Which Social Media Platform is Right for My Business?

There are so many different social networking sites out there that it may be overwhelming when trying to pick the right ones for your business to join. Though they are all designed to connect people, they serve different purposes as far as who is using them and whom they are designed to reach. It is important to figure out which audiences you want to target before you decide which social networks you should be on.

Facebook - As arguably the most popular social networking site, Facebook is the most sensible place to start when getting your company on social media. Since so many people have personal Facebook accounts, it is good for connecting with your fans and building relationships with them. It is also very easy to run promotions exclusive to Facebook which give your fans a chance to win gift cards or prizes from your business. This is a simple way to build your fan base, and will also encourage fans to join you on your other social media pages as well.

I recommend a Facebook page for any business, and then depending on the nature of the business and target audience, is how you can choose other social networking sites to join to compliment your Facebook page.

Twitter - I personally like Twitter because it can target more than one type of audience. Use this to your advantage! With the accounts that we manage, I see a lot of interactions with other accounts that are similar to the business or have a niche interest in the business’s particular type of service. But, we also often engage with fans and customers as well. This makes a Twitter a valuable platform for building your brand awareness.

Twitter demands constant attention so you can be actively engaging and participating in conversations about your business and its focus. If you are not doing this, Twitter is basically pointless. I do not recommend Twitter for your business if you not have the time to maintain it.

Google+ - As one of the newer social networking sites, time has yet to determine the type of people who will use Google+. For right now, I see mostly business-to-business interaction with the pages we manage. However, I think Google+ has the potential to expand to more personal users once it has been around a little longer.

Google+ is just another platform to expose your business to the public. It won’t hurt to join this network if you have the time, but for now, I believe Facebook and Twitter are more effective because there are a larger number of people on these networks.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn is rapidly growing with 2 new members joining every second. This site also does a lot of business-to-business interaction; in fact, it is designed to foster meaningful business connections. However, it is more tailored to specific business-people rather than businesses as a whole.

I recommend joining LinkedIn as an individual professional, and then using the network as an employee of your business to make connections with other professionals.

These are just some of the most popular social networking sites right now. There are many other platforms that may be beneficial to your business that could be worth checking out to help your business meet its social media goals.

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