Choosing which social media mogul to go with for your business is a massive step in the right direction, but there isn’t just one, there are MANY so which do you go for and which should you leave behind? Well that’s up to you and your market, so let’s jump right in.
Identify Your Audience
Do you know which social media networks your audience is using? People who use Snapchat for instance, may not have any interest in LinkedIn, so it is important to identify who you’re targeting. In general, the younger generation enjoys Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Reddit. Twitter was once the go-to social media platform for young people but it has quickly spread to the “old folks” and isn’t as ‘cool’.
Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest appeal to people aged around 30+, and LinkedIn also carries that distinction. LinkedIn is also a favorite among highly credentialed people (those with college degrees masters level and above, or high-ranking corporate employers/employees) and found in age groups up to age 60 (and beyond). YouTube stands alone as the front-man for video delivery, as the only social media platform which spans all three age groups, young, middle-life and aging.
All of these groups enjoy and use YouTube, though the older generation uses it least of the three.
It Should Make Sense
Know how much time you have to devote to your social media needs, that is a huge part of a successful campaign. There are two main ways you can fail instantly. You can have all the money and budget in the world to spend on your social media campaign, then hire some obscure company to run it, and find they’ve spent very little time, and what appears to be very little of your money on your campaign, and their posts are unprofessional. OR, you have plenty of time but very little money, so you spam all the social media sites you can every day, randomly hoping for success, the more the merrier right? In both cases, you fail. Having enough money but devoting none of your own time to oversee it will fail.
Having enough time, but no money to pursue proper analytics, or on having a company design a strategy that works for you can be hard, it’s not an automatic fail, but if you have plenty of time, be sure you don’t take on more than you can feasibly handle. If you overwork yourself you will burn yourself out, then nobody wins. This needs to make sense to your time, and your budget.
Quick TIP
Our Picks & Why
Pinterest & Instagram
Instagram and Pinterest are more for actual products you can dress up and make into an art piece, or for infographics about a product or service, and even for candid photo moments in the office or while out at lunch to keep your network thriving. Think, #LunchoutwithRamsey if you’re enjoying lunch alongside Chef Gordon Ramsey, which is even better if you’re also a Chef, or work in the kitchen with aspirations to become one. I suppose this could also work if you were simply lucky enough to spot him while out eating, or were eating at one of HIS restaurants. Point being, it’s easy to tag, and network while you’re out, or take a quick photo of a great moment, or of the victory when the job is finished or the product is released. These are perfect for platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. While you could use these for a business like an auto-repair shop, you’d have to get creative to make it work for you, but if you have a creative mind and are willing to do the extra leg-work, go for it.
If you’re going to advertise using Facebook, then this is going to be a big addition to your social media arsenal. Facebook is the king of goods or services, be they physical or online only, and is probably the most versatile of any of the social media platforms with its ability to speak directly to consumers, post live streams, status updates, links to your actual webpage from your business Facebook page, post advertising campaigns, and share curated content as well as links to your own blogposts. You can network with others in the same industry, and grow your following. It’s a big one, and should always be included in any social media strategy.
Twitter is it’s own strange beast. With the character limitation, it only allows for short blasts to be sent out from a business, which is what makes it a favorite among celebrities. Twitter is great for news however, so if you have any breaking news, or want to Re-Tweet (re-share) trending news in your industry, Twitter is the best bet for this. It’s more difficult to communicate large amounts of information but if you think a bit outside the norm, you’ll find that doing things like posting a photo to arouse curiosity with naught but a link to what it is, or a sales page, etc, goes a long way on Twitter. Never underestimate human curiosity, people love to figure things out, and they hate not knowing “what happens next“.
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This one is really more for business people, or those looking for professional work. It is a business network, and as such it lacks any of the fancy glitter and emoji mess that tends to be in most social media networks. You can endorse others who you are connected/networked with, for skills or things you know them to be capable of doing. It’s a place to help build someone’s professional presence through every degree of separation, so that people can see they’ve done many and great things. It can be used for recruiting people, or to connect with new leads, but it is not, social media per se in the traditional sense because you aren’t posting constant updates.
Tumblr & Reddit
These two are a strange bunch, they’re really just glorified forums, but the young people love them. Tumblr is more popular among teenagers, and Reddit tends to capture a slightly older crowd up to age 25 in general. It has a lot more tech-loving folks there, or those interested in just one particular niche. Because Reddit offers categories, you can quickly look for only what you want, and avoid all the other needless posts about things you don’t care about. Tumblr is all about the posts, and the comments to those posts, so it’s really great for engagement, just keep in mind the typically younger crowd, and don’t post anything you would be offended by for your own teen-aged daughter or son. If you can manage to reach Reddit’s homepage you’ll have over 50,000 visitors every day.
Snapchat Stands Alone
The reason Snapchat is listed last, and alone – isn’t because it’s a giant like Facebook, but more because… just recently they announced they have paired with the giant Amazon, and linked up to their cloud services to provide even more lightning-fast texts, pictures and short video shares per moment than ever before. Snapchat remains incredibly popular among young people, but the range of “active users” is between 13 and 45. There are less older people using it frequently, but it has gained in popularity in big ways. If you’re incredibly creative, and you can come up with tiny snippets of a video, or a short text on a photo, etc… then you may be able to make Snapchat work for you.
It is limited like Twitter is, but the area it shines is in between meetings, or other engagements someone has. People use Snapchat when they have a free moment or two but not many more than that, so it could be while they’re waiting for an appointment, or are between tasks. Though people also use it while at a red light, we cannot endorse this, it is dangerous to both yourself and others, use your cell phone responsibly please.
So What Do I Do?
Try to pick anywhere from 2-4 social media sites for your business, and obviously the bigger your business is the more you should be using to their maximum potential. If you’re a small business owner, you may do just as well as your bigger business peers by only using one or two, but using them masterfully.
Know your stats
People use different networks and you don’t want to waste advertising money or your time on a network where nobody will see you. Facebook has 1.11 billion people using their site every month, has 665 million active users every day, and generates a whopping 645 million local business page views every WEEK. Yeah, you read that right. They are massive and easily a first pick. Twitter has 215 million active users, Pinterest has an estimated 70 million active users, Instagram boasts 130-150 million estimated users, and LinkedIn has over 230 million users and 2.7 million business pages. YouTube wraps it up wonderfully with over ONE BILLION unique visitors every month, and can boast over 100 hours of video content getting uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Our two big picks? YouTube and Facebook. Add whatever else you like but be sure to pick those two for 2017!
