If you’re a small business owner or have a social enterprise or nonprofit, you know that your digital marketing strategy has to encompass social media.
Did you know there are hundreds of platforms you can be on right now to promote your business? Facebook, Vine, Tumblr, Google+, Instagram, YouTube––the list is long.
The first place to begin is by looking at the largest social networks. Sure, some businesses may have a particular niche where it makes sense for them to choose social media that has fewer users or a particular audience. However, generally speaking, most businesses should focus on at least some of the big platforms.
- Facebook – 1.8 billion users.
- Instagram – 700 million users.
- LinkedIn – 467 million users.
- Twitter – 317 million users.
- Snapchat – 300 million users.
Let’ take a look at some of the sites that could help propel your business because, at the minimum, they’ll serve to promote your organization. To understand what’s best for your company, you have to know the opportunities and challenges for each of the platforms. What follows is a simple guide to help you quickly get some of the vital information to make a decision.
The King of Social Media
Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. It doesn’t mean, however, that it’s the most innovative anymore. Of the top social networks, at present, that designation goes to Snapchat. However, for sheer audience reach, you should consider Facebook for your digital marketing.
Facebook Pros
- Largest social network on the planet
- Leading source for news, shares, friends and followers
- Powerful analytics
- Targeted audience segmentation
- Owns Messenger
- Owns Instagram
- Facebook Live
- Instant Articles publishing
Facebook Cons
- Facebook algorithms are a mystery, and there’s no way to know how people see content you publish on their timelines beyond any segmentation you do
- Depending on the type of company and products you sell, you may not be able to promote your business because it might not meet its community standards (potential censorship)
- Privacy settings can sometimes be a challenge
- Organic reach is extremely limited, and you will have to boost (pay) to have even your followers see your content
- A 3-seond view counts as a “view” on Facebook, and yet a user may not have been seeing your video whatsoever
- Instant Articles is native to Facebook, and when someone reads an article, they will read your piece on Facebook––not on your website
- Facebook Messenger only works from individual accounts and not business pages
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Facebook owns Instagram and once it got bought there were some changes that happened to the platform. As with Facebook, organic reach is exceedingly small, so you’re going to have to pay to promote your brand on this platform.
Instagram Pros
- Easy to use business accounts
- Allows your followers and customers to locate information about your brand quickly
- Targeted audience advertisement
- Young audience
- Can get information about how many people clicked on your website from Instagram and what times of day
- Can use up to 30 hashtags
- In one post, you can upload up to 10 pictures or videos
Instagram Cons
- Small organic reach, so you have to pay
- Spam
The 140 Character Micro-Blog
If you’ve read the news in the last year, then you know it’s had its challenges around ROI for investors, bullying, and management. However, Twitter is still an excellent place to go to if you want to know what people are saying in real time if there’s a breaking news story.
Twitter Pros
- Hashtags makes it excellent for sharing and knowing what’s happening in breaking news or trending stories
- Easy to grow your followers
- Google picks up tweets in its search results
- Ability to curate content specific to your interests or that of your followers
- Targeted engagement with hashtag use
- Easy place to promote your brand, especially if you support others
Twitter Cons
- User growth is stagnating
- Tweets no longer viewed as they happen, but according to what the algorithms believe you want to see
- A lot of spam
- 140 characters
- Although you can include videos and photos, messages are text driven
- You can’t direct message a group
The Current Innovator
At present, Snapchat is the leader of the innovative pack. You have other social networks seeing what Snapchat is doing and developing their versions of some of those features. If you want to reach Millennials and Generation Z, this would be one of the best places to do it.
Snapchat Pros
- Innovative company
- Aggressively working on augmented reality
- Disappearing stories, which is ideal for targeted and limited campaigns
- 10-second stories
- Lenses and filters
- Coveted young audience
- Fun and creative social network
Snapchat Cons
- You have to promote your brand outside of Snapchat; people must know your Snapchat username to follow you
- Older generations are likely not using this social network
- Cannot sponsor advertisements or promotions
- Content disappears
- Limited analytics
Business to Business or Consumer
If you’re looking to establish your credentials on thought leadership, LinkedIn is the place you may want to consider. Companies can make connections and money out of LinkedIn because it’s considered a “professional” social media tool, but it takes time and concerted effort. You have to stick to it.
LinkedIn Pros
- Excellent place for industry thought leadership
- Improves SEO
- Great networking site
- Easier and more improved site for end-users
- Professional platform
LinkedIn Cons
- Lots of spam from people looking to sell you something
- Most users are not actively engaged in LinkedIn
- You must post often
- You must engage to grow your network
- Increasingly a lot of what was free is going behind a high pay wall
It’s awesome that we live in a world that has so much opportunity for us to promote and market our businesses for substantially less cost than it was to advertise even a decade ago. You don’t have to be the social media manager for your company to have a general understanding of the largest social media platforms and know which ones you want to target.
Source: B2C
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