Selecting the Social Media Platform for You: Part One

Selecting the Social Media Platform for You: Part One

“Social media” is an extremely broad term. It covers everything from photo sharing sites, music hosts, event organizers, classic social media, employment networks, video streaming apps and more. But just because all of these exist, that does not mean that you need to be taking part in it. What networks you join will differ if you’re a band, a local restaurant, a newspaper, a startup, a comedian, an event venue etc. In this article we will be going over choosing the right social media platform for you, and what content should be posted. Remember, having a strong social media presence can help greatly when it comes to proper search engine optimization!

The major platforms:

Twitter

Twitter is limited to 140 characters. The network is used by many influential people, and has its own set of content rules. It’s great for sharing either small informative updates i.e.: half off pizza tonight only, V2 of our app just launched, our blog just posted a new article. It is also useful for sharing links to articles, news, and images. The name of the game with Twitter is consistent posting and keeping it relevant. This is definitely an all-purpose network, but local businesses may not need to post to Twitter, as it is not as based in locality as other networks.

Facebook

Facebook is the definitive all-purpose network. Though almost any organization can benefit from using it, Facebook is great for local businesses or organizations that want to stay connected. The comments are more dynamic and allow for discussion. Content-wise, with Facebook you should not be posting things nearly as often as on Twitter. You will get punished if your content is not relevant and no one interacts with it. Post volume can range from a couple a day up to a dozen or more if you are a content creator.

YouTube

YouTube is for content creators. News, music, comedians and anyone who creates or has information that needs to be shared over video as a medium to share effectively, will thrive here. That is not to say that a business couldn’t benefit, just that they will not be getting most of their business or followers from YouTube, and YouTube is more supplemental to local businesses or contractors. It can be great to post to, and then stream from your website, but the content creators thrive here. Content creators do best when they have a community behind them supporting them. YouTube’s comment sections and like/dislike feature lets those communities thrive.

Instagram

This is also useful for all-purpose, since images are normally not one’s main medium of content. General business, public figure and organizations have a place, including things like apartment complexes, politicians, public figures, business consultants, restaurants and the like. Instagram, next to Twitter and Snapchat, is useful for sharing a piece of information in a very quick and effective fashion. Though communities can arise here, the community is built more around the content provider itself than the community surrounding it. Instagram is great for sharing deals, new info, and vision quickly. It can be used as a supplement to Twitter and Facebook effectively, since Facebook bought out Instagram.

Since social media can also cover video sharing sites like Vimeo and YouTube, employment networks like LinkedIn or Monster, newer entries to the scene like Pinterest, Snapchat, Google+, photo hosts like Flickr, Photobucket, and niche sites like Meetup and SoundCloud, and not just the big platforms, we will cover these next. We will be going over these more niche sites in part two, which you can read here.

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