Being a social media communications professional, I have worked with dozens of different clients and businesses across North America. One thing I’ve noticed is many businesses use as many social media platforms as possible. A problem I find is not every social media platform is right for every company. So how do you figure out which social media platforms are right for your company?
Simply put, what it comes down to is having a clear understanding of what your company does, regardless of how big or small, and how to represent your company on the massive social media landscape.
First, here is a list of the top social media platforms in the world today as of September 2017:
With Facebook, YouTube and Instagram as the most used social media sites, let’s jump into what kind of platforms may be right for your business. As an example, if you are the owner and operator of a small café and eatery, there are social media platforms that you may consider over others.
Which ones should you consider?
Facebook
Monthly Active Users: 2 billion
YouTube
Monthly Active Users: 1.5 billion
Instagram
Monthly Active Users: 700 million
Twitter
Monthly Active Users: 250 million
Pinterest
Monthly Active Users: 175 million
Tumblr
Monthly Active Users: 115 million
Flickr
Monthly Active Users: 112 million
Google+
Monthly Active Users: 111 million
LinkedIn
Monthly Active Users: 106 million
Because you run a business that revolves around food and drinks, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+ are the social media platforms I recommend starting with. Why those social media platforms? Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are very heavy on visuals, especially Instagram and Pinterest. Taking high-quality photos of your food and drinks and posting them on social media can help build social media activity, engagement, and your following. If you don’t believe me, the proof is in the pudding! Go log onto Instagram or Pinterest and look for any accounts that puts a focus on food. You’ll notice that a majority of them get lots of likes, shares, and comments.
As for Google+ for your café, having reviews – good reviews – from your customers can help grow your success. Having an active Google+ business page means if possible customers are googling your business and they come across your Google+ page, they can read the reviews other people have written. That said, Google+ is good for most businesses in general.
Now, let’s say you are the owner and operator of a health and fitness organization. Like the previous example, Facebook and Instagram are highly recommended but I would also recommend YouTube. There are more than 300 hours of video uploaded every single minute to YouTube and nearly 5 billion videos are watched every single day! That’s crazy but important to know. For a health and fitness organization, short, high-quality videos can help boost your social media and your business. Plus, you can then share your YouTube video links to other social media platforms, such as Facebook.
Tumblr is also a great platform to consider as that is more geared towards blogs; you could write fun, helpful health and fitness blogs on Tumblr. In addition, using specific hashtags on social media platforms, take Instagram for example, can help with your audience reach. The hashtag #fitness on Instagram is used on more than 215 million posts!
What if you run a digital marketing agency? If so, you may think using every social media platform available is a good idea to show that you and your business know and understand social media. I would disagree with that as I wouldn’t use every social media platform. For example, NetGain is a web marketing firm that focuses on web development, SEO, graphic design, social media marketing and content development. At NetGain, we use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram and we don’t use social media sites like Pinterest. The simple fact is that site doesn’t match well with what our company goals and services are. Yes, I can set up a Pinterest account for NetGain and as wonderful as Pinterest is, the social media platform doesn’t match up to what NetGain is all about.
Simply put, using social media for your business means knowing which social media platform works best for your business. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, choose your social media platforms carefully, everyone.