There are so many social media channels — Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, Google+, Periscope, Meerkat, Vine, Snapchat, YouTube — the list goes on. It can be overwhelming and confusing to figure out which ones your business should have a presence on.
The truth is, not all social media platforms are right for your business, so you should be choosy about which ones you devote your time, money, and effort to. Our social media agency is here to analyze some of the top social platforms to help you decide which might best fit your company’s goals.
Facebook
Facebook is a solid choice for most any brand, as it still has the most traffic of any social media channel, at over 1.5 billion active users. Facebook ads integrate fairly seamlessly into users’ News Feeds and can be highly targeted by age, occupation, interests, hobbies, etc. Facebook also offers good analytic insights into your page’s performance.
Twitter
Twitter is great if your company has the ability to respond quickly to changing news, and can respond quickly to Tweets in order to stay relevant on a daily basis. It’s also useful if your company has a blog and wants to use Twitter to help share the blog posts. However, if you don’t have a team or at least a dedicated person at your company to manage social media, then maintaining and growing a Twitter following may be difficult.
People generally like to retweet funny or witty Tweets, so brands that can tweet with a light, humorous, or irreverent tone tend to do well on Twitter. Food brands like Taco Bell have got this down to a science, and also cleverly cross-promote their other social media channels.
Pinterest
Pinterest, which is the fastest growing social media platform with over 100 million active users, is a great choice if you have a visual brand or product you can highlight. Interior design companies, food companies, fashion brands, graphic designers, chefs, people who do crafts, etc. tend to perform well.
Pinterest also works if you have an active blog that you can promote, with eye-catching images or infographics that link to blog content. Inspirational quotes also work well.
Instagram
Instagram is all about the images. Your brand definitely needs to have a strong visual presence, so products with bright colors that can be staged in clever and interesting ways tend to perform well. Light, humorous content also resonates with Instagram users.
Here’s 3 great examples of successful brands on Instagram:
Snapchat
Snapchat is best if your brand is a personality — like a celebrity or social media influencer — who can send more personal snaps as opposed to ones that feel like an ad. Snapchat is also great if your company can offer daily deals and promo codes that can be sent out as snaps. There are brands on Snapchat but they tend to be on the Discover page and also tend to be national publications or networks like MTV, Buzzfeed, Comedy Central, iHeartRadio, and the Wall Street Journal.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is mostly used for professional networking, so if your business is B2B-focused then LinkedIn may be a great place for you to invest some advertising dollars.
Google+
Google+ is usually the most confusing of all social platforms. Most brands (and people) for that matter aren’t sure how to use Google+ or if it’s even worth it. However, if you want to improve your Google search rankings and SEO (and who doesn’t?), Google+ is an important factor in that equation, as Google+ posts are immediately indexed into Google and your brand becomes more relevant in searches.
Therefore, it’s important to post on Google+ regularly, as well as add people and other businesses into your circles.
There are several other social networks to choose from, but these are some of the most widely used. Social media is often a game of trial and error, to see which platforms you’re able to find your audience on, and who will resonate most with your content. Be patient and you’ll eventually suss out where your fans are.
Which platforms have worked best for your business? Let us know at @SocialControlLA!