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Which
Social Media Platform
is Best for Your Business?
Being active on social media is
really important
for businesses
But There are
THOUSANDSof social media
platforms…
Fighting For Your
Attention!!!
But…ain’tNobody Got
Time For That
Because
Time is
Money
So spend it wisely...
On social media platforms that see a decent
return on investment
The Top 8 Social Media
Platforms for Businesses
Foursquare
/Yelp
Google+
Youtube
FacebookThere are 1.23 billion Monthly
Active Users on Facebook
.
4.5 billion
“likes”
every day 945 million mobile users
757 million daily users
ProsFacebook is the behemoth of social
media, and it’s where many businesses have made a name for themselves. It’s a
place where you can “talk” directly to your customers, and they can talk back to
you.
52% of
marketers
found a
customer
on
in 2013.
42% of
marketers state
that Facebook is
extremely
important to their
business
ConsFacebook is a pretty
busy marketplace,
and businesses can
find it hard to be
heard.
Facebook is an open forum,
and users can write on your
wall any time they choose.
This means that you need
to constantly monitor your
page for inappropriate or
defamatory comments.
Facebook’s
algorithm means
that not all of your
posts get to all of
your followers.
Twitter Twitter has been described as “texting for the internet”
Twitter is a social network or “micro- blogging” site.
People can only send 140 character text messages, also known as “tweets”.
Photos & videos can be shared too, but not as
popular.
Pros
Cons
Linkedin LinkedIn is a social platform dedicated to professional
people.
The platform connects businesses with potential
employees and partners by providing a people with the
opportunity to make a “professional profile”.
It is also extremely valuable as a professional
networking online platform.
ProsThere are 300 million people using LinkedIn: 50/50 with regarding gender.
75% of users use their LinkedIn 4 hours or less per week.
Once you upload something onto LinkedIn, anyone can access it –even if they’re not a connection!
It’s rich in content and information – including company’s information and detailed individual professional profiles.
43% of marketers said they found a customer on LinkedIn.
ConsIt’s a very niche market, so before you spend time creating a profile and sharing content, make sure that it’s the right platform for your business.
It can take a lot of time to set up, to get connections and to get conversations flowing.
You have to ask to be connected to other businesses and profiles, which can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Brick-and-mortar businesses might find LinkedIn difficult to utilize, but for people who are in industries such as technology, finance, marketing etc. LinkedIn can prove to be very useful.
Pros Pinterest gets morereferral traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn,
Reddit and Google+ combined.
Cons
If your target audience isn’t female-centred, it’s
not great. With the exception of the UK where
56% of Pinterest users are male.
InstagramInstagram is owned by Facebook.
It’s a photo and video sharing platform that allows users to share their photos with other users.
37% of all users are 18 – 29.
68% are female.
5 million US. Internet users access it at least once a month
It is a predominantly mobile app.
ProsInstagram allows people who are interested in your brand to follow your business and see what you’re up to. This adds a bit of a personal touch.
Like Pinterest, Instagram puts a face to a brand.
Instagram uses hashtags, which makes content easy to search.
Visual representation of your business = Transparency = Trust.
Instagram has an insane amount of user engagement – up to 10 times what Twitter and Facebook generate.
Cons
Like Pinterest, if you don’t have an physical product to sell and take a photo of, it might not be the easiest platform to use.
It’s a very young network, with 90% of users under the age of 35, so if this isn’t your target audience then using Instagram might be a lot of time and effort for very little customer engagement.
Google+
Professionals such as students, technology
industry professionals, bloggers and
photographers.
Google+ is Google’s
social platform. There
are a few extra
features, such as
Communities and
Circles that increase
interaction with people
and topics that interest
you.
It’s mostly
men on it
so far
ProsBecause it’s
owned by Google, using Google+ can
have positive effect on SEO.
Google hangouts is a great place to start
talking with people and many businesses use it to
keep in contact with employees as well as
customers.
Google integration with Gmail & Youtube
(and all things Google!)
Cons People see it as being quite similar to
Facebook so there’s always the
temptation to share identical content on
both platforms.
Google+ only helps out your SEO ranking if the person is
logged on or if they don’t have
your page in their circle.
No contests or promotions are
permitted on G+ according to
their policy.
YouTube
Youtube is a video-sharing social media platform. It was founded in 2005 and was quickly bought over
by Google in 2006.
Youtube allows users to upload, share and view
videos. The content varies from individual user
content to business user content, featuring TV clips, personal videos,
Video logs (or “Vlogs”), music videos etc etc.
Users who are registered can upload and share
their videos, unregistered users can still view the videos but can’t upload
them.
Youtube is the second largest search engine.
(After Google, of course)
Pros
Youtube is the third most
popular site, behind Google and Facebook.
90% of customers of
online retailers say that they find videos
useful in making
purchasing decisions.
Videos is another way to
show off you industry
expertise.
Videos have a really wide reach, you
don’t have to be a
connection to see your videos.
Because YouTube is owned by
Google, it’s super SEO friendly.
Videos make a business
accessible. People like to
see a face behind the
product.
Cons
“Related videos” on the site often draw attention to your competition and distract customers from
your message.
Creating interesting videos can be very time
consuming and expensive.
Foursquare and Yelp are relatively similar: They’re both location-based social media platforms where you can
search businesses.
Yelp is all about reviews and recommendations.
Foursquare is all about checking-in at locations to gain points and sometimes “badges”. The user that checks in
most to a particular venue becomes the “mayor”.
Foursquare/Yelp
Who Uses Them?
100 million monthly visitors
53% users are male
62% between the ages 18 –43
20 million users
60% users are male
82% between the ages 18 –43
Brick-and-mortar outlets can benefit the most from these social media platforms.
Easy to use platforms that will generate business with very little updating and daily maintenance on your
behalf.
Foursquare have a great “campaigns” option that helps to generate new customers or to reward loyal ones!
Word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to advertise your business, with 77% of people saying that they’d buy a product
after it being recommended to them by friends or family. This is what Foursquare and Yelp encourages people to do.
Pros
If you don’t have a location based business, these probably aren’t the right platforms for
you.
You’re relying on customers to give you fair and accurate reviews.
While Yelp has a pretty good filtering system that tries to ensure that reviews are all
legitimate, many businesses have complained that Yelp’s filter is actually biased.
Cons
Every social media platform has its pros & cons. Think carefully about which
platforms will work best with your business & …
Don’t waste your time on the others!
For more useful information for start-ups & small
businesses, head over to www.getspokal.com/blog
