It’s projected that there will be 1.73 billion social network users by the end of this year. That is a lot of people. Businesses have realized that the pool of potential customers on social media platforms is way too deep to ignore. Look at the tag on your shirt, or the label on your shampoo bottle, or the logo on your shoes and you can probably find them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or something else. Even Green Giant, the company that freezes what kids abhor, has over a million likes.
There’s no doubt that social media is a great tool for businesses, but how invested does your business need to be? Can you pick one of the quirkily-named social networks, make a post or two, and call it a day, or do you have to be a part of every platform, twittering and twerping everyone and everything that you see?
The more active in social media you are, the better for your business. While you can get by with creating just a Facebook or Twitter account, you’re limiting yourself. Different people use different social media platforms in different ways. That might sound painfully obvious, but the point is that by choosing a single social platform, you are effectively alienating a whole other audience.
While there is plenty of crossover, each social media platform has its own sort of niche, especially when it comes to advertising for a business. Facebook is more familial while Twitter is more open to discovering new things.
Facebook news feeds will typically be limited to friends, or friends of friends, and it can be tough to for a business to get visibility without paying for it. Facebook can be great, though, for local marketing and giving people a good impression when they search for you. The user interface lends itself to research better than Twitter.
Twitter is great for businesses as there can be more exposure than the familial and localized Facebook. Twitter’s news feed isn’t as limited in that it will show things that you’re not directly connected to. Twitter is essentially an ongoing, open conversation where everyone is mentioning someone and so you can end up finding something completely new to you.
Pinterest is good for targeting a female audience. It’s also a good way to prove your business is an authority on whatever it is that you do. Instructions, tips, and guides are always popular on Pinterest, and the visual search is growing more and more popular. And of course if you sell something photogenic, Pinterest is the place to show it off
While it’s good to be active on social media, that doesn’t mean that you have to stay glued to a screen and overly exert yourself on every social media network there is. The more you do, the better it is for your company, but sometimes it’s hard to find the time for social. If only there was another way…
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