manufacturers, it really levels the playing field when it comes to connections. Be careful on controversial topics on here, Linked in is basically a public resumè and someone will probably make another Linked In post about how you messed up and what to learn from it.
6. Tik Tok
If you haven’t, get on Tik Tok. It’s the fastest growing social media platform and will continue to grow. The audience is young, but social media always ages up. It's also a really easy platform to grow on and help grow your other platforms when people want to find out more. The Washington Post is on Tik Tok and puts out almost NO news related content, they create relatable and funny content while a paving company recently came out with the coolest video about pavement you’ll ever see in your life. So play around with Tik Tok you’ll learn what works quickly. Tik Tok also moves really quickly, trends come and die in hours, so pay attention to what's hot and it will easily be your best friend.
7. Reddit
Reddit is the self proclaimed front page of the internet for a reason, there is a niche for everything. If there isn’t a niche for your product, make one because there's a good chance there is someone else with the same interests. If it's an innovative product, check to see if there's a group for innovative products because there probably is. Reddit likes new and exciting content that hasn’t been released before. You can crosspost on reddit and Linked in and get great results on both!
8. Pinterest
Pinterest used to be all mom bloggers and drop out Cordon Bleu cooks, but have since expanded to any board and niche you can think of. Pinterest is an especially great tool for people with really nice websites and online based businesses. Create your own boards and post your own pins to link them back to your website or other social media. If your photos or pins are high quality it will be easy for you to gain new attention to your site/page.
9. Tumblr
Yes it's still a thing and a lot of creatives are very dedicated to Tumblr and appreciate the quality content people push out on tumblr. Just like Pinterest, Tumblr is great for high quality content that can be clicked through to your site or page.
10. Youtube
If you’re thinking wow YouTube takes so much effort the rest of this is enough, please reconsider being a brand owner. Youtube is an amazing tool to push out long pieces of content, behind the scenes, how-to’s, event recaps, announcements, etc. The possibilities with YouTube are actually endless, and if you can, I would hire someone to completely focus on YouTube because you can also monetize!!