Business 06

Are you familiar with all your social media platform options?

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May 25, 2017

 Social media has quickly become one of the most important elements of any digital marketing mix, but not everyone knows that each social media platform has a very specific function, and audience.

 In the name of education, below we’ve given you a quick rundown on the biggest social media contenders in 2017, in the hopes of helping you plan your next social media campaign to perfection.

  • Facebook

The one everyone knows about. With over a billion monthly users, Facebook is one of the most popular platforms in the world for individuals and businesses. For a business page, you should be concerned about growing your fan base with great content, while engaging with your audience as they interact with your brand.

  • Twitter

Twitter is all about the short and sweet. Messages can only be 140 characters, which means your business messages should be to the point and memorable, and by utilising great messaging with a hashtag you can easily reach thousands of potential leads. Twitter might seem difficult to master, but with almost half of all Twitter users following brands and companies, it is a great way of talking to people who want to listen.

 Google+

The great Plus is a strange one. It has a huge subscriber base, but almost nobody interacts on the platform. What is interesting is that Google+ is SEO friendly, and integrated with Youtube, which means that if you can grow an engaged audience on the platform, you will see some great returns. It is worth noting that fashion, photography and technology fans seem to have large audiences on the platform.

  • YouTube

By all accounts, 2017 is going to be the year of video, and despite the other platforms trying to get into the game, YouTube is still the uncontested king. It’s the second largest search engine in the world, handling around 300 billion searches a month, which shows a clear indication of its popularity.

Not many brands see success on YouTube, as its primary function is to train and entertain. Which means if your brand can leverage off those features, you should consider using the platform.

  • Instagram

Instagram is an image sharing platform, and is the second-most engaged with platform, lagging only behind Facebook. The platform’s users use the app extensively for brand research, and to eagerly follow and engage with brands. The only rule here is to make sure that your brand makes sense on the platform, and that your pics are striking.

  • LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest social media platform for professionals. It boasts over 400 million users that often use the site to create quality, work-based content.

The platform isn’t just meant for individual professionals. LinkedIn has become a must-have for B2B businesses, as according to the site, almost 80% of B2B social media leads come from it, and 90% of B2B businesses use the site to post their content.

These are by no means all the social media platforms you can use to boost your online presence, but it should give you a good idea of how the biggest networks out there function. Remember, the key to successfully utilising these platforms is to tailor your content to suit each one’s specific target audience.

Related Tag: Social Media Marketing Gauteng