It’s interesting to see how social media has completely taken over the marketplace within the past ten years. Sure, there were smaller companies like Hi5, BlackPlanet.com and MySpace.com that seemed to get the ball rolling. However, in the past decade, a few social media apps have transformed the way businesses approach advertising, marketing and branding. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have created jobs for themselves utilizing the various social media platforms. Because the work is so intricate and unique for each channel, there are services like social media optimization and companies that offer social media management. After all, managing the demands of each social media platform is easily a full-time job for many people. There’s power within five main platforms and while there are many more, these might be the best five to start with.
1. Twitter
If you have a way with words, use Twitter. Using 140 characters, you can tweet information to millions of people at a time. Many people use Twitter to begin a conversation and grow a following that enjoys their witty banter. Twitter was the first social media platform to utilize hashtags. Hashtags are considered keywords. When you strategically use the correct keywords at the end of your tweets, more people will be attracted to you and your content.
2. Pinterest
Every company should maintain a blog. A company blog isn’t difficult to maintain and doesn’t need to be updated every single day. However, a company blog does need to be consistent in its editorial schedule. Pinterest is one of the primary places to share the newest content from the company blog. Pinterest is truly a blogger’s paradise. If you’d like to get more eyeballs on your blog content, join relevant group boards and networking with other bloggers and companies to cross-promote content.
3. Facebook
Statistics show that there are over 1 billion people on the social media platform. As they’ve recently emerged with Facebook Live, more people are able to broadcast their message to a wider range of people. For the best results, it is important for companies to use Facebook fan pages to build their brands. After starting with the fan page, purchase Facebook ads to get more people to see what you’re selling. Facebook ads will help you do target marketing and approach a specific demographic of people. The ads aren’t more than $5 at a time, so they’re inexpensive yet extremely effective.
4. Instagram
A picture is worth a thousand words with this platform. High-quality graphics and streamlined content are some of the key elements to interact with this Millennial-dominated platform. Instagram continues to grow in popularity and its algorithms are beginning to mirror Facebook’s. However, great graphics and a succinct caption will be dealmakers in this arena.
5. YouTube
Underneath Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the entire world. If anyone is looking for something, you need to have a platform on YouTube to be able to stay in their line of sight. It’s never been easier to record and produce videos right from the capabilities of your smartphone. Because of the ease and simplicity, there’s no reason why a company can’t begin to drive traffic to their product through the use of channels like YouTube as well.
