Facebook is probably the first platform you think of when you hear social media. It's not surprising, considering that, as of January of this year, it has over 1.5 billion monthly active users. For those of you marketing to millennials (15-34-year-olds), about 91% of them use Facebook, most likely without ever looking up from their phones. With numbers like this, if your business doesn't have an active Facebook page with content that is updated daily, you're seriously missing out.
Facebook is a fantastic place to post longer form statements and articles, with images and links to your business website, to drive traffic. Connecting with your prospects and clients through Facebook can benefit your business tremendously by building those critical relationships. Building followers on Facebook enables you to spread the news about your business by keeping your followers up to date on what your business is doing.
Every business needs to be actively present on Facebook to stay relevant.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a micro-blogging site that allows you to send short (140 characters) messages to potentially millions of individuals in real time. Some of the most compelling features of Twitter include:
- URL shorteners like TinyURL and Bitly - enable you to link to content on your own site without hogging all of your characters.
- Hashtags - these tiny miracle workers enable you to create or insert your message into a worldwide conversation, allowing you to reach individuals that aren't necessarily following you, but are following the hashtag you are using.
- Trend watch - by looking at what's trending on Twitter, you can easily tailor your content to the actively followed conversations (hashtags) and get in on the hype.
Businesses that can really benefit the most from this include mobile businesses such as restaurants, retail outlets, and food trucks. Imagine Tweeting out your current lunch special with coupons, or upcoming locations. Nothing says love like showing up to your location and seeing a hundred customers lined up and waiting for you!
In contrast to Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is a photo-sharing app that enables you to put out rich and vibrant images to promote your business. Instagram is actually considered the single most important social network out there, so businesses that target the teen market absolutely must have an Instagram presence.
Instagram allows you to choose from a variety of filters when posting your photos. Be sure to use the same filters every time you post so that you can create your cohesive brand identity on Instagram. This will help users engage with your business. If they know it's you, they'll stop and like your image or make a comment.
If you're new to Instagram, you may be associating it with a great big Selfie-Fest, but for businesses, that's not the case. Posting aesthetically pleasing images of your products, your office, and things that may be associated with your product or service help you build your brand and show the world what you do.
Ultimately, the platform that will be most effective for your marketing efforts depends primarily on your audience, their interests, and the type of content you plan to disperse.
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