Social Media: Choosing The Right Platforms
So you’re ready to take the leap into the wild world of social media. This is great, but where do you start?
Choosing the right platforms for your social media venture is critical. It’s all about knowing where your audience is. To help you out in this area I have put together a guide as to where people lie on each platform so you can choose based on the facts.
The big one. Facebook has the largest user base out of all the platforms. Most people between the age of 20-60 are on it, and it’s perfect for sharing a wide variety of different types of content. Facebook does work best with consumer products and services, however, many people that work within big companies have Facebook so it is still a good platform for some B2B businesses.
Twitters spread in terms of user groups is massive. It’s following comes from all walks of life – engineers, creatives, architects, fitness freaks, standard humans etc. You name it, there is a guy or girl on there that is hardcore into it. The beauty of Twitter is the ability to follow hash tags around the topic you’re interested in. The nature of it’s openness means it’s good for sharing content with the world quickly, and it also assists with search engine optimisation as well.
The platform that is over-run by recruiters. Despite this you can sometimes have success here if you are B2B as many big wigs tour this monstrosity to find businesses to do work with. But mostly it is used as a talent pool.
This is what happens when you pool the most popular items from both Facebook and Twitter. This photo-only sharing platform is great if you have visual products or services. Things that really thrive here are attractive products, boutique stores, fashion, creative services, fitness, food, automotive and more. Pretty much if you can make a cool picture of it, it’ll likely do well on Instagram.
Google+
Google’s failed answer to Facebook… Or is it? Google recently merged Google+ with it’s Google Places listings to create Google+ Brands. This means that Google+ has now become the hub for getting you on Google Maps, and also for improving your results on Google search. They also linked YouTube so that you can have your business everywhere. Google+ should be seriously considered for all businesses as the search engine and maps additions means your post will get some wide spread traction to all walks of life.
YouTube
Video, video, video! If you make a video it goes here. It’s a pretty simple concept and needs little explaining. Link YouTube to your Google+ Brands listing for maximum bang for your buck and don’t forget to share the videos on your other social platforms.
Vimeo
More video, but not all video. Vimeo has a very distinctive following of creative types. This means your video you made to promote toasters is not going to go well here (in fact they specifically say promotional videos aren’t allowed). The types of videos that thrive here are documentaries, environmental, philanthropic, beautifully shot creative masterpieces etc.
It’s not just for wives, men use it too. Pinterest has a reputation for driving more eCommerce sales than any other platform. It allows you to share visual products complete with prices and share it with the world. Pinterest users tend to use it as a public wishlist of everything they want to one day buy (or want to be able to afford to buy). Jewellery, fashion, homeware, graphic design, art, food, craft, hair and beauty are just a few of the industries that thrive on here.
These are the big players at the moment, other platforms that may be worth taking a look at are Vine, Tumblr, FourSquare and Reddit. There are also a stack of niche social media platforms out there so keep an eye out for them.